|
The courtroom was old.
Jaina looked around at the small gathering of privileged people who had been allowed access to this trial and was glad it would not take place in front of a large crowd. The newer courtrooms were built much like the senate chambers, three-dimensional and vast. In those trials, people stretched out in every direction, concentrically concentrated on the center stage where the attorneys battled it out.
This courtroom was much cozier. There was a jury box to the left side of the judge's podium. The ceiling was not too high, and the small area reserved for observers was sectioned off by a waist high partition. The stage for this trial was very simple.
Jaina did not know if this was a good thing or not. She had never been to a trial before and had no idea what took place during one. Luke was going to be the main attorney, and Tionne was going to back him up. Jacen was not present. He was still locked away in his cell. In Coruscant trials the defendant never testified, and therefore, his presence in the courtroom was not necessary.
Coruscant trials were famous around the galaxy for their efficiency. No trial lasted more than five days. The prosecution was given two days; the defense was given two days; and the jury was given a day of deliberation. The ruling was always final and no appeals were allowed. There usually was not time for an appeal anyway, for if the sentence was a terminal one, it was carried out on the sixth day, if not sooner.
Jaina had read up on the procedures the previous night after she had returned from the Krakun Hematological Research Center. She knew that Jacen's sentence, if he were convicted, would be death, and the knowledge that in five days, her brother would either be cleared of the charges or dead, was not a comfortable feeling, especially when Luke and Tionne had not gathered much evidence to defend their client.
The judge in this case was a former senator from Mon Calamari named Icktar. Luke had reassured everyone that the judge was fair and honest. He had also told Tionne and Jaina, after Han and Leia had left, that if all the evidence pointed at Jacen, Justice Icktar would not be hesitant to convict him.
Jaina was sitting just behind the partition behind the table at which Luke and Tionne sat. Next to her were her parents. Luke had somehow managed to convince the rest of the Academy, including Anakin, to stay on Yavin IV. Though the courtroom was small, and the immediate crowd was not that formidable, this trial was being broadcasted to all corners of the galaxy, and while no one from the Academy was present, they were undoubtedly huddled around a holoviewer.
On the other side of the courtroom sat the prosecutors. There were three middle-aged men sitting at their table, each with perfectly pressed suits and immaculate hair. They carried expensive leather cases from which they produced stacks of datapads and chips that they organized in neat piles around their table. The head prosecutor was Loran Fritchy, a very experienced attorney from Krakus.
Behind the prosecutors Jaina spotted Martin, looking much different than she remembered him from the other day. She remembered a very violent and moody man who was all-engrossing. Now, the son of the victim looked very quiet and almost insignificant sitting behind the glory that was the prosecution. Jaina did not realize how long she had been staring at him until his wandering eyes found hers, and he smiled.
Jaina yanked her gaze away, scared that he had recognized her. She shook the idea out of her head. She looked very different now then she had when she had paid him a visit.
Judge Icktar entered the courtroom and everyone quieted down. He took a seat behind his massive podium and surveyed the courtroom. He need not pound his gavel to gain quiet as his wide-set, lid-less pupils scanned the room. Everyone realized the trial of the decade was about to take place and they respected the moment. Nothing they had been talking about seemed at all important any more. Such was the reverence Icktar was capable of bestowing on a situation.
"I do not need to remind everyone in this courtroom the importance of this trial. I will not tolerate any disruption and will clear the courtroom at the drop of a hat." Having said his opening piece, he turned to the two teams of counselors. "Do either of you have any motions before we get started."
"I do, your honor," Loran said. "In a murder case such of this, the power to stay the execution resides in the hands of the president. In this case I believe there is a conflict of interest."
"I agree," Icktar said quickly before Luke could protest. "What do you propose?" he asked, glancing briefly at Leia. She looked quite startled when she realized that she might have been able to save her son.
"I propose that the power to stay the execution be given to another prominent senator."
Luke half expected them to propose Senator Keld. They did not.
"Senator Belsiphvin from the planet Encoust is acceptable to the prosecution," Loran said turning to Luke.
Luke turned to Leia for a moment. She nodded her head. Senator Belsiphvin was a friend of Leia and was as good as anyone else. "That is acceptable."
"Then it is so," Icktar said, pounding his gavel to end the motion.
"I would also like to make a motion to move the defendant to a more accommodating cell," Luke said, doing as he had promised earlier. "He is currently being held in a maximum security block reserved for only the most heinous of Coruscant's criminals."
"I object to this," Loran said predictably. "There is ample evidence to hold him, and he is very dangerous. As long as he is not being mistreated, I see no reason to give him opportunity to escape."
Luke did not feel it was a good idea to bring up the point that Jacen was well trained and could escape from any prison cell on Coruscant. That comment would only tighten security around Jacen and make his stay more uncomfortable.
"The objection is sustained. The defendant will stay where he is." Icktar pounded his gavel again. He waited for any more motions. Seeing none, he turned to Loran. "Counselor Fritchy, are you ready to give your opening statement?"
Loran stood behind his desk. "I am your honor."
Icktar said nothing more but motioned with his large head toward the jury. Loran needed no more encouragement, moved out from behind his table, and launched into his memorized speech. The opening statement lasted for almost four hours, which was remarkable considering the prosecution only had two days to present their case, and this was one of them.
It was not uncommon for a defense team to try to take a long time, but as soon as the prosecutors realized the tactic, they would object, and the defense would have to finish under a time limit. Luke had no intention of stopping Loran's spiel now, knowing every minute he took up in his opening statement would be one less minute he would be presenting actual evidence to the jury.
The statement itself laid out the entire case and all the evidence therein. Loran detailed everything he was going to bring forward. He gave brief bios of both the victim and the defendant. Luke objected several times when Loran used such adjectives as "rebellious" and "carefree" to describe Jacen, siting them as speculation and opinions. The judge sustained the objections, totally unaware, as Luke knew, that they were quite accurate.
When it was finally over, it was almost time for the noon recess. Icktar turned to Luke. "Is it satisfactory to the defense to wait until after the noon recess to give their opening statement?"
"With all due respect, your honor," Luke replied, "we would like to give it now. We will not be quite as long."
The judge nodded. Luke rose from behind the table and moved in front of the jury. The Jedi Master was not dressed in his traditional robes, but wore a similar suit to those of the prosecutors, only about a tenth as expensive. As Luke contemplated what he had planned to say, he began to realize the prosecution's strategy. They had taken four hours to tell their story, letting the jury know they had a lot to tell. Luke would be lucky if his statement lasted four minutes. Loran had made it painfully obvious from the start that all the evidence in this case favored a conviction and all the defense had was fancy talk.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I hope you took good notes on what was just said, because I got lost about two hours ago." Luke got a few chuckles at that and continued. "The prosecution would have you believe that the mountain of evidence they have collected and will present during this trial marks the defendant, Jacen Solo, as the murderer. I want you to remember one thing, though. They have no eyewitness. They have no real motive. They have nothing that can identify the defendant as the killer.
"What they do have, and what they will present, is a hoard of circumstantial evidence. They will show you that the murder weapon was a lightsaber. They will show you several other, more minor things, that allow the defendant to be the killer, but nothing that solidly identifies him as such. If the murder weapon had been a blaster, the rest of the evidence you will see is almost laughable.
"The prosecution and the defense both know what the murder weapon was, and while they would have you believe that this means a Jedi must have killed the late senator, you and I know better. I would just ask you to remember this as you take part in this case."
Luke turned to the judge to let him know he was finished. Icktar smiled at the brief statement and pounded his gavel, ending the morning session.
***
As Jaina sat back down behind the defense's table after the break, her eyes were focused on a strange droid sitting next to the witness stand. It was a KT-600, affectionately known as Kattie. It was a lie detector droid. A hundred years ago, Jedi presided over trials such as this. The Force Judges were always capable of detecting lies and rarely did guilty parties plea otherwise, for they knew lying in court was not only pointless, but it would also result in a stiffer sentence.
Kattie was not as effective. If the droid detected a lie, by lighting up a red light on its head, then the witness had definitely lied. However, if the witness had been trained properly, he could lie without detection. The droid monitored brain wave patterns and heart rate. If the witness kept these under control, he could get away with perjury and no one would be the wiser. Few tried, and even fewer succeeded, but it was something the jury needed to be aware of.
Icktar had lectured the jury about the effectiveness of Kattie and how the droid was used mostly as a deterrent. Still, in almost every case where a Kattie had been present, the jury never ruled against testimony that the Kattie did not reject.
"The prosecution would like to call Marian Potter to the stand."
Marian Potter was the head receptionist at the KHRC. She was an older woman, about the same age as Senator Keld had been. The bailiff, dressed in Republic Guard attire, escorted Marian to the witness stand. "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you unto death."
"I do."
It was only after the swearing in that Kattie was hooked up to the witness. A Kattie droid had once detected a lie during the swearing in and the witness had been disallowed. If they knew they were going to lie, they should at least do it under oath. Kattie was a dome shaped droid, wider than an R2 unit, but just as tall. A simple cord came from its top and was attached to the witness's wrist via a special bracelet. There were different attachments available for witnesses who might not have wrists, but all the people involved in this case were humanoid.
Loran waited patiently for the bailiff to set the droid and then approached his witness. "Can you please tell the court your occupation?"
"I am the head receptionist at the Krakun Hematological Research Center," Marian responded.
"How long have you worked there?"
"Twenty-three years."
Loran continued asking several more meaningless background questions before he got to anything of relevance. "Do you remember the night Senator Keld was murdered?"
"I do."
"Can you please tell the court what you remember?"
Marian took a deep breath before responding. "My receptionist duties only last until about five, but I routinely stay later than that to catch up on some of the secretarial work that needs to be done. The Center does not have a large staff and we all help when we can. Senator Keld had also stayed late, but this was also normal. He often worked long hours in his private lab."
Jaina perked up at this. Unless she was mistaken, she had been in that lab. And unless Markis Keld had a biology degree that he was keeping secret from everyone, Jaina could not understand what he would be doing.
"I first noticed something was wrong when his communicator announced he had left the building."
"What do you mean 'announced?'" Loran asked.
"Well, we get a lot of calls from people who want to speak with the senator or anyone one of the other people who work at the Center. As the receptionist, it's important for me to know where everyone is so I can relay the calls to the nearest com station. If anyone leaves the Center my relay board tells me so I can take a message for them if they get any calls.
"Well, the senator usually never took his communicator with him when he left the Center. He had several communicators, and since he spent most of his time in the senate chambers, he did not want to be tied to the Center if he wasn't there. He usually turned off his communicator before leaving."
"About what time was this?"
"Around ten o'clock."
"Do you know why he didn't turn it off this time?"
Marian shook her head.
"Can you take a guess?"
"Objection!" Luke said, springing up from his chair. The reason for the objection was obvious, but he explained anyway. "The question calls for speculation."
"Sustained," Icktar said, frowning at Loran for trying to slip that in. He was supposed to be the best trial lawyer Krakus had to offer. He should know better. Loran did know better, he had only been hoping that Luke did not. The Jedi Master was new to the courtroom, and Loran would continue to test his knowledge of court protocol.
"Did he tell you why he left without turning off his communicator?"
Marian shook her head again.
Icktar looked at the droid court reporter and then back at the witness. "Please give verbal answers to the questions."
"I'm sorry," Marian responded to the rebuke. "No, he did not tell me why he left without turning off his communicator."
"Did you try to contact him?"
"Yes, I did. I put a page through to him."
Loran nodded and walked over the corner of the room where a pile of evidence lay on a table guarded by a security officer. "I'd like to show the court what a page would sound like." Loran picked up the communicator that had belonged to the dead senator and pressed a couple buttons. The small device produced a few loud beeps. "Is that how the senator's communicator would have responded to your page?"
Marian nodded again but quickly remembered she had to speak. "Yes, if that is the setting he had it on."
"The setting has not been changed since it was collected from the crime scene. What was the senator's response to your page?"
"He turned the device off."
"He turned it off," Loran repeated. Before he put the device back on the table he sounded the pager one more time. "Do you know why he would do that?"
"Objection. Calls for speculation."
"Sustained."
Loran quietly cheered for Luke. He was learning quickly, though it was hampering his line of questioning. "Your honor, I would like to present the witness as an expert in the field of communication devices similar to the one in question."
Icktar nodded and looked toward Luke. Tionne elbowed the Jedi Master in the side. "You have the right to cross-examine the witness to validate her expertise," she whispered.
"What should I ask her?" Luke responded quietly.
"Counselor?" Icktar spoke up. "Do you wish to examine the witness?"
Luke hesitated. "We will allow her expert testimony on the communicator only."
Icktar turned back to Loran. "You may proceed."
"Marian, I am going to present you with a hypothesis on why I think Senator Keld turned off his communicator and I want you to tell me if it is valid based on what you know of communicators."
Loran paused before he presented his idea. The pause was because Luke should have objected on the grounds that Loran would be leading the witness. Luke failed this test. "Suppose Senator Keld had been chased out of the Center. This would explain why he had not removed or turned off the communicator. When you paged him, it made a very loud beeping noise, as we all just heard a moment a go. Do you think this noise would be loud enough to give away Senator Keld's position to his pursuer, and that is why he turned it off?"
"Objection!" Luke cried, but he knew the damage had already been done. "This question does not fall into the category of the communicator's functionality, and therefore the witness has no basis to answer it."
"Sustained." Icktar leveled a gaze at Loran.
"No further questions your honor."
"You better never do that again," the judge said quietly to the prosecutor as he walked back to his table. "Your witness," Icktar said much louder to Luke.
"Marian," Luke started, coming around from behind his table, "have you ever seen the defendant before?"
Since Jacen was not present, there was a small holoprojector in the middle of the courtroom that had Jacen's image on file. Luke called it up now. Marian looked at the image for a few seconds. "Yes."
"Had you ever seen him before the night the senator died?" Luke amended his question.
Marian glanced at Kattie briefly before answering. "No."
"Had Senator Keld, uh, had Markis Keld ever mentioned him to you before?" Luke realized that the current Senator Keld had probably mentioned Jacen several times.
"No."
"Did Markis Keld ever talk about meeting any Jedi at the Center?"
"No."
"Was Markis expecting any visitors that night?"
"No."
"Was anyone else working late that night?"
"Yes."
"Were they expecting visitors?"
Marian shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know."
"You are the head receptionist, correct?"
Marian nodded. "Yes."
"It is your job to keep track of the comings and goings of everyone at the Center, correct?"
"Yes."
"Yet you don't know if anyone else had any visitors that night?"
"If they did, they didn't tell me."
"Do they normally tell you?"
"Yes."
"But no one told you about any visitor that was supposed to come to the Center that night?"
"No."
"No further questions your honor."
Icktar turned to Marian. "You may be excused."
Loran shuffled a few datacards across his table before he called his next witness. "The prosecution would like to call Doctor Gerian Bates." The doctor was escorted to the stand, sworn in, and hooked up to Kattie. "Dr. Bates, can you please tell the court your involvement in this case."
"I was the head doctor in charge of conducting the autopsy."
"And did you determine the cause of death?"
"I did."
"Can you please explain what you found," as Loran said this he walked away from the witness stand and leaned himself against his table on the other side of the room. The reason for this evacuation of the area became quite obvious when Dr. Bates launched into his explanation of what he found to be the cause of death.
One might think the words "cleaved in half" would be sufficient, but the doctor had not attained his position by ignoring details and thoroughness was his middle name. Phrases like "massive blood hemorrhaging," "total loss of blood pressure," and "terminal brain seizure" peppered his speech as he choreographed Markis Keld's last half second of life in a forty minute "play by play." The doctor then had holoslides and diagrams to illustrate to the jury and judge exactly how having your top half removed from your bottom half was so detrimental to your continued existence.
Near the end of this display, Jaina glanced over at Martin to see how he was handling it. The son of the deceased was not watching the display in the middle of the courtroom, instead, he was staring intently at Luke. If looks could kill, Jacen would not be the only one on trial here. If Martin had told the truth the other day, and did not hold any animosity toward the Jedi, then Jaina did not want to upset the man and give him a real reason to dislike her.
After the doctor was finished, Loran returned to the front of the witness box. "Were you able to identify the weapon responsible for the death wound?"
"I was."
"And?"
"It was a lightsaber."
"Surely there must have been some other type of device capable of inflicting these wounds."
"No, there isn't."
Loran tried to look surprised, as if he had not already gone over this testimony with the doctor countless times. "Can you please explain why?"
"The wounds on the victim were lined with burn marks consistent with a considerable heat source. This cauterization would normally cut off blood flow through the severed veins, but since the wound was administered so close to the victim's heart, complete cauterization was impossible.
"The fact that the weapon produced considerable heat rules out all types of normal blades. A cutting torch would severely char the skin around the wound, but no such charring existed. The only other possible way to cleave the victim in half would be to use a cutting laser, but such a device has a microscopically thin beam, and the victim had at least two centimeters of flesh removed along the wound. A cutting laser would not have done that. A lightsaber is the only weapon that could have inflicted the death wounds."
"No further questions your honor."
Icktar turned to Luke. "Your witness."
As Luke rose from behind his table, he tried to analyze Loran's tactics. The prosecutor had just used up an hour and a half on a witness who had one thing to say: the murder weapon was a lightsaber. This was something the jury already believed and something Luke had already admitted to being true. If Luke was able to cross-examine the doctor like he wanted to, he would be the last witness of the day. That left the prosecution with tomorrow to make their entire case, for right now, the jury had no reason to convict Jacen.
This line of reasoning worried Luke, because he knew Loran was the best at what he did, and the fact that his actions so far did not make sense to Luke only made the Jedi Master worry more.
"Dr. Bates, would you consider yourself to be an expert in the field of forensic science?"
"I have a master's degree from the best university on Coruscant," his ego responded before he could check it.
"So that would be a 'yes?'"
"It would be," the doctor confirmed.
Without looking, Luke could sense Loran's desire to jump in with an objection as soon as possible. The prosecutor had a forensic expert that he planned to call, and he definitely did not want the doctor to reveal, or perhaps misconstrue, any evidence he wished to present later. The problem was that the doctor was Loran's witness and if he objected to his expertise, it would put a dark cloud over the testimony he had already given.
"Are you familiar with ballistic evidence?"
"Objection," Loran blurted, "relevance?"
Icktar turned to Luke before ruling. "I wish to educate the jury as to how this case differs from most cases in the traceability of the murder weapon."
Icktar nodded. "Overruled. You may continue."
"Doctor Bates can you please explain to the court what ballistic forensic evidence is."
Doctor Bates was a richer man today than he had been three days ago as a direct result of Loran and his associates asking him to testify, but beyond that, he held no loyalties to the men from Krakus and could not pass up an opportunity to flaunt his knowledge. He went on at length about a bullet's angle of entry, its angle of exit, powder marks, scribe marks on the bullet, corresponding scribe marks on the barrel of a gun, and so forth.
When it looked like Loran was about object to the length of the testimony, Luke cut him off. "So, you are saying that given a bullet, you can accurately match it with the gun that fired it with a high rate of accuracy."
"'High rate of accuracy?'" the doctor repeated the comment. "I believe I just stated that given a bullet, I can pin point the exact gun that fired it with total accuracy."
"I apologize," Luke said, winking at the jury. "Is there a similar science involving knives and swords?"
"There is."
"Can you explain it please?" Luke asked.
"Objection-"
"Overruled," Icktar responded to Loran before the prosecutor could even get out his reason.
Luke could tell that while Loran had taken an awful lot of time presenting his evidence, he had planned out every second of this case, and Luke was exceeding his allotted time right now.
The good doctor expounded on his expertise, explaining to the jury that under a microscope, no two blades' edges were alike, and therefore, no two cuts from different blades were the same. There were also metal fibers that could be left behind if the blade had cut through bone. Luke let the doctor go on for another fifteen minutes, pretty much guaranteeing that he would be the last witness of the day.
"So," Luke said after the doctor had finished, "is there a similar science for lightsabers?"
"Excuse me?" the doctor asked. He had been so caught up in the opportunity to show everyone how smart he was that he was blind to the trap Luke had set for him.
"You have explained to the court that when a victim is killed with a gun and the bullet is recovered, you can identify the exact murder weapon with absolute assurance. You have also said that when a victim is killed with a metal blade, you can match the exact murder weapon with the wound every time. I am asking, 'Can you do the same with lightsabers?'"
The doctor was looking at Kattie every few seconds now. "Not that I am aware of," he finally responded, "but that doesn't mean one doesn't exist."
"You testified to the court that you are an expert in the field of forensic science. If such a method existed, don't you think you would have heard about it?"
The doctor was really squirming now. "I suppose."
Luke turned to Icktar. "Move to strike as unresponsive."
Icktar nodded. "The witness's last comment will be stricken from the record. Please answer the question with a 'yes' or 'no.'"
Luke repeated the question for him. "If such a method existed, don't you think you would have heard about it?"
"Yes."
"By this admission, are you willing to say that no such method exists?"
The doctor knew he was talking with the galaxy's foremost expert on lightsabers, and that if Luke said such a method did not exist, then it did not. "There are many advanced forensic research centers not located on Coruscant, and I am not qualified to testify as to what methods they may have developed."
Luke was tired of beating around the bush. "I can tell you doctor, as someone who knows a great deal about lightsabers, that no such method exists because such identification is impossible."
"Objection!" Loran screamed. "Move to strike! The defense counselor is not sworn in and therefore not privy to giving testimony."
Icktar nodded. "Counselor Skywalker's last statement will be stricken from the record and the jury is to disregard it. The witness's last statement will stand as to the potential existence of such a method. And I'm warning you, counselor, if you give any more testimony outside of the witness stand, I will hold you in contempt, and you will get to test out one of the low security cells to which you wish to move the defendant. Now, do you have anymore questions for the witness?"
Luke shook his head, sufficiently humbled.
Icktar looked at his chrono and pounded his gavel. "Court is adjourned for the day. We will recommence at eight tomorrow morning."
|