Several students at Oxford High School have found themselves entangled in a criminal trial.

Need not to worry, folks.  That criminal trial also happens to be a mock trial.

The OHS mock trial team (split into two teams due to the amount of students wanting to be involved with the mock trial) will compete at regionals this upcoming Saturday and will compete against schools from the Northeast region of Mississippi.

Mock trial, a form of debate in which students are assigned a fictitious court case based on a real case to then act as both witnesses and as lawyers. This year focuses on a murder in which the defendant, Rick Grimes, is pleading not guilty (due to self-defense) for shooting Daryl Dixon, a motorcyclist who was violently chasing his daughter and her friend all the way to their neighborhood.

For both teams, this case is different than others that they have prepared for in the past.

“We have had a murder case before, but I think the fact that there is a gun in it is very interesting,” said Virginia Parkinson, a junior, who is playing neighbor Hershel Greene in the case. “It is also kind of relatable for other people.

“This one asks a serious question, ‘Would you defend your family if it came down to it?’”

Though this is the first time for both teams to be competing, they have been preparing for this competition since the beginning of the 2015-16 academic year in August.

“We have had a lot of meetings just to get everyone in character, and we have just been having a lot of practice rounds,” said senior and co-captain Quen Bolden, who will act as a lawyer in this case. “We have been practicing for a long time.”

Both teams are confident and ready to face off against the other eight schools, including the potential for both OHS teams to face off against one another. The top 6 out of nine schools will be able to compete at the state championship round.

“I think we have a pretty good chance,” Bolden said. “I think we are ready, and I just hope that both teams make it to state, and that I can go to state one last year.”

Said debate coach Barbara Lowe, “I know that our teams have worked hard enough to be extremely competitive at the regional and state mock trial competitions.”

Both teams competed at the courthouse on the Square in Oxford Saturday morning.