Turnabout Butz
"Your honor, this monster is guilty of committing a great felony yesterday afternoon." The prosecutor Winston Payne said accusingly, pointing at a man sitting next to the lawyer. "He is charged with arm robbery for a reason. Does he not look like a man who would lick the blood off the fringe of his knife after cutting someone?"
"Objection!" Phoenix Wright, attorney at law, yelled across the courtroom. "There is no conclusive evidence to prove that my client was indeed the thief who stole the merchandise. The prosecution is clearly badgering the witness based on physical appearance, making assumptions of his character."
"Sustained," the judge said banging his mallet to silence the murmurs in the courtroom. "Will the suspect please take the stand and share their testimony?"
The man sitting next to the lawyer stood up and scratched his 5 o'clock shadow, quivering in his knees as he walked to the judge's bench. "Do you swear to tell the truth and nothing, but the truth oh so help you God?" The bailiff asked the suspect to place his hand on the court Bible. He nodded raising his right hand as his left hand shook his grip on the text.
As he sat down, the rattle of the chair displayed his discomfort. Then he cracked and started yelling, "throw the book at me! Shackle my wrists! Just lock me away!" He started crying buckets as everyone gasped at his admitting outrage.
"Get a hold of your self, Larry Butz," Phoenix said ironically slamming his fists on his table. "No one has even proven that you stole the cell phone and sim cards. Just relax and give us your perspective on the events that occurred yesterday."
Larry wiped the sweat off his forehead and immediately regained his composure. "Well I'm glad you asked! There I was at the electronics store indulging my self at the rack displaying the new video games that came out yesterday! Have you played Battle Jets Heaven 1? You get to control these jets that transform into big robots—"
"Objection!" Winston yelled interrupting Larry. "Get to the point."
"I was just trying to make conversation," Larry said apologetically, "anyways! So I was just reading the back of the box until I heard a weird noise coming from the cashier counter and it sounded like when you drag your nails down a chalkboard. I turned around to see this masked guy pressing the cashier's face against the counter and smeared it across its glass wooden surface."
"Mr. Butz, if there was another criminal on the scene, can you please indulge as to why you have been alleged to be the robber?" Winston asked.
"Well the guy with the mask was all like, 'I got a proposition for you. For every person in the store right now you give me $500 for each of their lives or I'll kill them all to leave you with a guilty conscience and I'll take the money all for myself.'" Larry then stood upright in his seat and declared, "That's when something got a hold of me and I tackled the masked man to the floor. As I pounded away at his face his mask ripped off, but then he took a gun out of his jacket pocket, and I lost my mind further. But by the time I wrestled it out of his hands, it turns out that someone has already called the police and they arrived on time to see me holding the gun in my hand."
"A plausible explanation," Phoenix said with his hands on his hips. "I commend you for playing hero, but that must be one of the most reckless things anyone can do. Prosecution, do you have any witnesses to prove that my client truly implicated the robbery?"
"No, but I do have surveillance footage of the store from yesterday." Winston asked to dim the lights so he could play a tape on a TV they wheeled into the courtroom. As the entire courtroom watched, it appeared that Larry had indeed played hero when the store clerk was being threatened by another man. Gasps of surprise were made as they watched him savagely save the clerk's life. Winston struggled to stop the tape, but it was too late to cease the obvious proof that the accused Larry was actually innocent.
