SCENE 10. The courtroom.
BEHRENDS is seated at the bench. SCHECK sits at the clerk's table. The jurors sit in the jury box. DAME GOTHEL sits in the dock between four guards. Chains run from the heavy iron collar around her neck to the iron belt around her waist to the handcuffs on her wrists and the shackles on her ankles, securing her to the bench where she and the guards sit. HAGELSTAIN and STROBEL, and WIRTNER and WINKLER, are seated at their respective tables. GLENNA walks over to the witness box.
Ballard: The next day, the Crown called Glenna again.
Strobel: As a practitioner of magic yourself, what can you tell us about the defendant's use of it?
Glenna: It is the exact opposite of the type I practice, and Dame Gothel has powers I will never have.
Strobel: Could you describe her powers, and her use of them as far as it reflects typical maleficium?
Glenna: A practitioner of maleficium, like Dame Gothel, uses their powers for sinister purposes. If they perform a healing, one will never know the real reason for the service, or what price one will eventually have to pay. The harm done in any ritual greatly outweighs whatever benefit may be achieved. Witches like this are a source of mischief and considerable danger.
Strobel: Can you give your expert opinion on whether this defendant in particular is a threat to the community?
Glenna: Yes, indeed. Dame Gothel will not forgive anyone who defies her. She is very powerful. Right now, her power is neutralized by the physical restraints imposed on her, but the moment they come off, her powers come back. And if they ever do come off, from what I know of her personally, I think it is all but certain she will use her powers to take revenge on all who have been involved in her prosecution. So yes, she is a grave threat to the public.
GLENNA leaves the witness box and walks back to join ROLAND and BALLARD. Enter VON LINDENBERG. He goes to sit in the witness box
Ballard: Next, the Amtmann was called again.
Hag.: After you arrested the defendant, did you execute any search warrants in connection with this case?
Von L.: Yes, one at the tower, one at Glenna's shop, and a third at Dame Gothel's residence in Neustadt.
Hag.: By any chance, was one of the items you collected from her residence a rock shaped like a man?
Von L.: Yes, such an item was found in her garden.
Hag.: I'd like to show you what's marked Crown Exhibit 5.
Enter usher and VON LINDENBERG'S men, dragging in a rock shaped like a man on a sledge.
Hag.: Is this the rock in question, Mr. Amtmann?
Von L.: Yes, that is it.
Hag.: Your Honor, I'd move for the admission of Crown Exhibit 5.
Wirtner: No objection.
Behrends: Received.
Exit VON LINDENBERG and his men.
Scheck: Call Amalie of Neustadt.
Enter AMALIE. She goes to sit in the witness box.
Ballard: The next witness appeared, and was sworn.
Scheck: Would you state your name for the record?
Amalie: Amalie.
Scheck: Thank you.
Behrends: Mr. Hagelstain.
Hag.: Could you tell us where you presently live?
Amalie: I live in Neustadt.
Hag.: Were you born and raised in that area?
Amalie: Yes, I was.
Hag.: Are you married?
Amalie: I was until 20 years ago.
Hag.: What was your husband's name?
Amalie: Wolfgang.
Hag.: What happened to him?
Amalie: He disappeared.
Hag.: When did that happen?
Amalie: July 8, 1315.
Hag.: What were the circumstances of his disappearance?
Amalie: He had set out that day to take one of my cooking utensils to the blacksmith to have it repaired. I never saw him again.
Hag.: Was the defendant, Dame Gothel, living in Neustadt at the time?
Amalie: Yes.
Hag.: Was her house between your house and the smithy?
Amalie: Yes, you had to walk past her house to get to the smithy.
Hag.: I'd like you to take a look at Crown Exhibit 5. [AMALIE walks over to the man-shaped rock] Does this rock resemble your husband?
Amalie: Yes, yes, it is my Wolfgang! [she begins to weep. Exit]
Ballard: For its last witness, the Crown called the Chief Servant.
Enter Chief Servant, going to sit in the witness box.
Strobel: Were you in the defendant's service in July 1315?
CS: Yes.
Strobel: Look upon Crown Exhibit 5? Do you recall the first time you saw that rock in the defendant's garden?
CS: I'm pretty sure it was early July, 1315. I don't know the exact date, but I never saw it before the summer of that year.
Strobel: Describe to the court the first time you saw it.
CS: I went into the garden that morning and saw the rock which I now see in front of me. It had not been there the previous day. I asked the other two servants how it came to be there. They told me that the afternoon preceding, a man had come into the garden and started to pick flowers. They said my mistress caught him and turned him into a rock, which was the one I had noticed.
Ballard: During cross-examination, Dame Gothel's lawyers tried to seize on the fact that the Chief Servant was unsure of the exact date Crown Exhibit 5 had first been in the garden.
Exit Chief Servant.
Hag.: Your Honor, the Crown rests its case.
Ballard: The next day, the defense made its opening statement.
Behrends: Members of the jury, we're ready to resume, and we'll hear now from defense counsel on opening statement. Mr. Wirtner.
Wirtner: [rising] Good morning.
Your Honor, my assistant, Mr. Winkler, and gentlemen of the jury. We have seen many people in this courtroom who have testified with such courage and such dignity. And it now falls to you to decide what is the best, what is the most appropriate response, not just to the crime but to the person who is being sentenced for committing it.
Judge Behrends has said to you several times that you are acting as the conscience of the community in making this decision. You are. We have no King Solomon in our time. Indeed we have never had a King Solomon in this country. For more than 100 years, we have relied on each other, on other peers to make the hardest, most difficult decisions to accord justice.
That is the challenge that is now before you. And we submit that it is not based upon a single reality. The wisdom that you have to draw on is not conventional wisdom. The wisdom of Solomon is anything but conventional. The wisdom that you must summon calls for you first to step back, to step back from the very heavy sense that you had when you left each day, that raw feeling, the feeling that made you cringe, that made you angry, that made you feel a whole range of emotions that most people in this courtroom felt with you.
The first challenge and the first step towards the wisdom of Solomon is to step back, not to step back from the facts, we would never ask you to do that, but to step aside, leave the emotion as best you can there, and let the facts simply reside with you in a calm way.
Judge Behrends has already told you the law gives you a choice on what punishment to give a defendant who has been convicted. That is different than the first phase of the trial. When you took an oath to well and truly try this case, with respect to the issue of guilt or innocence, that oath meant that when the Crown proved the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt as to any count in the Indictment, it was your duty to vote guilty. You were required to vote guilty when the evidence reached the point of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
But the death penalty doesn't work that way. Whether you vote for death is up to each one of you. The law doesn't tell you what to do. Each one of you has to decide that for yourself and only after you take everything into account.
We are asking you to punish Dame Gothel by imposing a heavy fine. And for the next few minutes, I'd like to tell you some of the reasons why and about some of the evidence that you will be hearing in this phase of the case.
All we can do, all you can do, is to make the best choice. And if there's one thing to remember through all of this, it is that Dame Gothel will be severely punished either way. Your guilty verdicts have already guaranteed that.
For now, I just want to make the point that this hearing is not about whether to punish Dame Gothel. It's only about how. No matter what Dame Gothel does now, no matter what regrets she feels, no matter what amends she may wish to make, her last chance has come and gone, and she will never be given another.
Over the next couple of days, you will hear from Dame Gothel's two remaining servants about how she was a good employer to them, and treated them kindly.
Nothing you're going to hear from the defense in the coming days is going to suggest that Dame Gothel couldn't control herself. No one is going to say she didn't know what she was doing. And no one is going to say you should feel sorry for her. But when all is said and done, we think that when you consider the evidence, it will show that, as awful as these crimes have been, a fine is the better choice for everyone. Thank you.
Ballard: Once again, the defense called Servant#2 as its first witness.
Enter First Lesser Servant, going to sit in the witness box.
Wirtner: How has the defendant treated you during your service in her household?
1st LS: Very well. She gives requests instead of commands, and sometimes helps us in our chores. She gives us two days a week off.
Ballard: When the servant had finished testifying as to how Dame Gothel had been a good employer, it was time for cross-examination.
Hag.:[rising] Look upon Crown Exhibit 5. Can you tell how it came to be in Dame Gothel's garden?
1st LS: It only came to be there after July 1315.
Hag.: And was it a man whom your mistress bewitched and turned to stone?
1st LS: I cannot tell, sir.
Hag.: You mean you did not see her turn a man into this rock?
1st LS: I suppose her actions did have that effect on him.
Behrends: What do you mean by your evasions? Did she turn a man into this rock, or did she not?
1st LS: She did.
Hag.: Did this man not come into the garden, and did she not catch him and bewitch him thus?
1st LS: I never did enquire of her whether he came with her consent.
Behrends: Servant#2, tell the truth; did she turn this man to stone after catching him in the garden, or did she not?
1st LS: She did.