Chapter 44: Intense! Desperate Counterattack |
Suddenly, a tsunami seemed to sweep through the courtroom, crashing toward the gallery and submerging everyone.
That was right.
The concept of Special Self-Defense meant that when your life was threatened by violence, you could disregard the requirement for ''equal conditions''!
You could counterattack indefinitely. As long as the objective threat to you still existed, even if the assailant did not fight back, you could take the initiative to strike—and even kill them—without bearing responsibility!
"The deceased Li Erniu''s assault escalated into a murderous act, fulfilling the prerequisite for Special Self-Defense."
"Wang Qiang''s actions constitute legitimate self-defense, and he should be acquitted!"
Xu De took a deep breath and slowly took his seat.
His argument was well-founded and heavily cited, but unfortunately...
"Objection!"
"Defense, our argument focuses on the Thirty-Second Window after Wang Qiang exited the vehicle!"
"Not after the victim seized the knife!"
Thirty seconds...
It was those damn thirty seconds again!
Xu De felt a surge of irritation. The prosecutors in this second trial had clearly made a qualitative leap after amending the indictment compared to the first.
Tough... incredibly tough!
"Prosecution, there is no evidence showing that the defendant engaged in intentional acts of hurling insults, scolding, or pursuing within the thirty seconds after exiting the vehicle!"
Xu De argued back vigorously.
"Furthermore, the defendant is of advanced age and needed time to process what had just happened!"
"These thirty seconds were a pause in thought, not an act of provocation!"
It was a mess... everything was in chaos.
Routine, procedural statements were already a thing of the past here. It was obvious that the trial had defaulted into the free debate stage.
Hu Guang refused to back down an inch, his fitted black suit once again radiating an unparalleled, imposing aura.
"Emotion, subjective consciousness, and behavior are inextricably linked!"
His resonant voice was laced with a barrage of questions.
"Your side just stated that the defendant needed time to think before taking action."
"Yet in the testimonies, when the deceased Li Erniu approached with a knife, the defendant—after subjectively thinking for thirty seconds—explicitly assumed a combat stance!"
"Moreover, multiple actions within a single case have continuity."
"Combined with the suspected ''pursuit'' behavior inside the police car..."
Emotion, subjective consciousness, and behavior were practically bundled together.
Put it this way.
Even when the police investigated a case, they judged whether the suspect acted ''intentionally'' based on the injuries inflicted upon the deceased.
If it was intentional, what emotions drove them?
If it was anger, they would investigate the deceased''s social circle to find acquaintances who could trigger such an emotion!
Therefore, working backward from the result...
"In conclusion, the defendant Wang Qiang clearly possessed an ''intentional'' motive during the incident!"
Hu Guang''s words were sharp, striking straight at the vital points.
"Absurd!"
Xu De slammed his hands heavily on the desk. A loud smack echoed in everyone''s ears as he vented his dissatisfaction.
He raised his head, his angry face meeting the gazes of the two prosecutors without retreating a single step.
"Prosecution, I want to emphasize..."
"According to Article 20 of the Dongguo Criminal Law, the legislation on ''legitimate self-defense'' does not include an ''obligation to retreat''."
"There is no law stating that Wang Qiang must step back!"
The law did not stipulate that one had to run away or hide.
If someone attacked you with a knife and you counterattacked reasonably, no one would accuse you of fighting back when you should have fled.
"But it affects the legal judgment!"
Hu Guang shot back immediately. Separated by a distance of nearly ten meters, the two sides turned their words into sharp swords, clashing fiercely above the courtroom.
"''Excessive defense'' has rigid conditions, namely exceeding the necessary limit and causing significant damage!"
"Among these, in judging necessity, ''if the person involved could have easily escaped and was in no danger,'' yet still chose to stay and fight viciously, then it exceeds necessity."
"The defendant Wang Qiang clearly fits the above description!"
The entire statement was delivered flawlessly.
Courtroom One plunged into an eerie silence.
There were nearly five hundred people present, but... it was so quiet right now that they could hear each other''s breathing. Let alone loud conversations, there was not even the slightest whisper or murmur.
The gallery stared blankly at the trial area.
Their faces universally wore expressions of total bewilderment.
As for why...
They could only say that the clash between the prosecution and the defense attorney... all of this had unfolded in a mere five minutes!
Five minutes!
This was not a simple math problem like 1+1. This required memorizing various laws, applying personal interpretation, and simultaneously organizing them into a counterattack against the opponent, all while articulating them clearly!
If there had to be a specific analogy, it would be...
Two martial arts masters exchanging blows back and forth, countering every move, clashing hundreds of times within mere breaths!
Meanwhile, bystanders could not even see the moves clearly; they could only see flashes of light and sparks reflecting off cold iron blades.
Right now, let alone ordinary bystanders, even ordinary ''masters'' could only look dumbfounded.
"What... what school did Lawyer Xu graduate from?"
Wang Chao, a graduate of a top-tier university, felt his eyes twitch as he witnessed this scene. He swallowed hard.
Were his and Xu De''s educational backgrounds really both from top domestic universities? Why hadn''t he learned to be like this?
Did the school hide its best teachings from him!?
"Yan University."
Lin Yue took a deep breath. She reached up to massage her forehead, feeling as if her brain was overloading and running hot. It was obvious that she was also having a hard time keeping up.
But at least she could follow the train of thought.
A moment later, Lin Yue composed herself and turned her gaze back to the trial area.
......
The trial area.
"Whew..."
Sitting at the defense table, Xu De let out a heavy breath and rubbed his temples. He knew he could not keep dragging this out.
His own energy was lacking, but the prosecution could rotate out and drag this on all day.
He had to... attack from a different angle!
With this in mind.
"Presiding Judge."
"The prosecution explicitly stated that the defendant Wang Qiang engaged in unnecessary behavior by not fleeing when he could have."
Xu De did not hesitate. As he submitted the documents in his hands, he spoke from a new angle:
"Regarding this... the defense hereby declares that the law cited by the prosecution is completely unfounded!"
"And what I hold in my hand is the medical examination report of the defendant Wang Qiang, submitted by the prosecution themselves."
After the incident, Wang Qiang''s health was in terrible shape.
How terrible?
Put it this way. The reason the first trial ended on his phrase ''no one saw with their own eyes that the deceased was actively killed by Wang Qiang'' was because...
There really were people beating Wang Qiang at the scene!
The prosecution had no way to prove whether there was third-party intervention during the ''arm wrestling'' over the knife, which was why this retrial was happening now.
And correspondingly...
"According to the descriptions in the medical report, the defendant Wang Qiang suffered severe injuries to multiple parts of his body."
"Including, but not limited to, his elbows, back, the back of his thighs, and between his waist and hips... there are large areas of bruising and trauma!"
"And among them..."
Xu De''s gaze sharpened, swiftly launching his desperate counterattack.
"There is a distinct blunt force trauma mark on the back of Wang Qiang''s head, which nearly killed him on the spot!"
"Based on this injury, it is entirely possible to deduce that after the defendant exited the vehicle, it was not that no one was behind him or that there was no threat. Rather, there was absolutely someone who almost took his life!"
"In summary, the prosecution''s allegations contradict reality. The defendant Wang Qiang was forced to stay and grapple with the deceased, Li Erniu!"
An injury... an injury on the back of the head?
From the shape of the injury, one could determine the angle of force. From the angle of force, one could deduce that someone had been behind him, making it impossible to return to the car quickly and safely.
Thus, the prosecution''s accusation would collapse on its own!
Obviously.
Hu Guang and Wang Wei also realized this and simultaneously found the flaw!
"Objection!"
Wang Wei spoke first. With a stern face, he reprimanded:
"The existing evidence cannot prove that there was someone behind Wang Qiang during the Thirty-Second Window."
"The injury on the back of his head is highly likely to have been caused by someone attacking him from behind while he was already grappling with Li Erniu!"
"Connecting this with the ''attitude'' and ''initiative'' mentioned earlier... the defendant Wang Qiang clearly exhibited intentional assault behavior!"
The injury did exist, but the timing of its occurrence remained a mystery.
No one knew whether there had been someone behind Wang Qiang cutting off his escape route at that time. Without supporting evidence, it could not be proven, and without proof, the trial would lean toward the prosecution.
Moreover.
The case had continuity!
If one point of debate was in doubt, it could be deduced through the various prior actions of the party involved.
Whether it was emotions, actions, the suspected ''pursuit'' inside the police car, or the Thirty-Second Window...
Multiple suspicious points combined could entirely constitute ''intent'' in a judicial sense!
The most crucial thing was...
There was an unwritten rule regarding legitimate self-defense. That is, although the law stated ''equal behavior''—such as if someone slapped you, you could only slap them back in a similar turn-based manner.
But in reality, when courts tried cases... equality did not apply.
In other words, if someone caused you minor injuries, and you fought back, you could only cause them slight injuries or no injuries at all. Only then did it constitute legitimate self-defense!
If you exceeded it, or even matched it, it was basically a choice between excessive defense and mutual combat.
''Phew... the team leader of the First Handling Group of the Second Prosecution Department...''
Xu De watched Hu Guang''s eyes flash. His opponent''s abilities were indeed formidable. After a round of intense back-and-forth, he actually felt a slight sense of mental fatigue.
In contrast, the opponents rotated between two people, keeping their minds calm. This was the disadvantage of fighting as an individual rather than a team; the opponent could simply drag out the time and wear you down!
But... that did not mean they could wear down Xu De!
"May I ask the prosecution, can the personal attitude of the defendant be corroborated through other continuous behaviors!?"
Xu De suddenly changed the subject, firing a question back.
Wang Wei paused, frowning. After thinking for a moment, he nodded and said, "Yes."
If he denied it, then the prosecution''s basis would not stand.
But if he agreed...
"Good!"
Xu De did not hesitate; the dagger is revealed at the end of the scroll. He shifted his tone and brought up a tricky angle that no one had delved into during the first trial.
And that was...
Using the barbarians'' own tricks to subdue them!
"Presiding Judge."
"According to the prosecution, if the case can be arbitrarily judged based on continuity..."
"Then, after the incident led to the fatal struggle, the defendant Wang Qiang suffered severe trauma, bruising, and abrasions!"
"In contrast, the deceased Li Erniu only sustained the lethal injury resulting from his own fatal assault that led to his death. There were no other bruises!"
"So."
"Can this objective evidence prove that the defense did not excessively ''pursue'' the deceased out of an emotional outburst!?"
"Furthermore..."
In the next second, Xu De spoke, saying something incredibly contrary to common sense and logic.
"The defendant Wang Qiang was not arrested after the incident, but rather..."
"Self-surrender!"
Self... self-surrender?
In an instant, everyone at the scene fell silent.
Immediately after, astonishment washed over everyone''s faces as they began to whisper among themselves.
They remembered.
They remembered that during the first trial, Xu De had indeed mentioned that the defendant had surrendered voluntarily. But at that time, all attention had been stolen by the concept of acting bravely for a just cause, so they did not pay much attention to it. They only thought he was saying whatever he could because time was running out.
But looking at it now, he seemed to be serious. But if that was the case...
Self-surrender?
There were seven police officers at the scene, and one of them had even fired a warning shot. How could this be considered self-surrender!?
"May I ask the prosecution, by combining these two pieces of objectively existing information..."
Xu De''s eyes darkened, his face expressionless, a trace of rational calmness in his gaze.
"Can it prove that the defendant subjectively had no malicious intent to assault, no intentional pursuit, possessed a good attitude, and thereby dispels the suspicion of intentional harm!?"
As his words fell.
The entire scene fell into an eerie silence. For a long time, no one could speak.
Until...
In a daze.
The two stunned prosecutors gulped and snapped back to their senses. Immediately, a voice rang out suddenly.
"Objection!!!"
Prosecutor Hu Guang stood up abruptly, his eyes locked onto Xu De as if trying to see right through him.
He slammed his hands on the table, emitting a loud smack.
"Defense, after the incident, the scene was already under control, and there were at least seven police officers present. The defendant was less than two meters away from the police, so the defendant Wang Qiang..."
"Absolutely did not self-surrender!"
Self-surrender? Seven cops plus a warning shot...
Hu Guang simply did not believe that Xu De could actually find an angle that constituted self-surrender under these conditions!