"The court reconvenes to hear the judgement and potential sentencing of the accused."
"The accused stands on trial for murder - the plea of the defense is self-defense in the conducting of a citizen's arrest, and does not deny that the killing occured. The court now renders decisions on the successful establishment of self defense and citizens arrest."
"To be judged self defense, the onus of proof is on the defense to establish that they have been attacked or in some requisite way feel threatened enough to need to defend themselves. Based on the eyewitness testimony, and wound patterns present on the victim, it is the clear establishment of the court that the accused was the initial aggressor, and a statement of claim of self-defense cannot stand."
"The court now hears the question of citizen's arrest. A citizen's arrest is any action of a private citizen rendered to arrest or imprison another private citizen caught in the act of committing a crime. The defense of citizen's arrest fails on two grounds - one, the accused only had probable suspicion of a high crime on the part of the victim. While enough to suffice for a warrant of investigation and public arrest, a citizen's arrest must be conducted to prevent an individual in the present course of committing a crime - otherwise what has actually taken place is vigilantism. Second, upon successfully incapacitating the victim in a fashion that
could have led to arrest, the accused then moved to cut the victim's throat."
"Vigilantism, the private enforcement of justice, is not, in itself, illegal in the district of Port Silver as a matter of long, ancient custom - the legal enforcement agency in Port Silver is always attempted to be formed of private citizens demonstrating the initiative. However, acts of vigilantism must be sanctioned with a proper warrant from the council upon being presented appropriate evidence to elicit suspicion, and that was not done in this case, even though in all likelihood, with the evidence presented, at minimum a warrant for investigation would be expected."
"In light of the fact that the court finds it of non-trivial probability that the victim is in fact guilty of the heinous crime of cannibalism and the ensuing desecration of corpses and probable murder it implies, the court must nonetheless find that a violation of the peace and proper protocol has been committed a crime."
"Accordingly, the court finds the accused, Zenrak, to be guilty of unlawful arrest, second degree assault, and first degree assault leading to death."
"Subsequently, the court considers the issue of sentencing. There are two aspects of sentencing to be taken into account - Restitution - restoring damaged parties to the state they were in before the crime occurred, and Punishment - setting the crime as an example for others not to do it again."
"Of first consideration is the victim - who was magically aided to the point wherein they could attend the trial of their own murder. Due to the effects of death, no lingering mental trauma remains, and the victim in question is otherwise rendered in perfect health. The court finds no restitution is needed from the accused to the victim."
"The second party affected is the Silver Serpent hospital, which needed to expend several hours worth of medical resources to restore the victim. The judgement of the court is that the accused shall volunteer the same number of hours of their time either harvesting medicinal herbs to remit to the hospital, or render any other suitable compensation to the hospital in exchange of it's efforts that is acceptable to both parties, possibly including monetary compensation at their option."
"Finally, the third party affected by this vigilante action is this court, which had to hold an emergency session to process the crime. The judgement is that the accused shall incur a fine of one-half the costs the court had in being brought to action, one thousand (1000) radiants.
"Secondarily - punishment. The court notes that the accused has spent longer in custody awaiting the judgement of the trial than their victim did in recovering from their crime. The court considers time served in arraignment for trial to be sufficient punishment in this case."
"Finally, the court considers both the prosecution and defense competent in their action. Kelta Brinn and Chalkan Engem are both awarded one thousand (1000) radiants as payment in compensation for services rendered, less a five-hundred (500) radiant fine imposed on Chalkan Engem for contempt of court for that final outburst, which, while relevant to the case and important to state, did not need to be rendered in such a fashion to break court decorum."
"Please contact the council treasurer (OOCly run by @
mairinbaihn) to receive your payments and remit your fines, after which this case is hereby discharged."
*Appropriately slams gavel down*
"In closing, the court would like to remark one subsequent fact - that if subsequent demonstrable evidence to the council is presented of the victim's accused actions of cannibalism or the implied desecration of corpses or murder - is sufficient to convince the necessity of investigation or arrest, that the council may find it to allow the public
or private enactment of justice upon the perpetrator of such heinous actions."
"Case dismissed."
