[Action] Trial, day 3
The gavel banged for the final time that day.
The next...and probably final...court date was set for a month from now.
The defendant, it would be noted by the reporters, had to be escorted from the courtroom. And unlike the few times he had to be silenced during today's hearing, it seemed as if he had lost the drive to move on his own.
Things were going completely wrong. After...after all of the nice words everyone had last week, the first person to go up to the stand was the mother. While she was speaking, he just...he just couldn't help himself from speaking out. The things she claimed he had done to her son weren't right. They weren't true. They were...disgusting and wrong and complete and utter lies! But the judge and the lawyer forced him to hold his words in while the jury looked at him like he was a monster and the news cameras rolled on.
After her came the experts, and that was where the circus started. Each one giving "facts" on people in "his situation" and the number of children who went each year through this horrible tragedy and the likelihood of an "uneducated man with a criminal history" to take advantage of the blind trust of children. Antonio sat through their slander while something cold and sour roiled around in the pit of his stomach. His lawyer was trying his best to turn this around for him, to prove that there was no evidence for his guilt.
But he was unable to provide proof of his innocence either. And the experts had "facts".
The rest of the day dragged on in a similar way, Antonio's hope growing dimmer with each scathing remark and blow to his character. Because he was able to see now, that it wasn't about whether or not he had actually done anything wrong. It was about winning a popularity contest with the panel of twelve strangers. And he was currently not in their favor. There probably wasn't any way for him to do it, either.
So that was it.
His life was...essentially over. The nice job, the happy home he had started to build, his reputation, his relationship with his family...all of them were about to be taken away. He would go to jail. And there was essentially nothing he could do to stop it.
The next...and probably final...court date was set for a month from now.
The defendant, it would be noted by the reporters, had to be escorted from the courtroom. And unlike the few times he had to be silenced during today's hearing, it seemed as if he had lost the drive to move on his own.
Things were going completely wrong. After...after all of the nice words everyone had last week, the first person to go up to the stand was the mother. While she was speaking, he just...he just couldn't help himself from speaking out. The things she claimed he had done to her son weren't right. They weren't true. They were...disgusting and wrong and complete and utter lies! But the judge and the lawyer forced him to hold his words in while the jury looked at him like he was a monster and the news cameras rolled on.
After her came the experts, and that was where the circus started. Each one giving "facts" on people in "his situation" and the number of children who went each year through this horrible tragedy and the likelihood of an "uneducated man with a criminal history" to take advantage of the blind trust of children. Antonio sat through their slander while something cold and sour roiled around in the pit of his stomach. His lawyer was trying his best to turn this around for him, to prove that there was no evidence for his guilt.
But he was unable to provide proof of his innocence either. And the experts had "facts".
The rest of the day dragged on in a similar way, Antonio's hope growing dimmer with each scathing remark and blow to his character. Because he was able to see now, that it wasn't about whether or not he had actually done anything wrong. It was about winning a popularity contest with the panel of twelve strangers. And he was currently not in their favor. There probably wasn't any way for him to do it, either.
So that was it.
His life was...essentially over. The nice job, the happy home he had started to build, his reputation, his relationship with his family...all of them were about to be taken away. He would go to jail. And there was essentially nothing he could do to stop it.