The news anchor shifts papers, last minute prep to tell the stories ahead. One last minute to clear the mind of bias. “An update on the upcoming trial of Alex Maurell who was charged with the murder of Arthur Brown. Caught on several phone cameras, the gruesome footage shows the mutant using his powers to kill Mr.Brown. The reason for the murder? Self-defense. Maurell, who had suffered a stab wound in the fight, told police that he had been attacked and reacted accordingly.”

    “However, new evidence however may suggest that this was a planned attack. According sources Arthur Brown might have been part of an online hate group called “The Bird Hunters”. Bird being an internet code word for mutant. It’s possible that Maurell might haven’t known Mr.Brown and planned to take down what he assumed was a member of a hate group. More on that at 7.”

---

    On another news channel there was a set of standard reporters, the signal minority among them stood out like a sore thumb. In the recent years with mutants being accepted whilst still marginalized, the station made efforts to appear more accepting. For the first time a mutant was among them, her iridescent scales patched on dark skin like hollywood makeup. While the majority bared grins of perfect white teeth, she appeared miffed to even be hearing them speak.

    “C’mon, you can’t tell me that this guy isn’t guilty of something. The cops were on their way, what would be the point of killing a man if not for some other reason than self-defense.” one of the standard male reporters commented, his colleagues nodding in agreement.

    “Not to mention it seems like he appeared out of nowhere. No school history, or social media, not a blip until, what was it? Last year? For all we know he could be part of a gang or has some past criminal history.”one of the woman said, looking to the others for confirmation. Again nodding like a troupe of bobble-heads.

    The lone mutant in the room steeled herself, knowing that this was how it always been. One defender, against many attackers. The news had not changed in a long time. “Regardless of past history, if it even exists, this kid, Alex, and he is a kid, according to public records he’s about sixteen years old. He deserves a fair trial, it’s his right as an American citizen. We’ve all seen the video evidence and the chat room chat he had with an online forum. He was acting in self-defense and he’s a good kid who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He shouldn’t be demonized for doing what he had to do.”

---

    On the internet the debate raged on. One such podcast held far more doubts than the news anchors. It was more of a collection of voices all trying to be heard.

    “I don’t know, I don’t know. It all just freaks me out that someone could just do that to another human being. That it’s even in the realm of possibility. Point is we don’t have all the evidence, we know next to nothing about this Alex kid or the circumstances that led to that situation.” One voice spouted

    “What do you mean next to nothing? He practically gave everything away in the AMA he had. He’s sixteen, he lives in that mutant mansion in New York, apparently he was a foster kid in a religious household, who then ran away for three years, and he’s stupid smart, guys. That rant on genetics was gold.”Another voice blurted.

    “Sounds like a villain origin story to me.”chimed a third, earning a few snorts of laughter from the group.

    “Yeah but that doesn’t tell us motive. He could have waited, hell he should have. The cops were practically there by the time be did that weird snake guts thing. Should he even be allowed to walk around with a power like that. It doesn’t seem safe.” sighed a forth.

    There was a short bout of silence before the third spoke up again, “Okay but he did say that he was bleeding out and that the cops were going to arrive to at least one of them dead. That should be motive enough for self-defense, right? It’s not like he committed mass murder.”

    The second spoke up again, “Mmhm, I mean, I’d do it. Gun to my head, if I had a mutant power like that I’d use it. Because if this was a situation where it was gun against gun or gun against knife, it’d hardly be a question. But because it was a mutant power, everybody is saying that he somehow planned all this. Which, honestly, is dumb.”

Alright, the trial arc is on guys! I’ll be posting the threads as they go up and who goes where and the like.

News Report (You are here) - A quick tv report-esque overview of the situation and also where all the thread links will be posted.
Pretrial - Most likely a closed thread with Alex and CS and the npc lawyers, going over what's going to happen during the trial and prepping statements. Others might be invited though, either for moral support or body guarding.
Trial (Inside the Courtroom) - The trial with some separate parts. The actual trial with those going on the witness stand, the banter in-between, maybe something happens during the trial or during a recess, and then jury deliberation. So the main players would be Alex, CS, Ambrose (as a jury member), Margo (as a character witness), and perhaps Jiri and/or Mama T as character witnesses as well. That is if everybody still wants to play these rolls.
Trial (Outside the Courthouse/room) - I'm not really sure what would be going on outside the trial, maybe a fight breaks out or the METAs go wonky. This is probably just an open thread for the hell of it.
After Trial - At the conclusion of the trial. Alex is likely to walk out free but something could always go wrong. I believe Ambrose suggest that Kirsi could have been paid to assassinate Alex or someone else at the trial(a judge or lawyer perhaps) or that could be handed off to someone else. Or any number of things could happen. Just like with the Outside the trial thread, I'm pretty much leaving this open for some fun and/or angst to happen.

Before the trial and joining the fun:

SPOILER: Click to show

So as a lot of you probably know Alex got in a lot of trouble this past month or two...July, the threads Desperate(Hades) and Mister Sandman(Jiri) were where the events started. Namely the fact that Alex killed a man in self-defense. There's no way around it, there's video evidence. The threads House Arrest(Jiri), Intervention(Mama T, Mirror, Jiri), and partly Brat Pack(Leo, Jiri) and Master and Apprentice(s?) have all been leading up to the trial.

Now is probably a good time to start the trial. Shouldn't have waited this long but life happens. We can probably assume that the attorneys and police have been busy collecting evidence and talking to witnesses. From what I read, trials begin with a pretrial in front of a judge to make legal motions, a jury is selected, then the actual trial begins. If you've ever watch a show like law and order you know how it goes from here.

My question is does anybody want to help me make this more interesting? Since it's pretty clear that Alex gave his attackers plenty of time to back off, verbally and physically warning them even after he had been stabbed, it would fall under self defense and stand your ground laws. So there's a pretty solid case for the defense to work with.

But it's never that easy, there's controversy surrounding this trial. So I'm interested to hear any ideas or suggestions to spice things up. Or if anybody wants to jump in as your character or as an NPC that'd be cool too.

I would imagine that anti-mutant hate groups would do a lot of lobbying, threatening and bribing. essentially anything that might help to sway/ revert the cause of justice.

Oh yeah to what Hades said. I think anti-mutant groups would be the center of the main conflict, unless you want to throw some other idea in there. Also, Margo and Kai volunteer themselves to be involved in some way.

Yeah, I was figuring that much too. Definitely feel a media storm coming on too. Also how would Kai and Margo get involved? Aside from Margo possibly being there to support Alex.

Kirsi will be around very soon, and she works as a freelancer, so she could very easily be hired to sabotage the trial somehow by somebody if she didn't know what she was being hired to do. Ambrose, not sure how he could help/not help at all out, but even billionaires have to do jury duty (I think) so he might be on the jury or something.

Oh my gosh, yes, please have Ambrose on the jury. And I don't really know, just throwing it out there if you need people to be involved.

Ambrose on jury duty would be amazing and Kirsi doing something would be interesting, though what would be her way of sabotaging things? Assassinating the judge or perhaps something more destructive?

They could certainly show up for it, perhaps Margo as a character witness? Hmm...

Hades as Victor Wong could potentially be a character witness. It would be amusing

Alright, Ambrose shall be volunteered as a sulky juror, then. As for Kirsi, anything, really. If there's any way the Bird Hunters (or whoever it was Alex killed; there are so many anti-mutant hate groups around now) would want to sabotage the trial, they could hire a generic assassin through Kirsi's agency, who will then be contracted out to perform the job - and all without them knowing that they hired a mutant to do so. The only way the sabotage could be halted would be either if Kirsi were paid a sufficient amount of money that would make up for the damage to her reputation and for what she would otherwise be getting paid, or if she were convinced that killing Alex would be morally incorrect, which would be difficult but doable.

Alright so:

1. Yes to Kirsi being paid to target Alex but possibly finds out during the trial or through a contact that Alex is innocent and his death might result in a chain reaction.
2. So much yes to Ambrose being in jury, though he wouldn't find out which trial he's joining till he gets there, I can see him saying yes to it if only because it's interesting.
3. Two character witnesses like Victor Wong, who was there the first time those thugs attacked Alex technically, and Margo would be good.

I dunno about Kai, maybe he could hang out with the media people out side the courthouse or something.

Perhaps Hades might be a better as a prisoner guard. Victor Wong technically did not arrive until he was hired to train Alex after the attack. Up to you, which would you prefer Alex?

Ah true, I guess a guard would be good then.

I still offer up a CS to appear and be a character witness. still also offer up CS to take custody of Alex as well. If he still want’s to be CS’s ‘son’

Yes to all of this. In character Alex would probably feel uncomfortable with suddenly having a 'dad' but I think for both it would do them good. Plus, outdoor camping trips with the two of them would be fun later on! I hear CS is big on that.

Okay, here's how I've been planning it in my head via several separate thread so everyone who wants to be involved can be.

News Report - A quick tv report-esque overview of the situation and also where all the thread links will be posted.
Pretrial - Most likely a closed thread with Alex and CS and the npc lawyers, going over what's going to happen during the trial and prepping statements. Others might be invited though, either for moral support or body guarding.
Trial (Inside the Courtroom) - The trial with some separate parts. The actual trial with those going on the witness stand, the banter in-between, maybe something happens during the trial or during a recess, and then jury deliberation. So the main players would be Alex, CS, Ambrose (as a jury member), Margo (as a character witness), and perhaps Jiri and/or Mama T as character witnesses as well. That is if everybody still wants to play these rolls.
Trial (Outside the Courthouse/room) - I'm not really sure what would be going on outside the trial, maybe a fight breaks out or the METAs go wonky. This is probably just an open thread for the hell of it.
After Trial - At the conclusion of the trial. Alex is likely to walk out free but something could always go wrong. I believe Ambrose suggest that Kirsi could have been paid to assassinate Alex or someone else at the trial(a judge or lawyer perhaps) or that could be handed off to someone else. Or any number of things could happen. Just like with the Outside the trial thread, I'm pretty much leaving this open for some fun and/or angst to happen.

Let me know what you guys think! <3