Chapter 46: Pleading Not Guilty! |
"A wit... witness!?"
The moment those two words rang out, the reactions in the courtroom varied wildly.
The presiding judge frowned in deep thought.
Hu Guang and Wang Wei, the prosecutors who had been ready to say something, briefly froze. As if suddenly realizing something, their lips moved, but they ultimately remained silent.
As for the ''plaintiffs,'' Li Youcai and Liu Cui...
They had been listening from the gallery this whole time. Now, blank expressions washed over their faces, entirely unable to fathom who this witness could possibly be.
Whispers erupted through the gallery.
"A witness? The defense actually has a witness? Didn''t they say only people from Lijia Village were at the crime scene..."
"In the first trial, the credibility of the testimonies favoring the prosecution was less than twenty percent. And now, the defense pulls out a witness on their side..."
"Doubtful..."
"..."
A restless murmur swept through the room.
Sitting amidst the crowd, reporter Zhang Xia furrowed her brow as she listened to the rising commotion.
She had investigated this case thoroughly. It was true that no one else was reportedly present at the scene besides the three involved parties. Theoretically, there shouldn''t be any witness stepping up for the defendant.
She kept watching, remaining completely silent.
Up on the judge''s bench.
Bang!
"Order in the court!"
Zhang Bingxin took a deep breath, executing a rare intervention to restore order.
His imposing authority instantly crushed the unrest. The courtroom fell silent as every eye turned toward the bench.
Zhang Bingxin spoke.
"Defense, is the witness present?"
Xu De nodded, answering directly, "The witness is currently waiting in the courthouse witness room, ready to be summoned at any time."
Hearing this, Zhang Bingxin did not waste another second and struck his gavel.
Clack!
"Summon the witness!"
The words fell.
The gaze of everyone in the room snapped toward the side door of the trial area. They stared at the entrance with furrowed brows, internally guessing the identity of this mystery witness.
A moment later, the rustle of approaching footsteps reached their ears.
Eyebrows shot up. A second later, two bailiffs pushed the doors open.
Creak.
A slight woman, dressed in faded, overworn clothes, walked in with a timid and restless gaze.
The judge and the prosecutors observed her with calculating eyes, but the plaintiffs suddenly became highly agitated.
"Li Li!!!"
From the plaintiff''s section, Li Youcai and Liu Cui suddenly shrieked.
They stared at Li Li in sheer disbelief, their faces etched with shock and bewilderment.
Who was Li Li?
She was their relative''s daughter, someone they were usually on great terms with. How could she possibly appear in court to testify for the defense?
Of course, that wasn''t what truly set them off. It was something else entirely.
"You actually dare show your face in court!?"
"You cheap slut, I''ll tear that ugly face right off your skull!"
Li Youcai and Liu Cui twisted their faces into furious snarls. Completely disregarding courtroom decorum, they tried to scramble out of their seats to lunge at Li Li.
They hated her. They hated her enough to kill her!
They had entrusted their grandson to her care, and what did she do? She handed the child over to Wang Mei!
Because of her, they had been forced to sign the letter of forgiveness. Because of her, they barely received any compensation. Everything was her fault!
Li Li was guided to the witness stand. Hearing the uproar, she shrank back with a guilty conscience.
But that guilt quickly melted into irritation, and she glared right back at them with wide eyes.
"Silence! Silence!"
Zhang Bingxin took a deep breath, suppressing his rising anger.
"Plaintiffs, control your emotions immediately. If you disrupt the proceedings again, I have the authority to eject you from this courtroom!"
Ejected from the courtroom...
Hearing that threat, Li Youcai and Liu Cui finally clamped their mouths shut, full of bitter resentment. However, their furious, bloodshot eyes never left Li Li.
"Witness, please verify your identity. Are you Li Li from Lijia Village, Greenwood City, ID number..."
Zhang Bingxin shifted his complete attention back to Li Li.
Initially, Li Li had been a bit intimidated by Li Youcai and Liu Cui.
But right now, all she wanted was to see those two face judgment. Her fear transformed into indignance, and she quickly replied.
"That''s me!"
Zhang Bingxin nodded. After a moment''s thought, he asked his question.
"Witness, please tell the court. During the time of the incident, when Wang Qiang and Li Erniu were engaged in a struggle, where were you located?"
Li Li answered, "I was just watching from the side... I even saw people smashing the police car. I saw it all."
Having confirmed her presence, Zhang Bingxin cut straight to the chase.
"Witness."
"After Wang Qiang pushed Li Erniu out of the vehicle, did you see... someone standing behind Wang Qiang? And did this person wield a weapon, attempting to assault him!?"
The moment that question dropped, the courtroom plunged back into dead silence.
Everyone held their breath. It was so quiet they could clearly hear the pounding of their own hearts. All eyes were locked dead onto Li Li at the witness stand.
Even Xu De stood expressionless. He swallowed hard, his hands unconsciously clenching into fists.
Li Li was his witness.
But that did not mean she would say exactly what he wanted her to say. These questions were entirely impromptu. No one knew if Li Li actually held the answers the court needed.
And her response, if it aligned with Xu De''s defense, would dictate the absolute final direction of this entire trial!
Hu Guang and Wang Wei stared at her intensely.
In this suffocatingly quiet atmosphere...
"Someone behind him?"
Li Li finally spoke, her voice reaching the ears of the over four hundred people present. She frowned and said, "I... I don''t know about that. I didn''t pay attention."
She didn''t know?
Everyone''s heart skipped a beat. At the defense desk, Xu De exhaled a sigh, his mind racing to formulate a new countermeasure.
But then!
"However, I think I remember, right when that man first tried to leave, it seemed like someone struck him," Li Li suddenly spoke up again. "Maybe I remembered it wrong, but I definitely recall him almost falling over, and that''s when Erniu tackled him to the ground. As for who hit him or where he got hit, I don''t know."
The words fell.
Abruptly, Xu De''s head snapped up. He stared directly at Li Li on the witness stand.
''The defendant, Wang Qiang, was struck when he tried to leave... he was struck!''
This simple sentence echoed and swirled through everyone''s minds.
He exhaled a long, deep breath.
When he looked up again, a faint smile had crept onto his face. A smile of pure, unadulterated relief.
Pleading not guilty might seem like a common occurrence in movies and TV shows, but actually pulling it off in reality was incredibly difficult.
How difficult?
Put it this way: any case that actually makes it to court has already gone through the prosecutor''s office, filtered and scrutinized every step of the way!
Because of this rigorous pre-screening, combined with the judicial climate of presumption of guilt or seeking lighter sentences in cases of doubt, the conviction rate in courts in 2002 was 99.4%.
That meant out of a thousand cases, only six had any chance of ending in an acquittal. Saying it was as hard as scaling the heavens was no exaggeration.
And that statistic even included cases with broken chains of evidence, questionable proof, or pure false accusations that fell apart easily in court!
Furthermore, that applied to all criminal cases, not strictly homicides.
When it came to a fatality, a criminal case where it was explicitly clear the defendant killed someone, the acquittal rate was infinitely close to zero!
It couldn''t even be described by probabilities. It was a rare, extreme, and completely unreplicable judicial anomaly!
And right now, Xu De might just hook his finger around that probability infinitely close to zero, and drag it into the realm of the possible.
"Presiding Judge."
Amidst the silence, a voice rang out from the defense table.
"The facts of the case are now abundantly clear."
"The defendant, Wang Qiang, harbored no subjective intent to cause injury, nor did he engage in excessive pursuit..."
"The arguments presented by the prosecution lack objective factual basis, are unsupported by evidence, contradict the truth of this case, and are purely subjective conjecture. They must not be accepted!"
"Therefore, the defense now formally requests..."
Xu De spoke. He raised his head, staring calmly at the three figures in their judicial robes seated high upon the bench.
There was no joy on his face, no anxiety, and no anger. Only a tranquility as deep as a still pool of water.
He spoke, his voice not loud, yet piercing every ear in the room.
"The dismissal of all charges brought forward by the prosecution!"
The moment his voice faded, a shockwave ripped through the courtroom. Over four hundred people trembled as the deathly still trial suddenly roared back to ''life''.
Hot blood surged back through their veins, pumping wildly into their racing hearts.
At the defendant''s seat, Wang Qiang, who had been sitting with his head bowed, staring at his handcuffed wrists, suddenly froze. A moment later, his head jerked up, staring at the figure standing at the defense desk.
He saw it.
Xu De''s sharp, burning gaze was locked onto the prosecutors. Though he stood alone, his imposing aura did not yield an inch.
The charges were fundamentally demolished. All angles and suspicions were negated. No matter how skilled Hu Guang and Wang Wei were, there was no longer any room left for them to maneuver.
And he was still holding a massive pile of advantageous evidence.
Since that was the case, from this moment forward...
The hunter and the hunted had switched places!
Xu De looked up at the three imposing figures seated high upon the judge''s bench.
It was time... to dial up the pressure on the judges!!!