fandomhigh | Anatomy of a Trial [Period 4, Class #1, 5-13]

Class today was meeting in the Danger Room, which they might realize looked very much like a courtroom. Their professor entered with a cup of tea in one hand and a briefcase in the other.

Alex had decided the best way to teach this class -- at least this first week -- was to dive in and pretend it was a courtroom scenario, at least at the outset. They were teenagers, most of them; they should catch on rather quickly.

"Thank you for being here," Alex said, setting her briefcase down on the long table in front of her. "I know jury duty is generally seen as a thankless nuisance, but the court appreciates your civic duty. We're going to start with a voir dire session as we empanel a jury. Those of you who are selected will be seated to hear a case; those of you who are excused may go home, with our thanks."

"Voir dire means that we ask you to speak the truth. Both the defense attorney and I will be asking a number of questions so that we can be sure to seat an impartial jury, one that has no preconceptions or prejudices on the issues we're going to be facing in court. Therefore, we'll be asking a number of questions both related to the accused -- William T. Thornsmith -- and his alleged victim, as well as more general concerns.

"Once we've asked our questions, certain participants may be stricken for cause -- if either side can make a compelling argument that the potential juror is too biased to follow the rule of law -- or dismissed summarily by either side via 'peremptory challenge,' which simply means that one of us feels we'd rather that juror not serve. We only have ten each, and if either of us are caught using them discriminatorily -- that is, to eliminate members of a specific gender, ethnic group, or sexuality -- our challenges may be overturned.

"All you need to concern yourself with is answering questions as honestly as you can. The rest, you can leave to the lawyers; that's why we're so overpaid." She smiled at her students. "Shall we?"

(~~wait for the OCD!~~ OCD of wtf-was-I-thinking-DOOM is up!)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Law...enforcement?

Maybe...sorta?

Karla raised her hand anyway, figuring that Alex could help her work it out later.

"It can be fuzzy," Alex said generously. "Tell me what we're dealing with."

"Well, ummm, my mother was the Queen of the Territory, my father was her Consort, and when I get old enough to set up my own Court, I'll be Queen and my cousin will be my First Escort. All of those positions involve writing laws, enforcing laws, and upholding laws," Karla said. "But probably not the same way as they do here."

"Writing laws is usually a step removed from the process," Alex said. "Would you say your family serves a more judicial role? Serving as the judge, determining when laws have been broken and the correct punishment to administer?"

Karla thought about that for a moment and nodded. "Yes, actually. The members of the Court might be dispatched to find a criminal if necessary, but that's not as common as the judicial role, I think. So, I should have kept my hand down?"

"I wouldn't say that," Alex said, shaking her head. "It's important information to have, especially since members of your Court do sometimes enforce the laws directly. It gives me a clearer picture of what we're dealing with."

"Oh, okay, good," Karla said, looking a little relieved. "Things that are so clearly delineated here are awful fuzzy back home, so I wasn't sure."

And that wasn't even taking into account Uncle Saetan's title, "The Executioner." Karla felt it prudent to leave him out of the discussion most times.

"Our system's been in place for two hundred years," Alex smiled. "And it's based on a few older systems cobbled together. We've had time to argue the fine print, and lawyers who are well-paid to do it."

Karla couldn't help but smile a little at that. "The Territory of Glacia was founded over six millennia ago. But we go by Protocol, the foundation of the Blood, and that goes back..."

Let's see...Saetan was over fifty thousand years old, Geoffrey was so old that no information was known about his race and Draca older, still...

"...much, much, much longer than that."

Which was Karla for, 'I'm not entirely sure I can put an accurate number on that and even if I could, you probably wouldn't believe it.'

Alex laughed. "So it's not the time, it's the lawyers, then."

"We don't really have any?" Karla said. ""Justice is a lot more abrupt in Kaeleer.

Anatomy of a Trial [Period 4, Class #1, 5-13]

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