Chapter 50: Riding the Crest of Success! Soaring Ambitions! |
Not guilty...
A verdict of not guilty!!!
The moment those two words fell, a deathly silence gripped the entire courtroom.
Everyone was frozen in shock.
Dongguo was a populous nation, occupying nearly half the continent with a vast territory of 9.601 million square kilometers and a massive population of 1.28 billion. Even on a global scale, its demographic proportion was staggering.
A large population meant frequent conflicts.
Over a single year of three hundred and sixty-five days, the national public security bureaus filed 4.33 million criminal cases.
Thousands of courts tried 730,000 criminal cases annually. Yet, out of all those...
Only five criminal cases where the defendant was confirmed to have killed someone would result in a not-guilty verdict!
It was fewer than five. Throughout the entire year of 2002, out of those 730,000 cases, there would likely be only three confirmed homicide cases where a not-guilty verdict was declared!
And for those three cases, the defense attorneys standing before the defendants...
They would either hail from the elite Red Circle law firms of Yanjing, or they would be top-tier international legal teams with profound backgrounds, iron-clad methods, and formidable teamwork!
It required over a dozen industry-leading, highly influential figures working around the defendant for an entire year to achieve such a result!
Yet, in 2002, for a defendant who had definitively committed homicide, a lawyer without a team, relying purely on personal capability to brutally shatter the established principles of the prosecution and the judges to achieve an acquittal...
Let alone seeing it.
It was absolutely unheard of!
But now, they had seen it... witnessed it with their own eyes!!!
"Not... not guilty..."
In a daze, someone in the gallery swallowed hard, subconsciously muttering those two words.
This was like a single stone stirring a thousand ripples. The once-dead courtroom gradually grew restless, and the commotion swelled into a chaotic uproar that was utterly impossible to suppress!
"Not guilty? Truly not guilty? Am I dreaming!?"
"It is real... Unbelievable... This is simply a miracle! A one-in-several-hundred-thousand chance just played out right before our eyes!"
"When was the last time a murder case ended in an acquittal?"
"The Huang Xin case. A rape and murder case, acquitted right in court..."
"In that case, the residual DNA found on the victim did not match his. But in the Lijia Village case... it was absolutely clear that the killer was Wang Qiang!!!"
"..."
Suddenly, as if a critical threshold had been reached, an uproar broke out inside Courtroom One, the deafening noise drowning out the entire scene like a flash flood.
Some were shocked, some bewildered, while others covered their mouths, their faces full of sheer disbelief.
Acquittals in criminal cases did exist.
However, there was basically only one way to achieve one: shattering the chain of evidence the prosecutor used for the accusation!
That is to say, only when it was impossible to prove the defendant killed the victim would the judge declare them not guilty.
But to secure a not-guilty verdict when the chain of evidence was robust and it was absolutely certain the defendant was the killer... one could not find a single reference case even looking back ten years. It was completely unheard of!
With this thought in mind, the crowd became even more agitated. Their blood ran hot, and the uproar gradually devolved into a clamorous racket, a complete mess.
"When I came to court, I was hoping the defendant would get an exemption from punishment... and even that felt impossible!"
"That is already optimistic. I came here hoping for a suspended sentence..."
"Damn it, it is not just you guys. Looking solely at the first trial, even a suspended sentence was out of reach. He would have gotten a few years in prison at the very least. But during this session... that defense lawyer was as fierce as if he had been running on rocket fuel!"
At this point, the crowd paused to think, their breathing turning ragged as they shuddered with excitement.
It was true.
Based on the previous trial''s performance, a lighter sentence was entirely possible and totally acceptable.
But who would have thought... the moment court convened, the defense lawyer went straight for the prosecution''s throat, dismissing every single basis of their accusations with an absolutely crushing display!
He even submitted a mountain of favorable materials, which, when stacked together, meant the heaviest possible penalty would merely be an exemption from punishment!
What was an exemption from punishment? It meant acknowledging guilt but not requiring the serving of a sentence. There would not be a single day of prison time, and not even a verbal apology was required. It was no different from being released right in court.
Thinking of this, the crowd''s gazes gradually grew fervent as they subconsciously looked toward the defense table, fixing their eyes on that youthful, straight-backed figure.
Just seeing him standing there filled them with intense excitement, as if they possessed endless energy with nowhere to vent it.
On the bench, Presiding Judge Zhang Bingxin continuously slammed his gavel, rebuking sternly in an attempt to stabilize the scene.
But unfortunately, his voice was like a raindrop falling into the ocean, failing to raise even the slightest ripple and perhaps even making the clamor grow louder.
Zhang Bingxin suddenly felt emotionally drained. A look of helplessness crossed his face, and he finally gave up on maintaining order.
He simply stated directly, "If you do not accept this judgment, you may file an appeal through this court or directly to the Greenwood City Intermediate People''s Court within ten days from the second day of receiving the written verdict."
"I now declare..."
"Court is adjourned!"
With those words spoken, Zhang Bingxin did not want to stay a single moment longer. He immediately walked out, with Liu Guojian and Sun Dong following closely behind.
At the defense table...
The moment the verdict was announced, the taut string in Xu De''s mind completely relaxed. His readiness to file an appeal and continue the brutal fight vanished into thin air.
"Phew."
He slumped back in his chair and let out a deep, heavy breath. His entire vitality seemed completely drained in this instant, leaving him feeling utterly exhausted.
He had won...
From the moment the verdict was spoken, the curtain had officially fallen on this case.
The High Court and the Supreme Court would not reject this reasonable defense. Wang Qiang was entirely exonerated. The prosecution naturally would not initiate a second trial, and the plaintiff would not be able to find enough evidence to file for one.
Therefore...
It was an absolute victory!
"The pressure was a bit much," Xu De regained his senses, only to realize that his sharp, tailored suit was now completely soaked in sweat. He could not help but let out a wry chuckle.
A not-guilty defense in 2002 and a not-guilty defense in the future of 2026 were on completely different levels of difficulty.
Or rather, it was the emergence of the ''Brother Long Case'' eighteen years later that indirectly awakened the dormant provisions for acquittals, causing the difficulty of a not-guilty defense to plummet.
The year 2002 was tough. Especially for someone like Wang Qiang who had genuinely killed a person. There would not be another acquittal case for years to come.
It was incredibly difficult.
But... he had done it after all!
Of course, to a certain extent, Presiding Judge Zhang Bingxin had also announced the verdict while bearing the pressure of ''political factors''. After all, in this day and age, he really might end up suffering a reprimand because of it.
At this thought, Xu De raised his head. Shedding his previous solemnity and caution, he puffed out his chest, straightened his back, and glanced at the prosecution table not far away.
At the prosecution table, Wang Wei looked like a defeated rooster. He sighed, packed up his belongings, and silently retreated from the courtroom alongside Hu Guang.
Xu De withdrew his gaze, a smile gracing his face.
He then stood up, walked over to the defendant''s box, and spoke to the two stunned bailiffs beside Wang Qiang, "Please undo his handcuffs."
Hearing this, the two bailiffs finally snapped out of their daze.
"Oh, right!"
The two men frantically began unlocking the handcuffs.
Declared not guilty and released in court, there was no longer any need for handcuffs. The defendant was an innocent man; once the paperwork was done, he could go straight home.
Click!
With the crisp sound of the spring, the shackles binding Wang Qiang''s withered wrists fell open.
Wang Qiang only felt his hands lighten. He looked down at his empty wrists, his eyes completely glassy and his mind completely blank, not yet realizing what had happened.
Pat!
Xu De patted his shoulder and softly said, "Come with me to go through the procedures."
Everything felt like a dream to Wang Qiang.
He did not know when the court adjourned, nor did he know what else this deeply merciful ''savior'' beside him was saying. As if he had lost his soul, he wandered about in a daze, guided by the lawyer to process the release paperwork.
Merely an hour later...
Whoosh!
When Wang Qiang came to his senses, he found himself wearing his simple clothes, standing on the high platform right at the court''s main entrance.
He looked up.
A piercing light shone on his face, making him instinctively block it, though the rays slipped through his fingers, causing him to squint.
He looked down.
Watching the heavy traffic outside the courthouse, he felt the incredibly gentle wind brush over his skin as it whistled by.
Wang Qiang was transfixed.
He felt like he was dreaming, as if he were living in an illusion. It was all so unbelievable. Just two days prior in the Detention Center, the other ''suspects'' had told him to prepare for a ten-year sentence.
Wang Qiang turned around, staring blankly at the calm and collected Xu De beside him.
And yet, right now...
The shackles were gone.
The crime... was also gone.
His daughter, whom he had searched for over a decade... was reunited with him.
If this was a dream... let him never wake up, for reality would be too cruel.
In the very next second...
A multitude of dark figures clutching microphones suddenly swarmed toward them from the courthouse entrance. Accompanied by the flashing lights of countless cameras, the crowd of figures engulfed the two men in the blink of an eye.
"Lawyer Xu! Lawyer Xu, please accept an interview with us!"
"Lawyer Xu, I am a reporter from Phoenix Press. Our editor-in-chief would like to invite you for an exclusive interview. What do you think..."
"Lawyer Xu, could you talk about your mental journey through this case!?"
"May I ask what your mindset was when you chose to take on this case, when absolutely no one had hope for it and no one dared to accept it!?"
"Mr. Wang, do you have anything you would like to say right now?"
"We are the Zhulang News Network..."
"..."
Waves of overwhelming, frantic, and feverish clamor completely drowned the two men in an ocean of noise.