Chapter 183 Collegiate
The first witness was brought up. This witness was a lame old man, dressed in rags. The old man limped to the witness stand. He walked very slowly, which is very slow for ordinary people. The distance that could be covered in more than seconds took almost a minute.
"Mr. Jim, could you please repeat the testimony you gave earlier in court?"
"No problem."
The old man named Jim Nodding his head excitedly, the old man looked around. He found that he had attracted everyone's attention, so he stretched out his hand to straighten his collar.
"Before this incident happened, I had already built a nest near Colin's house. As everyone knows, only the slums will not dislike us people. My nest at that time was right next door to Colin's house. At that time, I heard A second after little Colin said, 'I'm going to kill you,' I heard something falling."
"I felt something was wrong at the time, so I jumped out of the nest I had built with cardboard boxes. He ran out of it, and then crossed the street to the downstairs of Colin's house in less than half a minute."
"When I arrived at the scene, I found that old Colin's whole body was in a large shape. He was lying on his back in a trash can on the side of the road, with a knife stuck in his chest. Bright red blood spurted out, and the entire green trash can was stained with blood. Then I saw a young man hurriedly "Escape"
Jim told the court what he saw and heard, and after hearing the old man's words, everyone in the court looked at the defendant Colin with judgment. At the group seats, many people have already made their choices in their minds for the next vote.
At this time, in the auditorium, Xia Xiu, who had been paying attention to the movements in the court, could not help but frown slightly. His golden eyes glanced at the old man with suspicion.
Too excited, too fluent, too clear, few witnesses would deliver such extremely logical testimony without the guidance of court staff.
The old man in front of him seemed to be a speaker who had drafted his speech in advance, and he was also a performer who enjoyed the attention of others.
“That’s nonsense, I didn’t have one at that time!!!”
Colin, who was sitting in the defendant’s seat, suddenly retorted with excitement. As he spoke, he moved his body outwards. , it looked as if he was going to attack the old man on the witness stand, and the nearby police officers quickly restrained him.
Dong dong dong——
The presiding judge on the bench raised his gavel and knocked it. He said to Colin seriously:
"Mr. Colin, please stay quiet and don't interrupt the witness. This is a court. If you continue Next time, I will treat you as contempt of court!"
Colin also realized something at this time, so he stopped his actions angrily.
This unexpected episode made many people in the court believe that the other party was the murderer. At this time, the trial process in the court was still continuing. The second witness, Mrs. Alice, soon followed in court.
Mrs. Alice is an old lady. Her hair has been dyed with the traces of time. Her eyes seem to be unable to see clearly, so she always squints her eyes when she walks in. She She should have the habit of wearing glasses, which can be seen from the deep indentation of glasses on the bridge of her nose.
"Mrs. Alice, could you please repeat your testimony in court again?"
"Okay... I remember that I had insomnia at home on the day of the crime. I lay in bed and couldn't sleep. , so I planned to open the window to get some air. Unexpectedly, when I opened the window, I saw two people struggling together, and one of them seemed to be holding a knife. "
"The two were also on the window at the time, and the knife-wielding man finally stabbed the knife into the other person's chest. Oh my God! It was so terrifying!" Mrs. Alice said in a horrified tone.
As Mrs. Alice finished her testimony, many people present strengthened their earlier judgments. The young man in front of them was the bastard who killed his father!
Soon, the trial moved on to the third process: questioning the appraiser.
"I, I, I...really don't have one. By the way, isn't there a murder weapon? There should be fingerprints on it. Without fingerprint identification, you dare to say so arbitrarily that I am..."
"Oh, fingerprints, whoever commits a crime these days will not wash off his fingerprints."
"And by coincidence, Paul Colin, you also have the same switchblade, a man who haunts the slums. There must be some protective equipment, right?”
A judge interrupted Colin’s words as if he had planned it.
Colin turned his head stiffly and stared at the judges. Then he saw the judges take out a transparent sealed bag with a switchblade inside.
"The handle of this knife has been wiped with a lint-free soft cloth. I want to ask Mr. Colin about this."
The judge stared at Colin who was sweating and asked slowly:
“Where did your knife go?”
After listening to the words of the judge, Colin’s face suddenly turned pale.
“My knife was lost a long time ago...”
"Then do you know where you lost it?"
"I, I, I... don't know."
Colin replied hesitantly, and regarding his performance, there was no one present. The young people all shook their heads, they were so stubborn.
The court investigation ended soon.
After the court investigation ended, the presiding judge immediately organized a court debate, and the victim's attorney, prosecutor, defendant and his defender spoke in turn.
In this debate, the defendant was basically suppressed and beaten, and the defender directly sliced up Colin's past and put it in front of everyone:
A typical slum family ethics drama, the mother couldn't stand the addiction. Their father was a drunkard and a gambler, so he chose to leave them. The young Colin naturally lived with his rotten father. The subsequent experience was also very classic. Little Colin had been subjected to domestic violence at the hands of his rotten father for a long time. When he got older, he began to rebel against his father. Quarrels were common for them, and his neighbors all It was said that something would happen to the father and son sooner or later, and now, as they expected, something really happened to old Colin.
Based on this experience and various previous testimonies and evidence, the defense directly silenced Colin's attorney.
As time passed, the court debate process was also announced to be over.
After the court debate procedure is over, the presiding judge shall order the clerk of the felony court to keep the case file, but retain the decision to transfer the case for collegial discussion.
"The court will be adjourned for deliberations. "Everyone, according to the procedure, all jury members need to stand up with me and read out the instructions. "The presiding judge said to the jurors on the jury in the court.
The twelve jurors who had been waiting for a long time naturally stood up, and they read the precepts together with the presiding judge with solemn faces.
< br>"The law does not ask about the reasons for judges to form self-certainty, nor does the law stipulate certain rules for judges and require them to rely on such rules to determine whether a certain piece of evidence is complete and sufficient. The law only requires them to be calm, focused, rely on their own honesty and conscience, rely on their own reason, and form impressions and make judgments based on the evidence of guilt and defense reasons. The law asks them only one question that sums up the entire responsibility of the judge: Have you formed an inner conviction? ”
The jury system itself embodies part of procedural justice: due legal process embodies the basic requirements of justice, and procedural due process embodies the basic concept of procedural justice.
The system One of the core points is: It is better to let a thousand go than to kill one by mistake!
The judge is responsible for interpreting the law, and the jury makes the decision of guilt or innocence; in this way, the decision-making power is in the hands of the people, not the state machine.
After the speech was announced, the presiding judge ordered the defendant to be escorted out of the court, and ordered the court chief of security to send people to guard all doors of the collegial room. No one may enter the collegial room for any reason without the permission of the presiding judge. The presiding judge led twelve jurors to the collegial room, which was separated from the court's trial bench by only one wall. On the wall of the collegial room, there was a notice printed in bold letters. This is what was just said. The precepts they proclaimed.
“Here, I will communicate with you and answer all the questions you have raised. You will also communicate with each other, evaluate the evidence, and gradually form an inner conviction. You can Read the necessary technical identification materials in court," the presiding judge patiently introduced to the twelve jurors.
“In order to facilitate future communication, we now mark the round table with serial numbers in a clockwise direction, and they are divided into numbers twelve from right to left.”
Valente glanced at the seat where he was sitting, No. 8.
“Now we have the first collegial discussion on the defendant: whether the defendant is guilty or not.” The presiding judge opened the prelude to the voting.
"Now all the evidence has been clearly stated. It was this beast who killed his father!" Number 3 on the round table stated his meaning directly.
"That's true." No. 9 echoed.
"Hurry up and vote, my favorite show will be performed tonight." Number Seven said impatiently.
The entire collegial room was quite clear about this collegial vote. They determined that Paul Colin was the murderer of this murder case. He killed his father during an argument. They did not think that this case needed to be bothered. to discuss.
Just when everyone thought the result had been determined, someone raised an objection.
"We are not yet sure that this child is the murderer in this case. Everyone, you only have one life. If we are wrong, he will leave this world forever."
Everyone turned their attention to The speaker, his serial number is No. 8, and the speaker is Valente Bernard.
"The evidence is irrefutable, why was it not him who committed the murder!" No. 12 said loudly, he was a strong man.
"No, on the contrary, there are too many doubts in this case."
Valente immediately shook his head and said. At some point, he had an extra piece of information in his hand, and everyone present was trying to recall it. After a while, I realized that No. 8 did not go to the information area to get the information just now.
This information was indeed not taken by Valente, but by Xia Xiu who had been following him with [Weakened Presence]. Before the discussion, Xia Xiu had already sneaked into the collegial room to read the information. , and the information he just submitted to Valente is one of the doubtful points in the case.
Xia Xiu believes that Valente will be able to discover this doubt after watching it.
Valente also lived up to Xia Xiu's trust in him. He laid the information flat on the round table, then pointed at one of the reports above and said:
"Old Colin's height is 180cm, while Colin's height is only 177cm."
Valente's finger pointed to a photo again, which was taken by the police officer at the time of the crime. Picture of the crime scene about Old Colin: Old Colin was lying on a trash can full of garbage with his eyes wide open, with a switchblade inserted diagonally downwards on his chest.
“The position is wrong. Facing an enemy who is taller than me, the stabbing position of this knife is wrong. He should stab it diagonally upward.” Valente expressed his doubts to other jurors who were present again. member said.
After listening to Valente’s words, some jurors fell into deep thought, but No. 7, who was obviously a little irritable, replied dissatisfiedly:
“It’s very easy to stab this way. ”
Everyone looked at No. 7, and then they saw No. 7 holding a pen as a knife. Then he motioned to Valente, No. 8, to stand up.
Valente stood up in cooperation, and then his collar was pulled slightly roughly by No.7. Then No.7 held the pen with the cap tightly in his backhand and "pierced" Valente's chest.
“That’s how it works.” After finishing the demonstration, No. 7 threw the pen on the round table casually.
When——
The pen hit the round table, shaking up and down, and then calmed down.
"No, it's still wrong."
The voice of objection sounded again, and No. 7 was stunned, because this time the objection was not made by No. 8 next to him, but by No. 4 in front of him. The elderly man wears a pair of reading glasses on his face.
"What's wrong?" No. 7 asked a little impatiently.
“First of all, in terms of testimony, Mrs. Alice said that when he opened the window, he saw old Colin fighting with someone, which proved that the murderer had a fight with old Colin, and old Colin was tall. Damn it, if the murderer fights with a knife behind his back, it will be a disadvantage no matter what.”
Elder No. 4 pushed up his reading glasses, and then continued:
"Secondly, Paul Colin has been living in the slums. He should be an expert in fighting. If he fights with someone whose size is different from his own, he should hold a knife upright. A normal person would only hold a knife upright when fighting with a switchblade. ."
"This..." No. 7 didn't know what to say for a while.
"Don't forget, Paul Colin has a switchblade that is exactly the same as the murder weapon." No. 12 on the side gave No. 7 an assist.
"It can't be such a coincidence. The murderer and the innocent have the same knife." No. 12 said with a proud smile.
No. 12's pride did not last long, because "Annoying No. 8" spoke again.
"An identical knife cannot prove anything."
When——
A switchblade that was exactly the same as the murder weapon was thrown on the round table by Valente, and everyone at the scene was stunned. He looked at Valente with a sudden expression on his face.
“I bought this from a store on the street next to the court.”
Valente said as he stared at the people present.
The switchblade was indeed taken from a store on the street next to the courthouse, but he could not have bought it.
In a place where no one could see it, Xia Xiu was satisfied with touching Gouzi who had just passed the thing next door. He had asked Gouzi to go to the next door and bring this knife back. When he and Valente came Before the court, he had accidentally seen the switch knife on the display stand of the knife seller next door, so he just asked the atomized dog to bring the knife back smoothly.
You said it was a coincidence.
(End of this chapter)