A Short Story Collection #Wattys2018

A Judge and a Lawyer Part 1

Write a short dialogue in French between a judge and a lawyer.   Make sure it has at least 5 lines with more than one word each. It can have phrases that describe the crime, a verdict, etc.

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Judge: Your client is accused of killing his three-week-old girlfriend. How does he plead?

Lawyer: Guilty Your Honor.

Judge: I'm sorry what?

Lawyer: He pleads guilty to committing the crime. He did it in self-defense.

Judge: Self-defense, do you say? So let's listen to the case.

Counsel: Certainly, Your Honor. My client was planning to break up with his girlfriend after finding that her behavior was disturbing.

Judge: Disturbing how?

Lawyer: Well, your honor. There are documents according to which his girlfriend dreamed of murdering. He found it horrifying and started cutting his ties.

Judge: How were these dreams described and cataloged?

Lawyer: She kept a journal of her dreams to give to her psychologist once a month. She described in detail the different ways to kill him in his dreams. This included the weather and the clothes they wore.

Judge: Why do you think this is important?

Lawyer: Because, Your Honor. These details exactly match what happened.

Judge:  For the clarity of the jury and the people here in this courtroom, lay out the events of that night according to the information the police uncovered and your client’s account.

Lawyer:  It had been snowing, and my client’s car had spun out of control.  He was able to safely stop but thought it wouldn’t be good to continue driving and called for his brother to come pick him up.  My client was waiting his car and had put on his blue hoodie to keep him warm while he waited. Not long after this happened, a car slowed down next to him, and a woman stepped out.  It was the victim in question. My client was understandable frightened by this as he had read the contents of her dream journal, and the two had conversations on this matter. He tried to turn his car back on but found that it wouldn’t start.  He then decided to climb out of his truck and run away from her. As noted on the crime scene, there were two types of bullet shells found in the snow. One was from a ?? caliber bullet and the other from a !! caliber bullet. My client was shot in the leg from the !! caliber bullet which was from the gun with the victim’s fingerprints on it.  She was also found with gunpowder residue from said gun. The bullet fragment found in my client’s leg matches up. It was then that he pulled his concealed gun from his waist and fired back at her. From the evidence from examining the body provided by the coroner, the ?? caliber bullet was found in the victim which matches the gun my client had.

Judge:  How do we know that he was shot first or that the journal she had wasn’t made up?

Lawyer:  This is easy to explain.  We have brought the victim’s psychologist as a witness to testify that the notebook with the thoughts in question is legitimate and actually written by the victim.  As for the question of who shot first, the police and medical examiners determined that the victim died upon being shot as my client hit one of her major heart arteries without realizing it.  She would have bled out and died quite quickly making it impossible for her to get her gun and then shoot my client afterwords.

Judge:  So you say that your client didn’t know what he was doing correct?  How do we know that he didn’t aim where he did on purpose? If that’s true, then he would have knowingly and willingly killed her.

Lawyer:  While my client has a concealed carry license, he isn’t as good with a gun as one with such license should be.  I have with me here his records of his going to the shooting range to practice with the guns that he owns. At the time of getting his license, he had been going to the range for roughly a year and continued to go up until roughly two years ago.  Since some time has passed since he used a gun, my client was no longer used to the gun that he had. Because of this, when he aimed to fire back in defense, he was thrown off balance by the gun and the bullet went flying into a place that happened to cause quite a bit of damage.

Prosecution:  Objection Your Honor!  The defendant still knows how to use a gun and is knowledgeable of them.  Who’s to say that the Defense is lying and that the defendant truly does know what he is doing?

Judge:  Is there any way that the Defense can provide evidence to back up their claim?

Lawyer:  Certainly Your Honor.  I’ve brought in a ballistic analyst with me along with two employees from the gun range that my client used to go to.  We also recorded a video showing the proper way to use a gun with these employees and the way my client uses it. The analyst also brought in a display showing the trajection and pathway the bullet took to cause the death of the victim.

Judge:  You seem to have thought of everything Mr. Lawson.

Lawyer:  Why of course, Your Honor.  I’m here to prove everyone in the courtroom that my client is innocent and that if he didn’t act we’d all be listening to a very different trial right now.

[A projection screen is set up with the video taken by the defense playing.  After the video is done, the ballistic analyst sets up his display board and begins giving his explanation.]

Ballistic Analyst:  As you can see, I have two diagrams shown in my display.  The one of the left shows what would’ve happened without any outside factors while the one on the right takes into account the weather for the night and the terrain of the ground they were standing on.   If you turn your attention to the left half of the display, you’ll see that without taking into account external factors, the projected pathway of the bullet would have ended up lower and somewhere in between the lower half of her ribcage, and depending on the way it entered, it could have punctured her lung.  In a medical sense, she would have had a slightly better chance of surviving. Now turn to the right side, here we acknowledge outside factors such as wind and the terrain. As it was snowing outside on the night of the crime, the ground was uneven, and the wind would’ve picked up snow making it harder to see what one was doing.  Combining this with the wind, the bullet would have landed in a different place which is what happened.

Lawyer:  If I may Your Honor, I would like for the employees of the gun range to be called up so that they can explain the proper way to use different types of guns and if my client was in the correct stance or incorrect stance.

Judge:  Let’s hear it.  I’m sure that this will provide the jury with more food for thought.

[The first employee walks up to the stand while the other one sets up a projection showing different stances along with the stance taken by the defendant on the night of the crime.]

Employee #1:  To become an employee at the gun range, you have to go through a course teaching about the stances that should be taken based on weight, height, and gun type.  If you do not pass the course, you have to take it again if you still want to work there. The reason why we have to know this is so that we can show people the correct way to use their gun of choice.  Even though, the defendant came to the gun range frequently, he grew out of touch with what he once knew. As you can see on the screen, we have the stances that should be done for a person with the height and weight of the defendant with different guns.  The type of gun he had was a ?? caliber ** gun. The proper stance for it is the third picture displayed. The stance that he had is that last picture. By looking at it, you can see that he was slouched over and crouching as if he was falling down since this was the moment that he was actually shot in the leg.  Being shot also influenced the way he held the gun because he had one hand trying to stop the blood flow and the other holding the gun. Having this stance along with the weather didn’t help him.

Judge:  Thank you for the explanation.  I believe that we have heard enough from the defendant.  We’ll hear the prosecution’s side of the case before having a recess for the jury to decide on a verdict.

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