My Lady
"Well I suppose I should congratulate you two, I start the trial knowing there was a previous disaster. I was aware but not too worried, then the defence decides to announce one expert hates men. From there I find one of you attempting to get the other to commit perjury , the defence tries to get her friend in the witness box and now the jury has been tampered with you. You two have managed to ensure this trial is compromised time and time again, the jury tampering was icing on the cake for this mess. Nice work." I hissed slinking back into my chair, they were both in chambers and I was furious. The jury had been escorted out and needed to be discharged, the two doctors were now supposed to be dead. There was no way a new trial could go ahead.
"Are you saying one of us did it?" Peterson asked sounding disbelieving.
"No I'm saying both of you have managed to screw up this trial, now is there any way we can start again?" I asked, Peterson looked very awkward.
"I don't think so, the body has already been cremated at the families behest, Dr Cullen was the only person with the autopsy report and with him now gone it looks unlikely we can continue. Indeed the prosecution is hardly able to prove the victim was murdered now, though it is possible I doubt the CPS would want to continue." The man explained and I knew the answer, Alice didn't say anything.
"Well the jury's gone, it looks like I have no choice but to discharge the jury and... wait a moment." My mind was whirring, both Alice and Peterson were looking at me with a frown. There may actually be a solution to this, though I needed to make a check.
"I'm going to retire until tomorrow morning, I will decide what to do then. I need to seek higher counsel. Until tomorrow." I stood up and gestured for them to leave, though before Alice and her pixie cut could leave the room I called for her.
"Very quickly, do you have anything to do with this?" I asked in a stern, domineering tone. Alice shook her head, for some reason I found myself believing her.
"Ok, go home. I want you here at nine sharp." I told her with a relieved smile, thank goodness she hadn't ordered her husband to get to the Jury, he must have been stalking them for days. It was lucky that juror came forward.
"Bella." Alice called to me as I disrobed and prepared to hastily depart, I looked at her, noticed her face was hurt, upset. Though for the first time it wasn't something I had done or said,
"Jasper's my ex husband." She said with a sad smile and then she was gone, just gone. Leaving me to wonder.
"Alice," I muttered under my breath before half speeding out of the room. I was moving at a speed most Judges hadn't moved at for a quarter of a century, I needed to seek my higher counsel before the day was out and a court day was a lot shorter than a normal one.
"Bella!" Jacob attracted my attention, he moved to speak.
"I know the Jury's been tampered with, have you got the truck?" I asked hoping none of my fellow Judges saw me being driven around in a truck. Thankfully my destination wasn't too far,
"Yeah, how did you know?" Jacob asked looking thrown,
"It just came out in trial." Jacob got in the driving seats,
"Where do I need to take you?" He asked not entirely sure what was on my mind. Then again neither did I as for some reason I kept thinking about Alice and her now ex husband.
Royal Courts of Justice
"I am afraid Miss Michaels we have reached a unanimous decision that your appeal is groundless, indeed the sentence imposed by Justice Swan is honestly too fair. Many Judges would have increased the sentence by two to three years, so I am afraid the sentence for the prisoner's murder of a police officer remains at life imprisonment with a minimum tariff of thirty five years. Sentence is upheld. Take the prisoner down, we are adjourned." A woman in a thin black robe was speaking from a raised bench. Her voice was soft and yet slightly firm, she was a wearing the same wig I wore on a day to day basis which dull blond hair tickled down from.
"Be upstanding in court." The usual verbal ending of the day ensures as all three Judges on the bench rose, this courtroom was much different to mine. There was no room for a jury, just two benches facing each other and a raised platform with two leather seats, both red and a darker fabric one. Bookshelves flanked either side of that platform and in the middle was a huge crest made up lions and the flags of all the United Kingdoms. Everything was made of polished wood in terms of the furniture and a public gallery was packed with a fair number of people, I for once was one of them.
"So what is this place again?" Jacob asked, he had been watching with some interest. We had just caught the last appeal of the day, one that had lasted less than an afternoon.
"The Royal Courts of Justice, criminal division. They here all the appeal cases, three Judges sit on the bench." I explained, pointing to where the round faced, thin cheeked woman had just been. I knew her, though I didn't know she was hearing a case I had sentenced. The man in question had attacked a police officer and then shot him, he had some nerve to appeal against a minimum term of thirty five years, odds are he wouldn't get out.
"Clerk, I need to see Lady Snow." I muttered to the man who frowned at me,
"Do you have an appointment,"
"Tell her someone's here to share that bottle of white wine she keeps for the end of an appeal." I smiled and the clerk nodded, an elderly man who slowly half hobbled away. He returned a few moments later and gave me an affirmative nod. Both me and Jacob, who had pretty much refused to leave my side, walked through a wooden door and into a long corridor where another, more homely door was being kept open for us.
"This is the Royal Courts of Justice, it doesn't serve alcohol." A voice trying to sound stern as I appeared in the doorway of a room which mirrored my own chambers, it was slightly larger and instead of me an elderly looking woman was sat in the chair. A thinning frame, rounded face and dull blond hair was holding a warm thick smile and blue quizzical eyes.
"I'll close the door then." I teased, I knew her. She was the Judge I shadowed during the time I had been training to become a Judge, well being a barrister really but she had become a close friend of mine.
"If your closing the door, bring the stud in behind you." She chuckled and I stepped into the room and embraced her,
"Evelyn." I chuckled when she finally let me go. Judge Evelyn Snow, the woman who took no nonsense from anyone and had been promoted to the Higher Courts after only a few years.
"Bella, and not ignoring the rather muscular man I'm Evelyn Snow."
"And married." I pointed out, noticing her almost flirtatious tone but she was probably only trying to exploit Jacob who looked slightly awkward.
"I'm Jacob." He introduced,
"Ahh Bella's best friend. You told me about him didn't you. I remember," I almost blushed, Evelyn was possibly my best friend despite the age gap but she didn't like to forget, something I knew a number of people found out.
"Oh don't blush,." She scolded "Now court is over and my train wreck of a husband decided he could get a six-pack, so from now until he finishes the gym I'm free. Wine?" Her husband had been in a mid-life crisis for a few too many years now. Well according to Evelyn one year was too many, the man walked with a cane and yet he still wanted to prove he was young. I let her pour me a glass, Jacob reluctantly took one as well.
"Now my dear, how are you?" Evelyn smiled knowing I needed something,
"I'm fine, Jacob's here for a couple of weeks and thought he'd visit. Though I did want to talk to you about something." Evelyn made a light chuckle.
"Jacob, trust me the only fun Bella has is drinks with me every Thursday, drag her to a club or something will you?" she half begged, she was always on about me wanting to be young now. Or risk ending up like her husband.
"I sure will Miss Snow." Jacob smiled while he nodded to confirm he would, without running it by me of course.
"Polite and good physique, I never did understand why you told me you never went out with him." The way she said that made me splutter my wine, something she found deeply amusing.
"But you didn't come here for a close analysis of your love life, no I'll save that for next Thursday's session. So what can this Lady of Appeal do you for Bella?" She asked while Jacob drank his drink to at least appear like he wasn't embarrassed while I explained my situation to her. She had finished her drink by the time I finished. I only left out the vampire part of the story, it would take a lot more drink for her to swallow that story.
"Well we've all been in a room with an incompetent barrister, or worse Peterson but this Jury thing, now that's a big issue and if you trial can't go on. You want to make sure you can use the nuclear option don't you?" She asked seeing right through my visit. Yes I was hoping to run it by her.
"The nuclear option?" Jacob asked, he was not too sure what I was referring to. Evelyn turned to him,
"It's a clause in a very recent law that sort of screws up six hundred years of history. One that has only ever been applied once."
"Crown V Twomey." I pointed out. Evelyn nodded, a case which had been controversial to say the least.
"Yes that's the one, but are sure you want to do this? It's risky." She warned. I knew that, but then again I wasn't going to see the trial fall apart, not with what I already knew. Though Evelyn was right of course, it was not a good path to travel on.
"I just wanted to make sure it was justified."
"A tampered jury and attempted perjury probably give you justification to strange Peterson and, Brandon did you say?" Evelyn asked suddenly with a quizzical tone.
"Yes, then again you'd know about strangling." Evelyn had once had an enraged defendant charge at her, unfortunately he had climbed from the witness box and been thrown off the bench, then she accidently dropped two very heavy law books on his groin. There had been another incident with another barrister but all she said was she needed to get her husband a new cane, and left it there.
"I would, I've been too tempted. Now speaking of tempted, more drinks?"
Crown V Tate
"I spent yesterday evening consulting with wiser counsel, I have thankfully decided upon a solution to the problem." I was looking over the courtroom, I had been up all night thinking about this and decided it was worth using. I had no option now.
"Members of the Jury." I turned to them with a tender voice "You have put up with too much and for that reason I discharge you and relieve you of Jury Duty for the rest of your lives. You may go." I noticed Peterson sigh, he obviously thought the trial was over and maybe so did Alice.
"Don't move." I ordered to the counsel while the Jury filed out, I took a deep breath.
"It seems that I have been given no option and I must walk a path that has only been walked by one other." All eyes were on me now.
"So under the Criminal Justice Act 2003, I discharge the jury and have decided to proceed in absence of them." As of now in this trial, there would be no Jury. I would be both Judge and Jury now.