Dear Lawyer | Jikook ff

41 - Manson Case (iii)

Henry Mile was removed from the courtroom and the witness stand was once again vacant. Bard was only startled back to attention by the sound of the judge's gavel.

The one item that should have been most advantageous to him, the one item most able to convince the jury to side with him, had been branded as noncredible evidence just like that. 

42 hours of wakefulness without rest, when extrapolated to arrive at a logical conclusion, was worse than a simple lack of sobriety. How did you keep the suspect awake when he was drowsy? How did you induce him to keep talking when he was over-exhausted? How did you tear down his psychological defences and break his will?

If it was a sharp-tongued and smart counsel, he could even weave this 42 hours in the direction of torture.

But that intern didn't. Just as if he were having a friendly sparring session, he stopped right at the fringe.

Bard directed a hard look at the defence table. Frankly, if he was the opposing counsel, he would have pressed this issue to his advantage and not finished until he squeezed the maximum value out of those 42 hours. If he wanted to win, he had to leverage on every opportunity to turn the tables and nail down the other side.

After all, a nail was a nail. In this profession, the victor was the king.

It was the decade-long experience he had accumulated fighting lawsuits... Of course, this couldn't even be called experience. To everyone, it was common sense, probably.

His thoughts roving, he scanned the courtroom, inadvertently meeting Brewer Manson's hawk-like gaze. At once, he hastily dropped his gaze and straightened his expression, focusing his attention back on the case.

Soon, a new witness was called up to the stand. Bard had already risen at the judge's prompt to begin his examination.

There were still people whispering in the courtroom. Jungkook could hear them even without turning his head, coming from Brewer Manson's subordinates and assistants. The few words that he could vaguely catch were in the same tangent as Prosecutor Bard's thoughts. Only Brewer Manson himself didn't respond, staying utterly silent.

The doubts that Bard had now, after another decade, he would probably ask no more.

The only people who could fully understand Jimin's approach in this courtroom were Jungkook and, perhaps, the senior judge.

Jimin had said this a long time ago: the members of the jury weren't fools. They were people chosen from all walks of life, representing the diversity of the populace, with contrary and colliding ideologies. But no matter what, one thing was for sure. They must possess a certain level of judgement to be regarded as people capable of upholding justice.

They didn't need to be preached to, and they didn't need to be spoonfed ideas. To an extent, these people had their own pride. Not everyone was entitled to sit on a jury and decide a person's freedom or life and death. It was only natural that they had their own pride.

Prideful people didn't swallow down ideas that were foisted upon them. They would resist, reject, and even rebel.

So, it was good to stop at that point. The follow-up questions that Bard could think of, the jury could too.

And what they could think of themselves would always be better than what was shoved down their throats.

Apart from that, there was perhaps another point...

A point that even the judge didn't grasp...

Jimin was looking towards the prosecution table, listening to Bard question the witness. Whilst from the corner of his eye, Jungkook seemed to be looking right at him.