Started with a bet

Proof's Birthday & Relapse .

This story is completely fictional and for entertainment purposes only:)

Emma's POV ....

It's now October 3rd , the last 2 months have been great . My parents and jack left , I got DJ into school . Me and Marshall have been doing great we're not official or anything but we have been hooking up and he stays at my place when the girls aren't with him .

Today was my last day in court , Iv been defending one of the guys that work at the studio he was assaulted outside a bar by a revival gang and he was getting charged with assault because he defended himself , it was my first case like this and to say I was nervous about the outcome was an understatement.

Myself and Bryan ( my client ) sat in the court room listening to the other sides closing statement they were basically putting all the blame on him cause he defended himself and hit back , there was six  against one and he did what he had to do to survive . 

" Thank you Mr Jackson , Now miss Mathews would you like to approach the jury with your last and final statement? " The judge asked .
" Yes your honour " I say .

I gather myself together and make my way to the jury .

"Thank you for your attention, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, on this very important case.
The prosecutor didn't face a threat that night. The judge didn't face a threat that night, and the 12 of you didn't face a threat that night. Only one person did. And that is my client. He did what he thought he had to. None of us had to make the split second decision that he did. And yet, we are all asked to second guess him today. It was Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendall Holmes who said that "you can't expect calm detachment in the presence of an uplifted knife." Now there was no knife involved in this case, but the point is the same. People have to make split second decisions in exercising self-defense. Sometimes people in hindsight should have, or could have, handled the matter differently. But hindsight isn't the measure we use when judging a defendant's actions. Rather we analyze what happened from the perspective of how things looked at the time to my client.
The alleged victim doesn't look so scary in the light of day, in the courtroom witness chair, all dressed up, cleaned up. But that is not the circumstance when my client used force, is it? The man came at my client in a dark alley behind a bar, and no one knew or could have known his intentions. And my client decided that he wanted to go home that night, that he wanted to survive.
Self-defense is not just the stuff of law books. Self-defense is a defense that nature herself recognizes, a recognition really that any living creature is going to act, or react a certain way when faced with a threat.
Self-defense is often something that police and prosecutors don't really understand. No one walks up to police and prosecutors on the street and threatens them. That doesn't happen because the system would come down on them like a ton of bricks. No, it is people like my client Bryan Moore who get messed with, who get bullied. The nobodies of this world. My client isn't particularly big, he isn't important around town, and he might have looked like he was fair game for intimidation, for bullying. But he stuck up for himself. He reacted. And now he is being judged. The jury system was intended to stick up for the little guy. Our forefathers knew that someone or something had to serve as a buffer between the individual citizen and the powerful government. My client has no burden of proof, the state has to disprove self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt.
My client faces a serious offense. He is charged with a violent crime. His life is on the line. You think the police would have done a more thorough job in the investigation. You really would. You would think my client would be entitled to a fair investigation before people would pass judgment on him. The police should have tried to find independent witnesses who were at the bar that night. They did not. How come none of the bartenders were subpoenaed? Instead the police relied on the word of the alleged victim and his friends. And you know the kind of people they are. None of their stories matched. Half of them admitted to drug use on the night in question. Is that the type of scant proof that can send a man to jail?Doesn't my client deserve better? Don't we all? Hold the state to its burden. A conviction in this case would be a travesty. Do the right thing, thank you for your time . That's all your honour " I smile at the judge and take my seat .