Luo Jialan felt more confident and sat up straighter.
Then the heavy door of court No. 1 closed silently.
It was time for the trial.
The judge knocked on the gavel for the first time and solemnly announced, “The case of the prosecutor’s office accusing Luo Jialan of intentional homicide has officially begun. We will now check the identity of the plaintiff and the defendant.”
Since it was a criminal felony, it was necessary to verify their identities in court. In addition to checking fingerprints and irises, they also took each other’s blood for DNA testing.
The latter took a longer time, but it was also one of the evidence that had to be archived.
The court nurse came over and took a drop of both Luo Jialan’s and Song Jinning’s blood and put them in a small test tube.
“The fingerprints match, the irises match, and the DNA test results will be released in a few days. I now announce that the trial has begun. Prosecutor, you may begin the briefing.”
The judge looked at the test report that had been delivered to him and signed his name. At the same time, he asked the prosecutor to give a brief account of the case.
The prosecutor sat with Gu Nianzhi and Song Jinning, but he was seated on the far left. Song Jinning was in the middle, and Gu Nianzhi was on the far right.
When the judge asked the prosecutor to stand up and give a brief account of the case, he stood up calmly.
“Your honor, ladies and gentlemen of the court, Hello. I am the prosecutor who accused Luo Jialan of intentional homicide.”
“The defendant, Ms. Luo Jialan, was accused of attempting to harm and kill Ms. Song Jinning during the past 10 years when she was taking care of Ms. Song Jinning, who had been mentally insane due to her serious injury.”
“The defendant, Luo Jialan, had the motive and conduct. Therefore, our court filed a case and accused Luo Jialan of intentional homicide against Ms. Song Jinning.”
After the prosecutor’s brief statement, the judge looked at Luo Jialan and Cai Shengnan who were sitting in the dock. “Ladies and gentlemen, do you agree with the prosecutor’s accusation?”
Of course, they didn’t agree. This was just a question the judge asked according to procedure.
Cai Shengnan stood up calmly with a graceful smile on her face. She said, “Your honor, we don’t agree with the prosecutor’s accusation. As Ms. Luo Jialan’s representative lawyer, I want to plead Ms. Luo Jialan’s innocence.”
The judge nodded and asked her to sit down. He looked at the plaintiff’s side and asked, “Prosecutor, what do you have to say?”
The prosecutor was a public official of the prosecutor’s office, but the prosecutor’s office had already sent out their own lawyer for the prosecution, Gu Nianzhi.
Therefore, the prosecutor wouldn’t argue with the defendant directly.
He stood up and said, “Our court has delegated full authority to the plaintiff’s lawyer, Ms. Gu Nianzhi. We request the court’s approval.”
The judge looked at Gu Nianzhi’s information and nodded in agreement. “Counselor, please state your case.”
Gu Nianzhi also stood up and nodded politely at the people in the courtroom, then said, “On behalf of the prosecutor’s office and the plaintiff, Ms. Song Jinning, I accuse the defendant, Luo Jialan, of conspiring to murder a woman, Song Jinning, who had suffered severe brain trauma over the past ten years and was mentally deranged and unable to act on her own.”
Luo Jialan shot a sidelong glance at Song Jinning, who was gracefully sitting upright, and she felt disdain from the bottom of her heart.
In reality, it was indeed difficult for her to take Song Jinning seriously.
Although Song Jinning had already recovered, to Luo Jialan, for the past 10 years, Song Jinning had always been a fool who always thought that she was 18 years old and could be easily crushed by her.
Over the past ten years, she had seen Song Jinning’s husband, Huo Guanchen, fall out of love with her. Even though they lived under the same roof, he didn’t care about Song Jinning at all. He had even intentionally allowed her to torture Song Jinning.
As for Song Jinning’s son, Huo Shaoheng, he had also left. The number of times he had returned home in the past ten years could be counted on one hand.
In the past seven years, other than last Christmas, he hadn’t returned home once.
How could she believe that Huo Shaoheng also took Song Jinning seriously as his mother?
Although Luo Jialan found out about Huo Shaoheng’s ten-year plan to defeat Bai Jinyi in one move and send her to prison during the case in the beginning of last year, she still stubbornly believed that Huo Shaoheng had done it to seek justice for her mother, Luo Xinxue. Song Jinning simply benefited from the glory as his mother.
Therefore, even though she was sitting in court, Luo Jialan was still in disbelief.
She looked at Gu Nianzhi with hatred in her eyes.
It was all because of her.
Huo Shaoheng had allowed her to do whatever she wanted because Gu Nianzhi had insisted on getting revenge for Song Jinning.
Luo Jialan didn’t believe a single word that Huo Shaoheng had said about his affection for Song Jinning.
After all these years, Huo Shaoheng had never called Song Jinning “Mother” or “Mom” again. He had only called her “Madam Song.” Luo Jialan believed her judgment was correct.
She told Cai Shengnan everything in detail.
When Cai Shengnan heard about so many of the Huo family’s secrets, she was ecstatic. She listened very carefully, and even used the excuse of keeping a record as evidence. Not only did she record the audio and video, but she also wrote a written document, then asked Luo Jialan to sign it with her fingerprint to prove that everything was true.
After understanding everything, Cai Shengnan and her father, Cai Sumin, deliberated and checked many things, then finally came up with a defense plan.
Defending a murder case involved nothing more than those three ironclad laws.
As long as they were used properly, murder wouldn’t be a crime.
Gu Nianzhi calmly stood up from the plaintiff’s stand and continued to speak with confidence.
“Seventeen years ago, Ms. Song Jinning suffered serious injuries during the experiment, which resulted in damage to her brain’s local mechanisms. Her memory and cognition were severely impaired. Professional psychologists verified that she was indeed a severely mentally ill person with no ability to act.”
“Eleven years ago, Ms. Luo Jialan, who was still called Huo Jialan back then, was the adopted daughter of the military hero Huo Guanyuan. Huo Guanyuan was the elder brother of Mr. Huo Guichen, Ms. Song Jinning’s ex-husband. In other words, Ms. Luo Jialan was Ms. Song Jinning’s niece at that time.
“Eleven years ago, Ms. Luo Jialan’s mother, Luo Xinxue, was murdered by Bai Jinyi. Luo Jialan left her mother to die while idly standing by.
“Objection. Bai Jinyi and Luo Xinxue’s case has nothing to do with this case. Counsel for the prosecution, please do not make presumptions.”
Cai Shengnan heard Gu Nianzhi bring up the death of Luo Jialan’s biological mother, Luo Xinxue, and quickly spoke up to stop her.
From Cai Shengnan’s point of view, that was Luo Jialan’s most passive act.
Leaving her mother to die was a cruel and merciless act in the eyes of many people.
If Gu Nianzhi were to force this matter into the minds of the judges and the military observers, it would be even more difficult for her to argue.
After Gu Nianzhi was interrupted by Cai Shengnan, she paused for a moment before continuing, “Your honor, I will prove that these two cases are related.”
“Bai Jinyi has already been sentenced. Counsel for the prosecution, do you not understand the meaning of ‘double jeopardy’? In that case, my client was only an important witness, and she was also a poor daughter who was deceived by Bai Jinyi and had no choice but to idly watch her own mother die. She had already been traumatized because of that incident, and she had endured extreme mental anguish. Counselor, please don’t use that incident to stir up my client’s emotions.”
Luo Jialan burst into tears.
Tears streaming down her face, she burst out crying at will. Her grief appeared sincere.
Some people were already showing signs of sympathy.
Gu Nianzhi was still very calm as she said, “Lawyer Cai, first of all, the ‘double jeopardy’ clause only applies to a defendant who has been sentenced. In other words, you might be able to bring up that clause for the defendant in that case, Bai Jinyi, but it doesn’t apply to Luo Jialan, who was only a witness at the time.”
“Second of all, our Huaxia Empire does not have the ‘double jeopardy’ clause. Our principle is to seek truth from facts, and correct mistakes wherever they occur. Therefore, the court does not need to pay any attention to your proposal of ‘double jeopardy’.”
As if she had been slapped in the face in court, Cai Shengnan’s face was burning!
She hadn’t expected Gu Nianzhi to react so quickly. She knew all sorts of legal systems like the back of her hand, and could come up with conceptual theories so easily.
The corners of her mouth twitched a few times, and she sat down unwillingly. She was ten times more alert, and trying to find a loophole in Gu Nianzhi’s arguments, she continued to perk up her ears.
