professional megalomaniac
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Rank: Desk Jockey
Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2011 11:41 pm
Posts: 144
There's been plenty of "Godot comes back from jail to prosecute" cases in the AA fanwork world, so as long as it's within reason, bringing back Godot could be justified to some extent. It would still be admittedly weird for a convicted felon to be at the stand again, but you could say that the terms allowed him to get a lighter sentence and such. If you wanted a dual prosecutor, you could say Klavier or someone was assigned to a team, to keep an eye on him.
Caaaaaaaan't exactly do much about Manfred though, since he's heavily implied to have been executed by JFA. Unless you want to set this trial in an alternate universe or decide to bring in some wonky space-time hijinks.
I'd also consider making a few outlines of both the "truth" of the case as well as the trial procedures. For example, write a quick draft of the crime as it occurred, what evidence it left behind, and what witnesses wound up seeing, and then a second draft of how the trial proceeds and unravels it all.
E.g.
- The crime took place in a two-room apartment with one door. The killer, victim, and defendant are in one room, while the witness is in another.
- The killer drugs the victim and defendant and kills the victim, them begins playing loud music and making noises, so the witness thinks that they're busy partying in the other room. They then use the music player to play sounds of a struggle, making it sound like the murder occurred after it already did. The killer sneaks out the window, then returns just after the witness discovers the crime.
- Witness testifies about the party, says that he left the room, the Defendant and Victim kept partying, until he heard sounds of a struggle and found the victim dead and defendant out cold. He says that the killer wasn't there until after that.
- Phoenix presents autopsy, proving time of death is inconsistent.
- Witness insists they heard something, so Phoenix presents the boombox, and explains it was used to fool him.
- Prosecution asks who could have done this. Indict killer.
- Witness says they didn't show up until after the murder, how could they have done this
- Present window, proving that killer could have snuck in, done the crime, and snuck out.
Something like that. Now, this was a 2-second scenario I just threw together in my head, but it should give an idea of how your trial will flow. This will also help you catch logical inconsistencies, like, "why did the killer even bother returning if they were never suspected in the first place?" This'll also give you something to show other people so they can proofread, critique, and edit.
Good luck.