Disclaimer: The idea that started this story came to me during a philosophy of ethics class. We were discussing a paper written by H.J. McCloskey. I mean no infringement on his ideas, I just wanted to expand them and run with them a little, as the situation intrigued me. I also don't own any of the characters of CSI. They are owned by CBS and Alliance Atlantis Productions with Jeremy Bruckheimer Television. These characters just gave me too good of an opportunity to pass up.
Summary: A case blurs the lines between right and wrong for our favourite CSIs. An innocent man's life is at stake, but the decision to save his life is not as easy as it sounds.
Innocent As Charged
Chapter One
"We the jury find the defendant, John Mallory, innocent on all counts of rape and homicide that have been brought before him."
The jury's decision reverberated through Sara's head, even two hours after the fact. The man had been guilty, there was no doubt in anyone's minds, but he had an excellent lawyer. One of the evidence bags had shown signs of possible tampering, and Mallory's lawyer had blasted the crime lab for it. The bag hadn't been tampered with of course, but the lawyer had already done the damage and planted the seed of doubt in the jury's mind, thus discrediting everything the crime lab had brought forward against Mallory. In Sara's mind the lawyer had been grasping at straws, but unfortunately the court didn't see it that way and it had been taken out of the crime lab's hands. This man had viciously raped and murdered two seventeen year old girls, and now he was back out on the streets.
"Hey Sara," Nick's voice cut in to her thoughts. She glanced at her watch and realized that she had been sitting in the locker room for the last ten minutes doing nothing.
"You alright?" asked Nick, concerned.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking about court today."
Nick came and sat down beside her. "I understand, Sara. I was there, too. I know this case meant a lot to you, but there was nothing you could have done. The jury saw the evidence, and they made their decision. I agree that it was the wrong decision, but unfortunately it's completely out of our hands."
"And you're okay with that, you're just going to let it go?"
"We have to Sara. You aren't helping anyone by beating yourself up about this, you know that. Sometimes in the course of our job, the bad guy gets away and there's nothing we can do about it."
"You don't seriously believe that?" asked Sara, incredulous to hear this coming from Nick of all people. Of anyone, she expected Nick to back her up in this.
"Okay, maybe not, but it's the best I can do. It wasn't yours, mine, or Grissom's fault. It was bad luck, and it's not fair, but we can't change it now. We'll just have to make sure that it never happens again. Now, how about we get some dinner before shift? I bet if we play our cards right, we can even get Grissom to pay, out of pity for us poor sufferers of the court lashing." He made a sad puppy-dog face to go with the suggestion, and started to whine, making Sara smile.
"I don't think Grissom will fall for that, and if you drool on any of his entomology books we're definitely out of luck, but dinner sounds good anyway." Sara let Nick pull her off the bench and they headed for the door, seeing if Grissom wanted to accompany them for dinner.