(open) shot-gun trials and foreign legal wiles

[feyted]

Date & Time: December 28th - January 2nd.
Location: Franziska's state of the art courtroom; law offices; the city.
Characters: ALL. Tag in when you tag in!
Summary: Jesse Pinkman goes on trial for murder. Some people want to see him convicted. Other people want to see him acquitted! Evidence will be presented, witnesses will be questions, the defendant himself will take the stand! All while being observed by a jury of peers, any lookers-on who so decide to attend, and the hapless just-made-temporary-judge who has to watch over all of this to the bitter end.
Warnings: Potential language, complete ridiculousness, and standard insanity.
Notes: THE ORDER OF EVENTS as they happen in the comments here are unimportant. As long as the subject lines are labeled in the initial comment to this post, go wild doing whatever makes the most sense or most fun to and for you. There is a timeline for when things should generally be happening, along with an OOC post to discuss specifics! Top comments will be linked in this top post, and updated once a day because Ish is slow.

Please comment to this post with one of the following subject lines and the IC date in order to inform those others tagging in what your character is available for. They are as follows (and may be added to at your discretion):

On the Witness Stand
At an Attorney's Side
In the Recess Alcove
In the Audience
Among the Jurors
Interrupting the Trial Proceedings
(anything else you can come up with falling outside these categories)

Characters on witness stand may be as character witnesses, as experts in a given field of study, as presenters and explainers of new or established evidence, or because someone got desperate and pulled them in off the street. Those who were interested in having their characters offer evidence, testimony, or assistance, even if it's totally ridiculous, are welcome to get On the Witness Stand.

ROUGH TIMELINE OF EVENTS:

December 28th
Opening statements from attorneys; presentation of initial evidence.
Character witness testimony begins.

December 29th
Experts in given fields give testimony. Autopsy, ballistics, crime scene investigation information presented today.

December 30th
Assorted other witnesses give testimony.

December 31st
Jesse Pinkman takes the stand.

January 1st
Closing remarks are made by both attorneys. Penguins invade. Holy shit there's penguins.

January 2nd

Jesse Pinkman is found Innocent of the murder of Amal Singh.

ROUGH LINK LIST:

tbc

Comments

[hostage]

[It's a relief to be talking to Mia. He's visibly more relaxed when he speaks to her, and the words come easily. He knows what to do. He's not actually that stupid.]

I'm Jesse Pinkman and I'm a chemist and crystallographer. I synthesize pharmaceutical products for the Initiative's medical division.

[Medical. See, he knows his shit.]

[feyted]

( Bless your heart, Jesse, you do indeed. )

How long have you been in the employ of the Initiative's medical division?

[hostage]

About two and a half months.

[feyted]

For much of your time since arrival. That's showing some initiative of your own, Mr. Pinkman.

( What no not punning this is a bad time! )

Will you explain to the court the events of December 26th as you remember them, from the time you woke in the morning to the time of your arrest?

[hostage]

Made breakfast for me and Ranka - my roommate - then went out. Had a smoke, walked around... My usual thing. I'm still trying to get to know the area, you know? So I was just walking around the, um, district where Mr. Singh was. I wasn't paying too much attention to what was going on, 'cause I was in my head, thinking about stuff.

Then there was a gunshot and me - I'm a soldier here, too, you know, so I pulled out my gun by instinct and looked around. But I didn't see who it was that fired. Didn't even see anybody running away. I saw Mr. Singh, though, and I walked over to see if he was okay, but he was already dead. And I guess that's when the officers saw me, 'cause a second later I was surrounded and they were telling me to drop my gun so I did and I went quietly.

[feyted]

As the jury... ( she wants to say judge, but this is a whole pile of weird in not having the judge be first and last arbitrator of the whole trial ) ... is aware, Mr. Pinkman's gun has been entered as part of the evidence in this case. The ballistics reports are consistent with what you've told us, indicating the gun had been fired, but not within the timeframe of Mr. Singh's unfortunate death.

( Really, what the prosecution has to say here is of interest. )

Once you were in constable custody, what happened?

[hostage]

Thought I'd be questioned, but I wasn't. They took all my stuff and tossed me in a cell and that was it. I dunno what they were planning to do.

[feyted]

( Probably what they usually do. Leave you there to rot for as long as they could, or let you join the collection of strange fruit in the few decently tall trees they have out there. )

According to the ballistics report, the weapon you had in your possession had been fired, but not recently. When was the last time you fired your gun?

[hostage]

Two weeks ago.

[feyted]

What was the cause for firing at that time?

( Redundancy is a game CLARITY IS A MISSION )

[hostage]

Self-defense. There were, uh, zombies.

[He can only imagine what the reaction would be to saying that in court back home.]

[feyted]

( She nods. )

Thank you, Mr. Pinkman.

( Addressing the court. )

I'd like to refer the court's attention to the ballistics report on the gun in Mr. Pinkman's possession at the time of his detainment, along with the bullet retrieved during the autopsy and the other retrieved from the scene of the crime.

( The short-hand explanation continues; the bullet spin marks don't match the grooves in Jesse's gun barrel, eventually turning her attention back to Jesse to continue to expound on the facts: )

The last time you used your gun was two weeks ago, during the incident with the undead. From what you've told the court, you did not shoot your gun on the 26th of December. You were in the area and entered the building out of concern for what had happened after hearing a gunshot. Given the events of the preceding weeks, it's an admirable effort to see if someone was in trouble he could assist with, instead of simply turning away.

( Can we ignore his state of mind at the time? )

[hostage]

[Jesse nods along with each point, emphatically and without any hesitation.]