The first witness was brought up, this witness was a lame old man, dressed in tatters, the old man limped to the witness stand, he walked very slowly, the distance that ordinary people can walk in more than ten seconds, he walked almost a minute.

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

"No problem."

The old man named Jim nodded his head with some excitement, and the old man looked around, and he saw that he had attracted everyone's attention at this point, so he reached out and straightened his collar.

"Before this happened, I had already built a nest near Colin's house, and as everyone knows, only the slums don't dislike us people, and my nest was next door to Colin's house, and I heard little Colin say 'I'm going to kill you' a second after I heard something fall."

"I felt something wasn't right, so I ran out of the nest I had built out of cardboard boxes, and it took me less than half a minute to cross the street to the downstairs of Colin's house."

"When I arrived at the scene, I found that old Colin was lying on his back in a large shape on the side of the road trash can, and there was a knife stuck in his chest, bright red blood stains were spraying out, and the entire green trash can was stained with blood, and then I saw the back of a teenager fleeing in a hurry."

Jim finished telling the courtroom what he had seen and heard, and after hearing the old man's words, everyone in the courtroom looked at the defendant Colin with the eyes of a trial, and many people on the jury seat had already made a choice in their hearts for the next vote.

At this time, Xia Xiu, who had been paying attention to the movements of the court, couldn't help frowning slightly, and his golden eyes glanced at the old man suspiciously.

Too excited, too fluent, too clear for a witness to give such an extremely logical testimony without the guidance and help of a court staff.

The old man in front of him was like an orator who had prepared a speech in advance, and he was also a performative player who enjoyed the gaze of others.

"Nonsense, I didn't have a !! at that time"

Colin, who was in the defendant's seat, suddenly retorted with an excited expression, moving his body outward as he spoke, as if he was about to do something to the old man on the witness stand, and the nearby police officers quickly restrained him.

Knock Knock Knock –

The presiding judge in the judge's bench raised his gavel and struck it, and he said solemnly to Colin:

"Mr. Colin, please be quiet and don't interrupt the witnesses, this is the courtroom, if there is a next time, I will treat you as a contempt of court!"

Colin realized something at this point, so he stopped his movements stupidly.

This unexpected episode led many in the courtroom to believe that the other party was the murderer, and while the trial process was still going on, the second witness, Mrs. Alice, soon followed.

Mrs. Alice was an old lady, her hair was stained with the signs of age, and her eyes did not seem to be able to see clearly, so she always squinted when she walked in, and she should have been in the habit of wearing glasses, as can be seen by the deep indentation of glasses on the bridge of her nose.

"Mrs. Alice, could you please repeat your testimony in court again?"

"Good... Yes, I remember that on the day of the crime, I had insomnia at home, I was lying in bed tossing and turning, so I was going to open the window to breathe, but I didn't expect that when I opened the window, I would look... Two men scuffled together, one of whom seemed to be holding a knife. ”

"The two were also in the window, and the man with the knife ended up stabbing the other in the chest, oh my! It's horrible! Mrs. Alice said in a horrified tone.

As Mrs. Alice finished her testimony, many of those present strengthened their earlier judgment that the teenager in front of them was the bastard who killed his father!

Soon, the trial proceeded to the third process: questioning the appraiser.

"I, I, I... There really isn't, by the way, isn't there a murder weapon, there should be fingerprints on it, right, you dare to say that I am ······ so arbitrarily without fingerprints."

"Heh, fingerprints, who won't clean their fingerprints after committing a crime now."

"And coincidentally, Paul Colin you also have the exact same switchblade, and people who haunt the slums always need a few pieces of protective equipment, right?"

An inquisitor interrupted Colin's words as if premeditated.

Colin stiffened his head and looked at the Inquisitors, who then watched as they pulled out a clear sealed bag containing a switchblade.

"The handle of this knife has been wiped down with a soft, lint-free cloth, and I want to ask Mr. Colin about that."

The judge stared at Colin who was in a cold sweat and asked slowly:

"Where did your knife go?"

After listening to the judges' words, Colin's face turned white in a swoop.

"I lost my knife a long time ago······"

"Do you know where to lose it?"

"I, I, I... I don't know. ”

Colin replied hesitantly, and for his performance, many people present shook their heads, dead ducks with hard mouths.

The court investigation was soon over.

After the courtroom investigation is concluded, the presiding judge immediately organizes a trial debate, and the victim's lawyer, prosecutor, defendant, and his defender speak in turn.

In this debate, the defendant was basically pressed and beaten, and the defense directly slice Colin's past in front of everyone:

A typical slum family ethics drama, the mother chose to leave them because she couldn't stand the rotten father who was addicted to alcohol and gambled, and the young Colin naturally lived with his rotten father. After that, the experience is also very classic, little Colin has been in the domestic violence of his rotten father for a long time, and he began to rebel against his father when he was a little older, quarrels are a common thing for them, and his neighbors say that sooner or later the father and son will have an accident, and now it is not as they expected, old Colin really had an accident.

Based on this experience, as well as various earlier testimonies and evidence, the defense directly left Colin's lawyer speechless.

As time passed, the proceedings were declared closed.

After the conclusion of the proceedings in court debate, the presiding judge shall order the registrar of the Serious Crimes Court to keep the case file, but to retain the decision on the transfer of the case for collegiate deliberation.

"Ladies and gentlemen, all members of the jury are required to stand with me and read the speech. The presiding judge said to the jurors on the jury in the courtroom.

The twelve jurors, who had been waiting for a long time, naturally stood up, and they read out the precepts with the presiding judge with solemn faces.

"The law does not ask the judge what is the reason for his or her self-confidence, nor does the law prescribe a rule for the judge to rely on to determine whether a piece of evidence is complete or sufficient. The law only requires them to be calm, concentrated, to rely on their own honesty and conscience, to rely on their own reason, to form an impression and make a judgment on the basis of evidence of guilt and defenses. The law asks them only one question, which encapsulates the entire duties of judges: Have you formed a conviction in your heart? ”

The jury system itself embodies a part of procedural justice: due process of law embodies the basic requirements of justice, and procedural due process embodies the basic concept of procedural justice.

One of the core ideas of the system is: it is better to spare a thousand than to kill one by mistake!

The judge is responsible for interpreting the law, while the jury makes a decision of guilt or innocence; In this way, the decision is in the hands of the people, not the state apparatus.

After the precept was pronounced, the presiding judge ordered the defendants to be escorted out of the courtroom and ordered the chief guard of the court to send people to guard all the entrances to the collegial room. No one shall enter the collegial chamber without the permission of the presiding judge for any reason.

The presiding judge led the twelve jurors to the collegial room, which was separated from the courtroom by a wall, and on the wall of the collegial room was a precept printed in bold letters, which was the precept they had just pronounced.

"Here I will communicate with you, answer all the questions you ask, communicate with each other, evaluate the evidence, and gradually form the conviction in your heart that you can read the necessary technical materials in court." The presiding judge said patiently to the twelve jurors.

"In order to facilitate communication in the future, we will now mark the serial number according to the clockwise direction of the round table, and divide it into 12 numbers from right to left."

Valente glanced at the seat he was seated in, Eight.

"Now for the first collegiate discussion of the defendant: whether the defendant is guilty or not." The presiding judge opened the voting.

"Now all the evidence has been clearly stated, it was this brute who killed his father!" Number Three on the round table expressed his meaning directly.

"That's true." Nine chimed in.

"Hurry up and vote, there's my favorite show tonight." Seven said impatiently.

The entire collegial room was quite clear about the collegial vote, they decided that Paul Colin was the murderer of the homicide, that he killed his father during the quarrel, and they did not think that the case needed to be bothered to be discussed.

And just when everyone thought that the result had been decided, some people raised objections.

"We can't be sure that this child is the murderer in this case, everyone, there is only one life, if we are wrong, he will leave this world forever."

The crowd looked at the man who spoke, and his serial number was eight, and the person who spoke was none other than Valente Bernard.

"The evidence is ironclad, why wasn't he the murderer!" Twelve-loud said that he was a man of great build.

"No, on the contrary, there are too many doubts in this case."

Valente immediately shook his head and said, he didn't know when there was an extra piece of information in his hand, everyone present tried to recall it, and found that No. 8 really didn't go to the data 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 Weakened], and before the collegial discussion, Xia Xiu had already sneaked into the collegial room to look through the information, and the information he had just submitted to Valente was one of the doubts in the case.

Xia Xiu believed that Valente would be able to discover this suspicion after watching it.

Valente also did not live up to Xia Xiu's trust in him, he lay the information flat on the round table, and then pointed to one of the reports above and said:

"Old Colin is 180cm tall, while Colin is only 177cm tall."

Valente's finger pointed again to a photograph taken by police officers at the time of the crime of the crime of Colin: Colin, Sr., lying on top of a garbage can with wide eyes, a switchblade stuck diagonally down from his chest.

"The position is wrong, in the face of an enemy higher than himself, the position of this knife is wrong, he should be stabbing diagonally upwards." Valente turned his suspicions to the other jurors who were on the bench.

After listening to Valente's words, some of the jurors fell into deep thought, but Seven, who was obviously a little irritable, replied dissatisfiedly:

"It's very easy to stab this way."

The group looked at Seven, and then they saw Seven holding a pen compared to a knife, and he motioned for Valente, who was Eight, to stand up.

Valente stood up in agreement, and then his collar was pulled slightly rough by Seven, and then Seven "stabbed" Valente in the chest with a pen with a tight cap in his backhand.

"That's how it stings." After the demonstration on Seven, he casually threw the pen on the round table.

When—

The pen slammed into the round table, bobbing up and down, and then calmed down.

"No, it's still not right."

The voice of dissent sounded again, and Seven was stunned, because this time it was not Eight next to him who raised the objection, but Number Four in front of him, an elderly man with a pair of reading glasses on his face.

"What's wrong?" Seven asked, a little frizzy.

"First of all, in terms of testimony, Mrs. Alice said that when he opened the window, he saw old Colin scuffling with people, proving that the murder had a fight with old Colin, and the old Colin was tall and big, and if the murderer fought with a knife in his hand, it would be a disadvantage."

Elder Number Four pushed his reading glasses, then continued:

"Secondly, Paul Colin has been in the slums, he should be an expert in fighting, if he fights with people who are different in his size, he should be holding a knife, and a normal person will only be holding a knife with a switchblade in a fight."

"This ·······" Seven didn't know what to say for a while.

"Don't forget, Paul Colin has a switchblade that looks exactly like the murder weapon." The number 12 on the side gave the number seven assist.

"It's not such a coincidence, the murderer and the innocent have the same knife." Twelve smirked.

Twelve's pride didn't last long, as "Annoying Eight" spoke again.

"The same knife doesn't prove anything."

When—

A switchblade identical to the murder weapon was thrown by Valente on the round table, and everyone at the scene looked at Valente with sudden changes in their faces.

"I bought it from a shop next street to the courthouse."

Valente said as he stared at everyone present.

The switchblade had indeed been taken from a shop on the street next door to the courthouse, but he hadn't bought it.

In a place that everyone couldn't see, Xia Xian was satisfied with the dog who came over next door just now, this knife was the one he asked the dog to go to the next door Shun back, before he and Valente came to the court, he accidentally saw the switchblade on the display table next door selling knives, so he just asked the atomized dog to go and bring the knife back.

You say it's a coincidence.

(End of chapter)