MADMAN'S DEMISE

8

After minutes of glancing through the pages of the parley, I reached the part where the verdict was announced.

"In the case of the United Kingdom versus Brandon Barlowe, the jury find the defendant guilty of the charge of manslaughter..."

Manslaughter?

As far as I was aware Brandon was charged with murder. My heart skipped a beat as I swiftly opened the file of the UK Public General Acts.

"UK Legislation
Homicide Act 1957
1957 Chapter 11

PART 1

Amendments of law of England and Wales as to fact of murder"

Carefully I read through the initial clauses, nervous about what was to be found and not found. This research could lead to my understanding of Brandon's chances of being liberated from detainment, and yet I didn't know if it was leaning towards positive or negative knowledge. Within a deep, concerned breath, I read the next headline.

"Persons suffering from diminished responsibility:

(1) Where a person kills or is a party to the killing of another, he shall not be convicted of murder if he was suffering from such abnormality of mind (whether arising from a condition of arrested or retarded development of mind or any inherent causes or induced by disease or injury) as substantially impaired his mental responsibility for his acts and omissions in doing or being a party to the killing.

(2) On a charge of murder, it shall be for the defence to prove that the person charged is by virtue of this section not liable to be convicted of murder.

(3) A person who but for this section would be liable, whether as principal or as accessory, to be convicted of murder shall be liable instead to be convicted of manslaughter."

My eyes were suddenly open wide from surprise. Brandon was let off being charged with murder because his mental condition was considered way too bad for him to be responsible for malice aforethought. Not that it suddenly made any difference to me, but I could now comprehend why Brandon was moved here again and again after such short periods in prison, instead of being punished by the prison officers only for repetitive bad behaviour and cooperation resistance.

Somehow it was liberating for me to read the word manslaughter instead of murder, which I had been acquainted with for so long now. No longer did it in fact matter to me at all what Brandon had and had not done in his past, because I would do everything in my power to help him out of here anyway, but that word seemed so much easier to process in my head in some unexplainable way. Maybe it was a confirmation that even the judicial system thought of Brandon as something else than just a blood-thirsty, malicious murderer.

I kept examining the following paragraphs, trying to educate myself and find the answers I was still searching for regarding the upcoming trial. The nervousness about something going wrong during the process almost tore me apart, but deep within I knew it was worth every risk.

But what worried me the most was the Joseph Acker case. It didn't matter if Arthur pleaded guilty to all the other homicides. It was still an immutable fact that Brandon killed his stepfather, no matter for what reason.

What was even worse was that Brandon was not under the age of eighteen at the time of that offence, which made him liable for the penalty of death if he was to be charged with murder.

"PART 2

Liability To Death Penalty

Punishment for murders not punishable with death, and other consequential provisions:

3) In section fifty-three of the Children and Young Persons Act, 1933, and in section fifty-seven of the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act, 1937, there shall be substituted for subsection (1)

"(1) Sentence of death shall not be pronounced on or recorded against a person convicted of an offence who appears to the court to have been under the age of eighteen years at the time the offence was committed, nor shall any such person be sentenced to imprisonment for life under section nine of the Homicide Act, 1957; but in lieu thereof the court shall (notwithstanding anything in this or any other Act) sentence him to be detained during Her Majesty's pleasure, and if so sentenced he shall be liable to be detained in such place and under such conditions as the Secretary of State may direct."

Stuck in my worrying thoughts, my eyes teared up and blurred the vision of the small Courier letters on the pages in front of me. What if I was about to send Brandon right into his death? What if that was Arthur's purpose? To raise a trial for the murderer of Joseph Acker and therefore watch his son getting sentenced to die.

No one could be that evil, I tried to convince myself. No matter how familiar I was with evilness by now and how many atrocities I had witnessed and overheard, I refused to believe it. Not a parent. Not a genitor. Not a father. He could not be that evil.

Stuck in my thoughts, I suddenly found myself remembering. Nobody knew about the Joseph Acker occasion, except the police and the ones being present at the scene as it happened. There was no way Arthur knew about it, because it had all been silenced. There had been no criminal case made out of it since Dorothy once again managed to talk the police into a plea deal.

Mistakes had been made during the transfer of Acker. Information had been missing, crucial information. The responsible officers had failed to communicate adequately, and it all had turned out to be fateful. Dorothy retained this, smart as she was, and since she didn't want to adventure the reputation of her beloved institution and its safety provisions, she took advantage of the matter since she knew the police department didn't want to risk being called into question at any cost.

Therefore it had been dumbed down, there was no lawsuit, and the death of Joseph Acker had not been officially announced.

So the chances of Arthur even knowing about it were small, which meant that my theory about him wanting the Joseph Acker occasion to lead to Brandon being sentenced to death, couldn't add up.