Romeo & Juliet Mock Trial

For the last five weeks, we have worked on Romeo and Juliet; a story about love, passion, and hatred.
The play is a tragedy because of the deaths of the two main characters. These deaths are not only
shocking, it is the result of a string of choices that all lead to the suicides of Romeo and Juliet. While we
could simply turn the page on this tragic love story and bring it to a close, we have a decision we must
make. We the readers, the experts of both the seen and unseen, must decide whether the deaths of
Romeo and Juliet are directly caused by the meddling of Friar Lawrence and the Nurse, and if so, what
level of guilt they bear singly and/or together.
Three of you will serve as the prosecution team provided by the Prince of Verona to the Montague and
Capulet families. Three of you will be the defense team for the Nurse and Friar Lawrence, provided by
the City-State of Verona. The honorable Judge (me) will preside over the courtroom proceedings and
rule on objections and a jury will be delivering the final verdict freedom, life imprisonment, or capital
punishment for one, the other, or both. Also part of the trial will be a string of witnesses, both actual
witnesses to the crime and character witnesses for both the Nurse and Friar Lawrence. In addition, both
sides will have the opportunity to reasonably create witnesses that might be present within the
textual world (for instance, a lady of Juliets social class who heard her talk of Romeo or perhaps a
councilor to Prince Escalus). All witnesses need to be prepared for cross-examination by the opposing
side.
Prosecution and defense teams must gather textual evidence to support their side of the case in the
form of direct quotes. Each member of the jury must gather evidence to support BOTH a guilty and not
guilty sentence so they are prepared to evaluate the arguments put forth by the prosecution and the
defense. The witnesses must find text evidence to support their testimony.
You will have THREE full class periods to gather your evidence, compose your arguments, and prepare
your witnesses. All team members of each side must stand and deliver at least one argument and piece
of evidence (quote) for your case or question a witness. Each team (including the jury) will compile your
evidence on a single page so that I can ensure that each group member has contributed to the
development of your case. The witnesses for the prosecution contribute to the prosecutions case (and
document), and the defense witnesses contribute to the defense.
Each team has to present an opening and closing statement to the jury at the start and end of the trial.
You can search online for opening and closing statements of real trials and find one to model yours on.
Definitions of each are below:
1. Opening Statement: To open a case is to make a statement of the overall argument in a case
that is concise and direct. Its use is to enable the judge and jury to direct their attention to the
real merits of the case and the points in issue.
2. Closing Statement: During the closing statement, all of the evidence should be brought together
and the case should be summarized in a strong, fluid, and persuasive manner. All points that
help prove the case should be briefly restated. The closing should be performed in a simple, yet
precise way.
Knowing Your Roles:
Prosecution: You are the best prosecution team in the city-state of Verona. When you look at the Nurse
and Friar Lawrence, all you see are two lower-class individuals who took the opportunity to manipulate
two impressionable young people in order to exploit the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets.
Scour the text for damning evidence that the Friar and the Nurse are moral and emotional threats to the
values of civilized citizens of Verona that they do not deserve a life amongst us. Build an interpretation
for each piece of evidence (MINIMUM 1 quote) that presents your case from weaker arguments up to
the strongest evidence at the conclusion. Each of you will present a part of this case passionately to the
jury and then ask for the ultimate justice the removal of the Nurse and Friar Lawrence from society
through the death penalty. You must prove your case BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT (see definition
below).
Defense: You are the Nurse & Friar Lawrences last hope between freedom and death at the hands of
the state. Your job is to prove that the Nurse and the Friar did not push Romeo and Juliet to their
untimely end or that they did anything but try to steer the two lovers to a more rational solution to their
problem. Scour the text for evidence that can persuade the judge and jury that the Nurse and the Friar
are innocent of the charges of criminally negligent homicide (Friar Lawrence), reckless endangerment of
a child (The Nurse), and contributing to the delinquency of a minor (both). Build an interpretation for
each