jury

Closing Arguments

Fandango10 Comments

“Now that all of the facts have been verified and presented to the jury, I’m sure I will be able to cobble my closing arguments together pretty quickly,” Daniel Snyder, the assistant DA, told his boss.

“I hope so, Dan, because the jury is going to be sequestered during deliberations and the longer this takes, the worse our chances for a guilty verdict get,” Elliot Harwood said. “Just make sure you can effectively bridge any potential gaps for the jury in your closing statement.”

“I’ve got it all laid out,” Dan said. “It’s not a slam dunk, but I think my approach is solid and the law is obviously on our side. The jury members will see that clearly.”

“That’s why I’ve got you at the top of my ADA rotation, Dan,” the Manhattan District Attorney said, “and I’m counting on you to bring a guilty verdict home. I’d hate to have to bench you if you lose this case. I won’t hesitate to reassign you from Manhattan office to the Bronx. And that’s not where you want to spend the rest of your career, is it, Dan?”

“I’ve got this, Elliot,” Dan said, hoping the beads of perspiration forming on his forehead would escape Elliot’s notice.

Written for these daily prompts: E.M.’s Random Word Prompt (verified), My Vivid (will), Your Daily Word Prompt (cobble), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (sequestered), Ragtag Daily Prompt (bridge), The Daily Spur (approach), and Word of the Day Challenge (rotation).

Badly Broken

Fandango38 Comments

A 17 year old boy, Kyle Rittenhouse, from Illinois, crosses state lines and arms himself with an AR-15 semiautomatic weapon. When he arrives in Kenosha, Wisconsin last summer during anti-racism protests over police violence against black people, he shoots and kills two men and injures another.

After the shooting, Rittenhouse was apprehended and arrested by police. He was charged with first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide and two first-degree recklessly endangering safety counts. He pleaded not guilty by reason of self-defense.

In a trial that has become a flashpoint in the debate over guns, vigilantism, and racial injustice in the U.S., the predominantly white jury acquitted Rittenhouse of all charges.

How can it be that a white kid who goes out of his way to go to an anti-racist protest armed with an assault rifle and kills two people and injures a third be found not guilty? Why else would he take an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle to that protest if not to shoot people?

Can you imagine what the verdict would have been if Kyle Rittenhouse had been a 17-year old black kid?

The American justice system is badly broken.

Fandango’s Flashback Friday — November 12th

Fandango18 Comments

Wouldn’t you like to expose your newer readers to some of your earlier posts that they might never have seen? Or remind your long term followers of posts that they might not remember? Each Friday I will publish a post I wrote on this exact date in a previous year.

How about you? Why don’t you reach back into your own archives and highlight a post that you wrote on this very date in a previous year? You can repost your Friday Flashback post on your blog and pingback to this post. Or you can just write a comment below with a link to the post you selected.

If you’ve been blogging for less than a year, go ahead and choose a post that you previously published on this day (the 12th) of any month within the past year and link to that post in a comment.

This was originally posted on November 12, 2017

A Simple Question

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“It’s a ‘yes or no’ question, Mr. Avery,” the lawyer said.

Beads of perspiration were forming on Tom Avery’s forehead. He looked helplessly at the judge, who was sitting at the large desk on his right.

Having run out of patience, the attorney also looked up at the judge and said, “A little help, your honor.”

“Answer the question, Mr. Avery,” the judge said sternly.

Tom sighed. “It’s not a simple question.”

“Yes, Mr. Avery,” the attorney chided, “It is that simple. Yes or no?”

Tom cleared his throat, looked up at the judge, then over at the jury, and finally at the lawyer. “It’s not just black or white. There are gray areas. It’s complicated.”

The lawyer threw both of his arms up in the air out of frustration. He didn’t want the members of the jury to think he was badgering the witness, but he needed an answer. “Your honor,” he said, pleading with the judge.

“Answer the question, Mr. Avery,” the judge warned, “or I will hold you in contempt.”

Tom was now sweating profusely. He weighed his options carefully. Finally, he looked past the attorney at the plaintiff sitting at the table behind the lawyer.

“Okay, fine,” Tom said. Focusing his eyes directly on the plaintiff, he said, “Yes. My answer is yes.” A murmur ran through the courtroom. “Yes, Amanda, those jeans do make you look fat.”

Written for today’s one-word prompt, “black.”

Grape Wine Versus Apple Cider

Fandango13 Comments

“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, as you sit in this courtroom on this sad and overcast day, you must certainly see that all of the evidence points to the fact that this defendant,” the prosecutor said, pointing toward the hapless man sitting at the defendant’s table, “has demonstrated a voracious appetite for wassail.”

“Let me point out to you that wassail, if you’re unfamiliar with it, is a beverage of hot mulled cider made from apples. Apples, ladies and gentlemen, not from grapes. Wassail is traditionally drunk as an integral part of wassailing, a medieval Christmastime English drinking ritual intended to ensure a good cider apple harvest the following year,” he added.

“Let me also remind you that we no longer live in medieval times. These are modern, 21st century times. And we don’t live in England. We live in the Napa Valley region, which is the heart of California’s wine county. Our local harvest is grapes, not apples.

“And while it is, indeed, getting close to Christmastime, you must remember that this has been a devastating year for our local wine industry. The pandemic has significantly the curtailed demand for our fine wines because most of the restaurants that serve our wines have been closed since March. And the horrific wildfires of this past summer destroyed so many of our local wineries.”

The prosecutor paused so his words would sink in on the members of the jury. “It with no whimsy, ladies and gentlemen, that I implore you to find this defendant guilty of promoting the consumption of apple cider over the consumption of grape wine. This is an act of egregious disloyalty to our local economy and it’s your job to right this wrong and to rectify this injustice.”

The prosecutor made eye contact with each and every juror. “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,” he said, “I rest my case. Now do your job.”

Written for these daily prompts: MMA Storytime (overcast), The Daily Spur (evidence,) Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (voracious), Word of the Day Challenge (wassail), Ragtag Daily Prompt (wine), and Your Daily Word Prompt (whimsy).

Slam Dunk

Fandango8 Comments

7AFBD860-DCD0-4D12-AD96-61CBB3588695Kenneth stood at the back of the empty courtroom and welcomed the respite as the jury adjourned to begin deliberations. It had been a long and grueling trial, at times lackluster and at other times quite spirited. But it was now out of his hands.

When he was assigned the case by the district attorney, Kenneth thought it was nearly identical to a case he had successfully prosecuted a few decades earlier when he was a young attorney. But once the trial began, he knew that his co-counsel, Cheryl, was right when she warned him that there’s a storm brewing.

“I’ve never heard so many lies come from the mouths of so many witnesses as I heard at this trial,” Cheryl told Kenneth.

“And for that reason, it should be a slam dunk,” Kenneth said. “But we’ll find out when the jury comes back if they bought the lies or if they find him guilty of obstruction of justice.”

Written for Teresa’s Story Starter Challenge where the line is, “There’s a storm brewing.” Also for Teresa’s Genre Writing Challenge where the genre is “legal thriller” using the above image from David Mark @ Pixabay.com.

And for these daily prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (respite), Word of the Day Challenge (lackluster), Ragtag Daily Prompt (identical), and Your Daily Word Prompt (lies).