A Learning Experience 2: Hard Lessons (22 page)

“Bring in the prisoners,” the judge ordered.

There was a pause, then the prisoners were marched into the court.  Yolanda leaned forward, studying them with interest.  Two of them were older men, easily old enough to be her father; three more were her age, maybe a little bit older.  Their hands were cuffed behind their backs, while their legs were shackled, making it harder for them to walk.  The defiant stares they gave the courtroom, however, suggested they had no fear of conviction.  Yolanda forced herself to sit back and relax.  They’d be told the charges soon enough.

“The Prosecutor may begin,” the judge said, once the defendants were in the dock.

The Prosecutor rose to his feet and cleared his throat.  “Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury,” he said.  “The prisoners you see before you have been charged with two murders, one attempt to cover up the aforementioned murders and outright breach of the Solar Union Constitution.  I have no hesitation in requesting they face the maximum penalty allowed by law.”

Yolanda shivered.  The maximum penalty was death.

“The facts of the case are straightforward,” the Prosecutor continued.  “The defendant and his family requested and received permission to emigrate to the Solar Union nine months ago.  Unfortunately, the senior members of the family were unable to find work and remained on Gunn Asteroid, forbidding their teenage children to leave them and find employment on their own.  Six months ago, the seventeen-year-old daughter of the defendant – Anisa Bin Khalid started a relationship with Mathew Quirk, whose family had also emigrated from Earth.  His family were supportive of the relationship; her family were not.  After she was beaten by her father, she ran to her boyfriend and they planned to escape together.

“It was not to be.  The defendants tracked them down and murdered them both, then tried to hide the bodies in the waste disposal system.  Forensic examination proved that they were both beaten to death by the defendants, who were tracked down and arrested.  Interrogation under lie detectors proved that the two senior defendants had ordered the murder, then pushed the junior ones into assisting with both the murder itself and then the cover-up.

“Their motive in doing so was nothing less than
control
.  They did not want Anisa to form any relationships of any kind outside their family; the thought of her leaving them permanently, let alone living with a man from a very different culture, was utterly impossible to tolerate.  They feared for the reputation of their family, for the future lives of her brothers and sisters.  They chose, therefore, to kill them both, committing murder.

“This was not self-defence.  This was not manslaughter.  This was cold-blooded, premeditated murder.  Furthermore, the Solar Union Constitution clearly states that children who have reached their majority – and Anisa was old enough to be considered mature – cannot be controlled by their parents.  To attempt to talk her out of the relationship would be one thing, to murder her in cold blood quite another.  The defendants swore to respect and uphold the Constitution upon arrival.  Their crime is quite beyond any defence.”

Yolanda shuddered.  She’d heard rumours that some teenage children had been locked up by their parents in California, but her stepmother – the evil bitch – had never tried to lock Yolanda up in a cupboard, let alone marry her off to someone else.  But then, who would
want
her?

“The Defender can now speak,” the judge said.

The defender looked tired, Yolanda noted, as he rose to his feet.  She wondered, as he cast his gaze over the jury, just how he planned to defend the criminals.  What sort of defence was even
possible
?  Did he plan to suggest that using lie detectors was somehow illegal?  Even if it was – and she knew from her notes that it wasn't – there was plenty of forensic evidence too.  It was waiting in the datacores for her to review, once the speeches were over.

“My clients wish me to deny that they committed murder,” the Defender said, bluntly.  “They wish me to state that their culture permits parents wide latitude over their children, both to punish them when they defy their parents and to defend them against outsiders.  They see Mathew Quirk as nothing more than a rapist who had to die.”

It was an interesting choice of words, Yolanda noted.  The more she thought about it, the more she realised the Defender wasn't choosing his own words, merely parroting what he'd been told to say.  Two of the defendants remained impassive, but the remaining three were
smirking
at the audience, who looked outraged.  It might have worked on Earth, where an appeal to respect for other societies could excuse anything, but the Solar Union was different.

“They assert that the Solar Union has no power to try them,” the Defender continued.  “And they demand their immediate release.”

He broke off, looking annoyed.  The audience was laughing.

The judge pressed his lips together, tightly.  “We have them in the dock,” he said.  “I dare say we have the power to try them.”

He nodded to the jury.  “Shall we continue?”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Pakistan’s new government issued a warning to India as Hindu-Muslim fighting spread out of control, despite the presence of Indian troops.  However, despite intensive pressure from theocratic elements within Pakistan, it is unlikely the Pakistanis can do more than issue strong protests and brace themselves for an onslaught of refugees.  Sources on the ground claim that Indian troops, far from separating the two sides, have been destroying mosques, raping Muslim women and driving Muslim families out of their homes.  There has been no independent verification of these claims.

-Solar News Network, Year 53

Martin had no difficulty in believing the defendants were guilty.  Their faces showed it all; not the blank incomprehension of the man-child who doesn't really believe he has committed the crime, but the droll amusement of the man who believed he was going to get away with his misdeeds.  He’d seen too many people like them on Earth, men and women who regarded the ghetto as their own private preserve, to think otherwise.  No matter what they did, people respected them and covered for them, either out of fear or misplaced loyalty.

He scowled at them, then forced himself to think calmly as the Prosecutor rose to speak again.

“We do not object to disciplining children, provided that such discipline is within reason,” he said.  “But Anisa was no little girl to be given a slap on the rump, or told to stand in the corner, or be sent to bed without supper.  She was an adult, by our standards, old enough to make her own choices and face the consequences.  And even if she hadn't been, I think there will be no disagreement that
murder
is a completely unacceptable way to punish children!”

He paused, then went on.  “There are no grounds for suggesting that Mathew raped her,” he continued.  “She was his girlfriend for over a month!  If she’d been raped, she could have taken it to the police and he would have been arrested, then tried and sentenced.  And there were no grounds for her family to take the law into their own hands.  Indeed, they murdered the victim as well as the rapist.

“But Mathew was no rapist.

“There are no grounds for tolerating such a crime,” he concluded.  “They murdered their own daughter.  They murdered a young man with a decent amount of promise ahead of him.  And then they tried to cover it up!  On one hand, they claim they did the right thing; on the other, they tried to hide the evidence of their crime, as if they knew perfectly well that what they did was wrong, wrong, wrong!  They are murderers, plain and simple.

“The Solar Union respects the rights of everyone to live as they choose, as individuals.  But the keyword there is
individuals
!  We do not recognise any groups between the individual or the Solar Union as a whole.  How can we?  We know, from bitter experience, that drawing lines between groups inevitably leads to granting one group rights above other groups ... and eventual racial conflict.  The defendants are individuals – and so was their victim.  They had every right to disapprove, they had every right to talk her out of it, they had every right – even – to refuse to consider her or her lover part of their family.  But they had no right to kill either of them.”

The Judge nodded, slowly.  “Defender, do you want to respond?”

The Defender looked ...
tired
.  Martin wondered, suddenly, what would happen to him for taking on the case.  If, of course, he
had
taken it willingly ... Citizenship classes had stated the importance of having Public Defenders, but the Defenders weren't allowed to do more that put forward the arguments used by their clients.  They couldn't serve as lawyers ...

“My clients are used to a very different society,” the Defender said.

“A society they chose to leave,” the Prosecutor injected.

“And they have yet to grow used to living in our world,” the Defender added, ignoring the interruption.  “They find it hard to adapt to changes and took it badly when their daughter moved ahead of them.”

“Excuses,” the Prosecutor said, bluntly.  “The fact of the matter is that they committed a double murder, with one of the victims being their own daughter.  Their excuses do not change the simple fact that they killed two people.”

“They also had no reason to trust our courts,” the Defender added.  “They did not expect a fair trial.”

“They have been
given
a fair trial,” the Prosecutor said.  “Their crime is just beyond any form of defence.”

The Judge cleared his throat, loudly.  “The Jurors will now pass judgement,” he said.  A door at the back of the court opened, inviting them to step through and recess themselves.  “We will wait for their return.”

***

Yolanda understood, better than she cared to admit, just how hard it could be to adapt to a new society.  She’d had to do it twice; once as her stepmother’s slave and once as a Solar Union immigrant.  To that extent, she could feel sorry for the defendants ... but it faded as she grasped the truth of what they’d done.  To choose to kill their own daughter, to destroy her life and that of her lover, purely because they thought she was disgracing them?  It was unacceptable.  No one could tolerate such murders without doing colossal damage to the fabric of society. 

None of the excuses were even remotely valid.  She knew how easy it was for the Solar Union to identify objective and subjective truths.  If Anisa had thought she’d been raped, the Solar Union would have interrogated everyone and determined just what they’d been thinking at the time.  A cold-blooded rape, born of lust; drunken fumbling that had gone too far; a honest belief that consent had been granted; a deliberate attempt to get someone in deep shit ... it would have been identified, then judgement would have been passed.  And the Solar Union would not have played favourites.  If Mathew had been guilty, Mathew would have paid. 

In the end, the Prosecutor had been right.  It all boiled down to one very simple fact.  They had murdered two people and tried to cover it up.

She accessed the secure datacores and studied the evidence.  DNA traces, recovered from the bodies; the medical report, from the autopsy; the interrogation logs, from the police force; witness interviews, with Mathew’s parents and family; even, in the end, the job offers they’d both received from a major mining corporation.  They would have made it, Yolanda was sure; even trapped on Gunn, they’d been trying to better themselves.  If they’d moved faster, they might have left their parents behind and gone onwards to build themselves a better life.

It could have been me
, she thought.  She had sometimes thought her stepmother would one day pitch her out of the house, but what if she’d been murdered instead?  There were so many murders in California, according to the grapevine, that one more would go completely unnoticed, if her body was ever found. 
I could have died in her place
.

She shuddered, sickened.  Her father and mother had married, in spite of their families; no one had tried to murder them, merely exclude them from society.  Perhaps, she thought, she understood her father a little better now, even though she could never forgive.  No one would want to be excluded forever from the people who were just like him ...

The foreman cleared his throat.  “You will need to cast a vote using your implants,” he started.  “The first vote is for guilt or innocence; the second is for punishment.”

Yolanda nodded, then accessed her implants and entered the voting system.  It showed nothing to show her how the others had voted; there had been no debate, merely a moment to inspect the evidence.  But it was clear, more than clear, that they were guilty, that two innocent people were dead.  She swallowed, then voted guilty.  The next section called for her to decide their punishment, ranging from years of hard labour to death.  Some of the milder options were not included when the crime was murder. 

She swallowed again.  How could she condemn someone to death?

You were on Freedom when the ship ambushed an unsuspecting target
, her own thoughts mocked her. 
How much of the blame for their deaths do you bear
?

It wasn't a fair comparison, Yolanda thought.  She hadn't issued the orders or pushed the firing key.  But she'd known she might have to take lives, one day, if she went into the military.  The idea she wouldn't have to fight, with the Galactics slowly turning their attention to Earth, was laughable. 

But that didn't matter too.  All that mattered was that a young couple were dead.

Bracing herself, she made her choice.

***

Martin had never seen a law drama in his youth; indeed, the only time they’d ever been mentioned, it had been as one of Hollywood’s attempts to beat competition from the Solar Union that had gone nowhere.  In hindsight, he had a theory that they’d been deliberately banned from television, just to make it harder for people to participate in government.  It was as good a theory as any, he thought.  He made a mental note to check it and then sat upright as the jury filed back into the courtroom.

Yolanda looked pale, Martin noted.  He felt his heart go out to her as he wondered just which way she had voted.  It took a simple majority vote to convict, then pass sentence; Yolanda could have voted against conviction, if she’d wanted, without making any real difference ...

“Foreman,” the Judge said.  “Have you reached a verdict?”

“Yes, Your Honour,” the Forman said. “We find the defendants guilty.”

Martin turned to gaze at the defendants.  One of them started to swear in a language he didn't recognise, two more stared in disbelief ... and the remaining two started to cry.  Martin clenched his fist, feeling a sudden surge of hatred for the immigrants.  They’d come, in hopes of building a new life, yet they’d brought the shadows of the old with them.  Martin had been told, when he’d taken the oath, that he would be well advised to break all ties with Earth, but he hadn't understood it at the time.  He didn't
have
any ties with Earth.  But he understood now.  Earth’s past was a shadow hanging over the human race ...

... And the Solar Union had chosen to leave it behind.

The power of ‘get over it,’
he’d been told.  Scudder had pointed out, in exacting detail, that the places of Earth that suffered from endless bouts of civil unrest and war ended to be the places where old grudges hung around, pervading the political landscape.  Martin had been interested enough to download essays written by Professor Cozort, who had devised the theory and then proven it on Earth. 
You have to leave the past behind to rise to the future
.

The Judge stood.  “Your sentence has been passed,” he stated.  “You will be taken from this place to Death Row, where you will remain until you are executed.”

He paused, then summed up the case.  “We call ourselves a tolerant society, but our tolerance ends when people are harmed, or threatened with harm.   You have no right to force your children to obey you in adulthood, marry someone they do not wish to marry, remain in the home when they want to leave and spread their wings ... and you definitely do not have the right to murder them.  Your deaths will serve as punishment for your crimes, but also a reminder to others than the rules cannot be broken with impunity.  We do not make allowances for those who do not act in a civilised manner.

“The remainder of your family, the ones who were uninvolved in your crime and unaware of it, will be given the choice between remaining here or returning to Earth,” he continued.  “It will be their choice, for they will no longer be influenced by you.  We will not seek to blame them for being related to you, because we treat people as individuals.

“And because you are
individually
guilty, you will die.”

He stared down at the defendants, then asked one final question.  “Do you have anything you wish to say?”

“She was my daughter,” the older man shouted.  His voice was accented, but clear enough to understand.  “I had every right to punish her for defying me!”

Another defendant – one of the younger men - rammed his shoulder into his side, forcing him to shut up.

“We were doing what we were told,” he said.  “It wasn't our fault!”

“You would have obeyed orders to commit a crime,” the Judge pointed out.  “But your interrogation transcripts reveal a different story.  You came here, expecting jobs and prestige to fall into your lap; you never worked for either.  Instead, you became bitter and twisted and you hated your sister, for fitting in better than you ever could.  When your father and uncle insisted she had to die, you raised no objection.