Extraordinary pedigree

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. He walked very slowly, and the distance that an ordinary person could cover in more than ten seconds was hard. It took almost a minute to walk.

"Mr. Jim, could you please restate your testimony in court?"

"no problem."

The old man named Jim nodded his head excitedly. The old man looked around and 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 fall."

"I felt something was wrong at the time, so I ran out of the nest I had built out of cardboard boxes, and then crossed the street and arrived at Colin's downstairs in less than half a minute."

"When I arrived at the scene, I found old Colin lying on his back in a trash can on the side of the road. There was a knife stuck in his chest, and bright red blood spurted out, and the whole body was green. The trash can was stained with blood, and then I saw the back of a teenager running away in a hurry."

Jim told the court what he had seen and heard, and after hearing the old man's words, everyone in the court looked at the defendant Colin with judgmental eyes. There were already many people in the jury box. I made my choice in my mind 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, and 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 prepared his speech in advance, and he was also a performer who enjoyed the attention of others.

"That's nonsense, I didn't even 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 outward. It seemed that he was about to attack the old man in the witness stand. The nearby police officers quickly restrained him. .

Dong dong dong——

The presiding judge on the bench raised his gavel and struck it. He said to Colin seriously:

"Mr. Colin, please stay quiet and don't interrupt the witnesses. This is the court. If there is another time, I will treat you as contempt of court!"

Colin also realized something at this time, so he stopped his movements 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 elderly lady. Her hair has been dyed with the traces of time. Her eyes seem to be unable to see clearly, so she always squints when she walks in. She should usually wear glasses. Habit, you can see it from the deep indentation of her 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 incident. 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... I saw two people struggling with each other, and one of them seemed to be holding a knife."

"The two of them were also at the window at the time, and the knifeman 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. Nowadays, whoever commits a crime will not wash off his fingerprints."

"And coincidentally, Paul Colin, you also have the same switchblade. People who haunt the slums always have some protective equipment, right?"

One of the judges interrupted Colin's words as if premeditated.

Colin turned his head stiffly and stared at the judges. Then he saw the judges take out a transparent sealed bag containing a switchblade.

"The handle of this knife has been wiped with a lint-free soft cloth. I would like to ask Mr. Colin about this."

The judge stared at Colin who was dripping with cold sweat and asked slowly:

"Where did your knife go?"

After listening to the words of the judges, Colin's face suddenly turned pale.

"My knife was lost a long time ago..."

"Then do you know where it was lost?"

"I, I, I... don't know."

Colin replied hesitantly, and many people present shook their heads at his performance. They were so stubborn.

The court investigation ended quickly.

After the court investigation is completed, the presiding judge immediately organizes a court debate, and the victim's attorney, prosecutor, defendant and his defender speak in turn.

In this debate, the defendant was basically suppressed and beaten. The defender directly sliced ​​up Colin's past and put it in front of everyone:

A typical slum family ethics drama. The mother chose to leave them because she couldn't stand her rotten father who was addicted to alcohol and gambling. Naturally, the young Colin 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 earlier testimonies and evidence, the defense directly silenced Colin's attorney.

As time passed, the court debate process was also declared 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 the purpose of 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 read out the instructions together with the presiding judge with solemn faces.

"The law does not ask about the reasons for judges to form self-confidence. The law does not provide certain rules for judges and require them to rely on such rules to determine whether a certain piece of evidence is complete or sufficient. The law only requires them to be calm, focused, and rely on their own With honesty and conscience, they rely on their own reason to form impressions and make judgments based on the evidence of guilt and the reasons for defence. The law only asks them 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.

One of the core points of this system 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 the doors to 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 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 He introduced patiently 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.

And just when everyone thought the result had been determined, someone raised objections.

"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 looked at the speaker. His serial number was No. 8, and the speaker was Valente Bernard.

"The evidence is irrefutable, why wasn't he the murderer?" 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. He didn't know when he had an extra piece of information in his hand. Everyone present tried to recall it and found 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 [Presence Weakening]. Before the collegial meeting, Xia Xiu had already slipped into the collegial room to read the information, and he had just submitted The information given to Valente is one of the suspicious points in the case.

Xia Xiu believed that Valente would 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 to one of the reports above and said:

"Old Colin's height is 180cm, but Colin's height is only 177cm."

Valente's finger pointed to a photo again. This photo was a crime scene picture of Old Colin taken by the police at the time of the crime: Old Colin was lying in the garbage with his eyes wide open. On top of the barrel, a switchblade was stuck diagonally downward on his chest.

"The position is wrong. Facing an enemy who is taller than himself, the stabbing position of the knife is wrong. He should have stabbed it diagonally upward." Valente pointed out his doubts to other jurors who were present.

After listening to Valente's words, some jurors fell into deep thought, but No. 7, who was obviously a little irritable, replied dissatisfied:

"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 roughly pulled over 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 the demonstration, No. 7 casually threw the pen on the round table.

when--

The pen hit the round table, shook up and down, and then calmed down.

"No, it's still not right."

The voice of objection sounded again, and No. 7 was stunned, because this time the objection was not from No. 8 next to him, but from No. 4 in front of him. He was an older man wearing a mask on his face. A pair of reading glasses.

"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 proves that there was a fight between Homicide and old Colin. Old Colin was tall and strong. If Homicide Fighting with a knife in your back is a disadvantage no matter how you look at it."

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 doesn't prove anything."

when--

A switchblade that was exactly the same as the murder weapon was thrown on the round table by Valente. Everyone at the scene looked at Valente with sudden expressions.

"I bought it from a shop down the street from the courthouse."

Valente said as he stared at everyone 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, Xia Xiu satisfactorily touched Gouzi who had just passed by next door. He asked Gouzi to go next door to get this knife. Before he and Valente came to the court, he accidentally Zhong had seen this switchblade on the display stand selling knives next door, so he just asked the atomized Gouzi to bring the knife back.

You said it was a coincidence.