Chapter 184
“Where did you get the knife?” No. 7 looked at Valente in surprise and asked.
"I bought this knife from the store next to the court. There are many switchblade knives of this style there."
Valente straightened the knife that had been pulled by No. 7 just now. Collar, he replied nonchalantly.
If anyone pays attention to Valente’s gaze at this time, he will be able to see that his gaze has actually been staying somewhere behind the round table, and standing there is a man with blond hair and golden eyes. A handsome young man, the young man is holding a white writing board in his hand, and a simple line of Terra text is written on the white writing board.
Xia Xiu had already written the origin of the knife on the writing board and told Valente, but no one else could see him at all.
True · Off-field assistance.
"No. 8, all this is your guess, and you can't prove that the knife does not belong to Paul Colin."
After the initial shock, No. 7 quickly Finding another key point, Valente was unable to prove that the switchblade did not belong to Paul Colin.
"President, I think we can vote now to find out whether Paul Colin is guilty or not. I don't think this is an act worth wasting too much time. Many evidences have proved that he was the murderer. ." No. 7 reached out to the presiding judge and stated that he wanted to vote.
"Okay, then let's start the first round of voting." The presiding judge nodded in agreement.
Soon, everyone present received a blank ticket stamped by the Serious Crime Court, with the following words printed on it:
[In my honor and conscience, my Opinion: _____]
Next, the judges and jurors only need to write "yes" or "no" on their votes. Writing nothing will be regarded as an abstention.
Any answer that is unfavorable to the defendant requires at least 8 votes in favor (8 votes to 4 votes) in the first instance procedure; blank votes or invalid votes should be counted in favor of the defendant.
The first round of voting came quickly.
The jurors present folded their written votes and put them into the ballot box.
Then the presiding judge opened the vote in front of the jury.
"2 abstentions, 3 votes against, 7 votes in favor; the abstentions belong to the opposing side, now 5:7, this round of voting does not pass, you still need to discuss it." The presiding judge finished reading the voting results .
After hearing the results, No. 2, No. 3, No. 7, No. 9, No. 10, No. 11, and No. 12 all had obvious surprise and irritation on their faces.
Prejudice, discrimination, arrogance...
These are inherent to them. They do not think that a person from a slum is worth spending too much time. For them, watching a second More than ten minutes of entertainment would be more meaningful than here.
The crux of modern society is that material development has caused many people to gradually lose their personal thinking and judgment due to the reduction of intellectual activities or the stylization of their thoughts, as well as their personal independent spirit and Critical spirit.
"Everyone, as No. 8 said, there is only one life. If we are wrong, he will leave this world forever. It is a living life, and his heart is still in this earth. Beating vigorously, the reason why we are standing here is for justice, so we should be more cautious in making voting decisions."
As an elder, No. 4 stood up and faced everyone present. said.
"Let's continue the collegial discussion." The presiding judge also stood up and motioned to those present to continue the collegial discussion.
"To prove that the child is innocent, we must overturn several previous evidence points."
No. 2 spoke up at this time. He was a white-collar worker.
"First, the testimony of witness Jim, who heard the quarrel between old Colin and Paul; second, the testimony of Mrs. Alice. She saw the figure in the fight, and that figure was obviously Paul. Colin, combined with what Jim said in evidence point 1 that he saw Paul fleeing, there is no doubt that Paul Colin is the murderer!”
After hearing No. 2’s words, everyone present subconsciously thought. Moving towards Valente at No. 8, they have subconsciously identified Valente as a supporter of the innocent side.
Valente started to lower his head and thought for a while. He had actually discovered the loophole in the first evidence point. The old man's traveling speed itself was one of the doubts. It was impossible for the other party to cross the road and reach the old man in half a minute. The opponent's feet did not allow the opponent to do that in the position where Colin died.
The old man is lying, but Valente cannot find out his motive for lying now, time is too tight.
Valente looked up at the blond young man in the corner of the round table who only he could see. He now needed the other party to ask something from the old man.
Xia Xiu nodded understandingly. He made a gesture of understanding towards Valente, and then he started to walk out. Now they need to use a little "outside the game" to get rid of the old man. Asked something about him.
After Xia Xiu left, Valente said to the presiding judge:
"Presiding judge, can I ask for a topographic map of old Colin's house?"
"Of course there is no problem."
The presiding judge quickly went to the information area to find old Colin's house. He handed the topographic map he found to Valente, and after Valente took the topographic map, he flattened it directly on the round table.
Valente took out a pen beside him, then circled a dot in two places, and then drew a straight line.
Everyone watched his operation silently.
"Everyone, you must have seen during the trial that Mr. Jim is an old man with leg problems. When he walked to the witness seat, it took him more than a minute, while a normal person could do it in more than ten seconds. We’re here.”
Valente pointed to the two dots on the terrain map. One of the dots was the old Colin’s house, and the other dot was the temporary settlement built by Jim.
"Old Colin's house is on the far left of the road, and Jim lives in the middle of the road across the road. Even if we choose a straight line distance, according to the scale conversion, this distance is at least more than 20 meters, and this distance he It only took half a minute?”
Valente looked around at the people present and asked them:
“Do you believe what he said?”
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The other side.
Jim was whistling happily and walking towards the outside of the court. At this time, the heavy rain outside began to lighten up. The originally huge raindrops had turned into strands of rain. Jim tightened his shabby big He walked into a small alley, and when he just stepped into the alley, something enveloped his head, blocking the rain falling from the sky.
Jim looked up at the sky above him, and what shrouded him was a black umbrella. His eyes followed the hand holding the umbrella, and a handsome young man with blond hair and golden eyes was reflected in his eyes. He didn't know when the other party approached him with an umbrella. He didn't even feel it at all, and the other party was standing next to him.
"Mr. Jim, can I ask you something?"
The handsome face of the blond young man was showing a gentle and polite smile, and his golden vertical pupils reflected Jim's fearful expression.
"Gulong——"
Jim couldn't help but swallowed. The intimidation exuded by the blond young man in front of him made him tremble. He felt like he was being raped by a top-notch Like the prey targeted by a predator, his heart was floating in a sea of fear.
"Don't be nervous, I'm not a bad person." Xia Xiu comforted with a smile.
"You...what do you want to ask?" Jim felt his legs swinging wildly, as if he had lost control of his legs.
"Well, my question is very simple."
The blond young man's smile became warmer, and he asked the old man softly:
"Old man, why are you doing this? Where’s the false evidence?”
Dong-dong-dong-dong-dong——
Jim’s heart began to beat crazily, and those dazzling vertical pupils occupied his field of vision. In his sight, two suns seemed to rise in the sky, and a sea of fear enveloped him, sinking him and suffocating him.
The truth must be told! ! !
Otherwise you will die! ! !
“I, I, I just want to earn some extra money. The police station offers bonuses for witnesses who arrest murderers.”
“And...and, the way those people looked at me...made me feel like I had found meaning.”
Jim’s swinging legs finally couldn’t hold on any longer; It overturned like a broken ship overturned by the waves, and the old man fell hard to the ground. There was a warm feeling in his crotch, and the pungent temperature came from there. The old man raised his head tremblingly. He wanted to look at the expression of the owner of the two-wheeled sun. Then he discovered that the two-wheeled sun standing above him had no reflection at all.
"Sure enough, responsibilities are something we expect others to fulfill, not something we want to fulfill ourselves."
"But I still advise you to fulfill your responsibilities. After all, you A life that doesn’t know when it will end is already too empty. If everything inside is sold in the end, it will really be nothing.”
The figure of the blond young man gradually faded away. Only the old man was left shivering in the rain.
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In the collegial room.
The rain outside the window began to stop, and the debate in the collegial room continued.
“The second witness, Mrs. Alice, actually did not commit perjury, but she did not see the true appearance of the struggler.”
Valente’s impassioned speech The words continued to circulate in the collegial room.
“There are indentations on the glasses. There are obvious indentations on the bridge of Mrs. Alice’s nose. This shows that Mrs. Alice had the habit of wearing glasses earlier, but she took them off during the court session today.”
"Please carefully recall Mrs. Alice's testimony. What she said is: on the night of the incident, she was lying in bed and tossing and turning, so she planned to open the window to get some air. Unexpectedly, when she opened the window, she saw two people fighting in the room. Among the people together, one of them seems to be holding a knife."
"Everyone, there is a high probability that a person does not wear glasses when he is lying on the bed and resting alone. There are several points in Mrs. Alice's testimony. They were all expressed in uncertain terms, which proves that she actually did not know whether the person she saw that night was Paul Colin."
"What Mrs. Alice can be sure of is the size and shape of the murderer. Paul Colin is of comparable size.”
After Valente finished his argument, he paused to take a breath, and many jurors were moved by Valente’s words. Number Seven seemed clearly unconvinced by these arguments.
Valente's argument is logically self-consistent, but there are too many coincidences in this set of arguments.
"The premise of your argument is that Mr. Jim committed perjury, and you have mentioned so many coincidences, so you might as well put these coincidences on Mr. Jim. Maybe Mr. Jim was too nervous in court to say Is his testimony wrong? Maybe he actually spent more time, but he deliberately shortened the time in order not to make others discriminate against his lameness."
"People with physical disabilities always have some problems. Sensitive, we should be considerate of this." No. 7 expressed his opinion to everyone.
As No. 7 finished speaking, the conference room fell into brief silence again.
"Let's... proceed to the fourth round of voting." No. 1 raised his hand and reported to the presiding judge.
This is already the fourth vote in the conference room.
Second vote: 4 opposed, 6 in favor, 2 abstained.
The third vote: 4 opposed, 5 in favor, 3 abstained.
Whether guilty or not, the votes must be unanimous. Even if they are inconsistent, one party must have an overwhelming victory, that is, a special majority vote.
At this moment, when the jurors have large differences of opinion and cannot reach unanimous agreement or the conditions for a special majority vote, a jury deadlock has occurred.
The presiding judge is actually already thinking about whether to re-select the jury or redo the entire review and approval process.
[Ding-ring-ring--]
The emergency phone in the conference room suddenly rang, interrupting the solemn voting. The presiding judge frowned in displeasure. He went to the emergency phone and connected it. .
"What happened?"
"President, special circumstances occurred. Jim, one of the original witnesses, suddenly surrendered. He stated to us that he perjured himself for the police station's bonus." The staff member on the other end of the phone quickly reported to the presiding judge.
The presiding judge was confused by this sudden message.
"Okay, I understand."
The presiding judge hung up the phone in a weird tone, then he considered his tone, and then told the twelve jurors present about Jim's perjury, and the jurors After listening, they all looked at each other, and the scene became a little awkward for a while, especially for No. 7.
"Ahem, cough, let's continue the voting." The presiding judge coughed and continued.
Now that we have reached this point, the voting cannot stop.
The fourth vote ended quickly, and the presiding judge slowly read out the results of the vote.
"Twelve votes against, Paul Colin, not guilty!"
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When Valente Bernard walked out of the court When he was walking, he saw the familiar person and dog sitting on the bench of the court.
Valente walked towards one person and one dog.
“A drink for you.”
When Valente sat down next to the blond young man, the other party handed him a bottle of cold drink.
Valente took the cold drink handed over by the blond young man without politeness. After unscrewing the bottle cap, he started to drink wildly with his head raised. He was basically the only one talking in the collegial room. Get the most.
"You should be a jury next time." After finishing his drink, Valente replied to Xia Xiu who was smiling at the side.
"Democracy can only work in the hands of smart people." Xia Xiu shrugged and replied.
"Procedural justice is always prone to problems. Abraham, you said you are from the Kingdom of Heaven, so I want to ask, what would happen if the supernatural Kingdom of Heaven interferes with the secular world?"
Valente asked the blond young man beside him.
Hearing Valente’s question, Xia Xiu stood up from the bench and took out a coin from his arms.
“Heads means guilty, tails means innocent.”
Under Valente’s gaze, Xia Xiu tossed the coin in his hand upwards, and the coin began to face the sky after the rain. The sun rolls upward.
Pa——
The blond young man stretched out his right hand and held the coin straight.
"The good will be saved, and the evil will be punished!"
Looking at the blond young man's fisted right hand, Valente seemed to understand something, and he asked him:
< br>"How can the world understand this arrogance?"
The clenched hand expresses the absolute justice that the Kingdom of Heaven believes in, and when the Kingdom of Heaven comes to control this justice, how can the world see the authenticity of the coins in the fist? reverse side.
"So the current situation is-"
At this time, the sun suddenly shines, and a rainbow after the rain appears behind the blond young man, and the holy light shines on him.
"The extraordinary will return to the kingdom of heaven, and the secular will return to the secular world."
The blond young man said.
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(End of this chapter)