Fries once learned about a case that took place in South Korea. A serial killer who killed people randomly appeared in the city. He was brutal and inhumane. Finally, due to insufficient evidence, a gang boss who had been attacked by the other side sat on the witness stand and made a decisive correction. After that, the gang leader was also sent to prison.
Therefore, he actually knew that there was such a thing as a "tainted witness" in the court, and that a tainted witness could reduce his or her sentence by providing clues to the police and identifying the criminals, but... "frozen man"?
——Is this world crazy?
"I know what Gotham is like," he murmured to himself, "I have known this city... Yes, I know what it is like..."
It seems that there are endless criminals in this city, and with the appearance of Batman, they become more crazy and brutal, and their numbers increase one after another. Sometimes people wonder if it is the appearance of Batman that attracts these criminals. Some people hate Batman - why didn't he kill them after catching them? As a result, they began to hate the city of Gotham where there is no "death penalty".
This city is a mad flower that breeds malice and blossoms. They hate it, but never try to escape from it. Some people leave their homeland when they are young, but they will come back many years later, like an indescribable curse.
Equivalent to the "reluctance to give up" of the people of Gotham is the "obsession" of the criminals of Gotham. Most criminals are obsessed with Batman, with Clown being one of the representatives. As for Mr. Freeze, he knows this man, who is on the fine line between genius and criminal. Illness and loss have made him less sober - his file is like the crimes he has committed. As long as it is uploaded to the Internet, it can be viewed and will not be erased.
So he never thought that criminals in Gotham would help the police, that would be like a clever black cat deciding to help the mice it hated.
Fries was stunned for a moment: "No, I mean... Frozen was once sent to Arkham... Why can his testimony be used as evidence?"
"Because a professional psychiatrist believes that he has recovered," the annoying female lawyer said with a fake smile, "Of course, the psychiatrist I'm talking about doesn't mean the ugly little girl."
This is a terrible situation, thought Frizzle.
He listened to the testimony of the anxious man, and his heart slowly sank.
"...I have always known that hell is right beside me. I knew the existence of the mine, but I did not try to understand it. At that time, I knew everything, but I never thought of stopping it, because I felt that I was in hell and that I was the worst one. I was immersed in my own world until that day when the police found me. Under their guidance, I saw the mine that was about to explode and those miserable people. Only then did I know what was happening not far from me. So my thinking changed, and I decided to stand up and identify these demons..."
Damn it! Why didn't you think of identifying it before?
Clearly, some kind of agreement was reached with the police, but in a place like Gotham where there is no death penalty, what kind of agreement can be reached? How much difference does it make whether your family is locked up or not?
Fries has considered various situations where his opponents are the public security, procuratorial and judicial systems, but he has never considered that his opponents are criminals in Gotham City? From the ugly girl to the frozen man, do you still remember that you are criminals?
He recalled his communication with Dr. Hadley Queenie, who was obviously the alias of the ugly little girl Harley Quinn. At first, he thought he had found a reputable psychiatrist who quickly convinced him during the conversation... Was this a conspiracy from the beginning?
Fries was thinking quickly about how to solve the problem. Should he delay it until the next trial and prepare more sufficient evidence?
——However, the funny thing is that he actually has no evidence in his hands. On the contrary, the opponent's evidence will become more and more as time goes by, because Friis himself knows best that his defense object, Hal Smith, is a heinous criminal.
As time passes, Friis searches for a solution to his dilemma.
At the back door of the court, a man leaned against the wall, took off his helmet with one hand and placed it on his motorcycle, and held a mobile phone in the other hand, with the trial scene on the screen.
He had two white highlights in his black hair and a hint of green in his blue pupils. This guy's real name was Jason Todd, and his alias was Red Hood. Theoretically, he was also one of the eyewitnesses, but he did not stand in the witness stand.
Jason did not believe that the laws of Gotham could uphold justice. He had always thought so when he was wandering outside. So after gaining strength and returning to Gotham, he decided to use violence to clear everything up and become the greatest violence to curb the occurrence of other violence.
If he hadn't seen the changes on the East Side, he would have shot those people in South Hinckley, as well as the guys in the dock, young and old, and none of them would have survived.
He felt irritated at the thought of breathing the same polluted air with these scumbags.
But...something has definitely changed in Gotham.
He couldn't explain why, just like he couldn't explain why he stood in the alley behind the courthouse after waking up when he could have found a safe house far away to watch the live broadcast. Did he really want to testify wearing a hood? Cryoman would be enough.
However——
"If I walked up to the witness stand and took off my hood, the old man would probably drop his cup, right?"
The camera swept over Bruce Wayne in the gallery. Jason thought about the strange scene for a moment, tsk- ...
He and Batman will have ideological disputes, and they will meet again one day, but not now, and not in this situation.
...Maybe he's not ready yet.
...Also, the missing Xiao Chou probably isn't prepared either.
He put on his helmet; it was clear that there was no place for him in the courtroom.
Friis was losing ground, at least on the surface.
But in reality—he was simply recognizing what he had long recognized: his boss was not Hal Smith.
His boss is Mr. Dunlop, the biggest gangster in New Haven. What he has to do is to protect the rights of Mr. Dunlop in the Gotham court. From the beginning, Friis knew that it would be difficult to acquit the case. His real goal was to prevent Hal Smith and his family from leaving Gotham and identifying Dunlop.
Originally, Fries thought that the police did not have sufficient evidence, but after talking with Hal, he found out that this old man who was always tight-lipped in the other world had confessed everything. Fries wondered if Hal could not stand the torture, and at the same time he wondered what kind of terrible place Blackgate Prison was - but fortunately, he could still change his testimony in court.
He planned to prove that Hal Smith had mental illness problems, so his testimony was not counted. But if this trial did not produce a result, and the other party was once again interrogated into something else by Bethevin's strange torture method, then both Hal and Fries would die. Fries would buy a ticket to Africa now and stay away from New Haven from now on, and maybe he could still save his life.
And the old man Hal Smith, the former mayor, asked Friesland to do everything possible to send him to the local mental hospital, and then he would find a way to transfer him from the local mental hospital to Jackson. Neither of these two cities has the death penalty.
As for why I have to leave... Arkham Asylum is not a place for normal people to stay.
As the trial wore on, the lawyer on the other side stood up again, and Friis decided to simply sacrifice Hal Smith's nephew Robert to try to shirk the crime. At this time, the tearful defendant spoke:
"There is no direct evidence to prove my guilt," said the aging man, who has a kind face and is neither fat nor thin. He looks like he can coax his granddaughter to sleep and take his son fishing. He is as friendly as an ordinary neighbor around you, especially his cloudy brown eyes. He said, "Your Honor, I want to defend myself and my innocent family."
"South Hinckley is not a bad town, but I am indeed a bad mayor. When I found out that my family was doing something wrong, I did not choose to stop them, but tried my best to take them away. I am indeed not a qualified chief, but just an ordinary grandfather, maternal grandfather and father..."
He looked at the plaintiff's lawyer and said, "Madam, you accused me of burning the account book and taking out a new account book from the nightclub. However, my signature and fingerprint were not on that account book. As for witnesses and recordings, my voice was not in any of the recordings you provided. They were all made by 'my subordinates'. But is this really the case? Three years ago, I still remembered everything that happened during the Vietnam War. A year ago, I could no longer remember my wife's middle name. But those young people can shift the blame to their superiors, because as long as the superiors bear the greatest responsibility, then they, as subordinates, can get a lighter sentence. For example... a tainted witness?"
He smiled at the frozen man and said, "Sir, I still remember how you looked when you came to this town. You were so sick that you looked like a nobody. But now you look so good, and you look nothing like the image on the Internet. I almost forgot I had ever seen you."
"It seems that your memory is not bad." Frozen Man replied coldly.
Hal smiled and shook his head, wiping away his tears. The old man's laughter grew louder and louder, and then he said, "I am very old, I am almost senile, and even if I am convicted, what will be the final result?"
The entire courtroom was extremely quiet, with only the sounds of machines running and reporters filming with their cameras.
He asked himself and answered: "Life imprisonment? Even if I go to Blackgate Prison, at my age, I can't do any other heavy work, and I can't contribute anything to this city. I am really sorry that this happened in the town I managed, and I knew nothing about it. But I am willing to take responsibility for the young people who made mistakes out of ignorance, and I hope that South Hinckley will no longer be an autonomous, closed town..."
He turned his head and looked at the mayor in the audience, then turned back and looked at the plaintiff's lawyer: "But I refuse to admit the testimony provided by the police. During this period, I have been mentally ill and need to take medicine every day."
There is actually nothing wrong with Hal's confession -
There is a lot of wiggle room in American law, and he is trying to save himself.
For example, there was once a murderer who was young and handsome. The court received thousands of petitions asking not to kill this "handsome man". Even after entering prison, the prisoner's sentence was changed again and again, and finally he completed his "life imprisonment" in just a few years.
Hal's tearful performance was nothing more than expressing a few viewpoints: "Drug dealers do exist," "But I am innocent, I know nothing," "I am old, even if I really knew, I would have forgotten it," "I am old, how could I refuse to admit it just to live two more years? Besides, there is no death penalty in the city of Gotan. In this case, I still choose to refuse to admit it, which only shows that I am really innocent." In fact, what he really wants to do is to overturn the testimony he once provided to the police -
Testimony relating to Gotham gang boss Black Mask and New Haven gang boss Dunlop.
He must be sick in the head to say that... So Hal Smith really thinks that Bella Bettivan is a woman with a problem! How could she not have a problem?
“I feel so sorry for the victims, but even if they were standing in front of me, I could still say…” the old man sighed, “I knew nothing about this.”
"You don't look like you have a memory problem," the female lawyer said. "It is the law that will determine whether you are guilty or not, not your one-sided statement."
"Your Honor, I would like to call upon our witness, Jean Merope."
After she finished speaking, she looked in the direction of the witness platform and waited for a while. The noise in the court gradually increased. The female lawyer's brows wrinkled. She looked at the screen of her mobile phone and waited for a few more minutes. She trotted to the platform. After a while, Judge Amy Hirst knocked the gavel:
"The court is adjourned for the time being."
Bad news, online public opinion is indeed going astray following Hal Smith's statement.
The worse news is that something is wrong with Jane, and even if she isn't, the image that Hal has created for himself is already fixed, and it would be very difficult to break it with a trial...
Accompanying Jane in the waiting room was the Frozen Man's wife Nora, and the one who asked her not to appear in court was the court's psychiatrist. The doctor judged that her emotions were not stable enough and suggested that she calm down before going to the witness stand.
——Otherwise she would just mess everything up.
She thought she was ready. She just had to walk up, stand in front of her enemies, tear off their pretended expressions, accuse her of her pain, let the whole world hear it, let everyone know... what kind of scumbag they were, they didn't deserve to live in this world.
But just by seeing those people's faces through the screen and hearing them speak, she found herself shaking with anger. She opened her mouth, but no accusations could come out. She just wanted to rush up and bite them and tear them apart. Those desperate days came again, and darkness enveloped her again.
Jane then realized that she couldn't do it. She couldn't calmly and systematically tell them what the criminals had done. The nurse and the doctor had helped her, but she couldn't do it. She saw the camera and felt that she was standing naked in front of these people. Even her own pleading for justice was like a bitch calling out to a bad guy to ask for money.
The criminal's figure grew taller, while she was small and had nowhere to hide.
Specks of light streamed in through the small window of the waiting room. Jane stared at the faint light, almost going crazy. Time passed by minute by minute, but she felt that time had stopped at this moment. Time was stagnant. No one could hurt her, and no one could help her.
until--
The sound of music pushed open the door of time and rushed in.
“All the life——she has seen——”
Jane was stunned.
"All the meaner side of me"
It's a child's voice.
Before the singing could be heard inside the courtroom, Jeff, a reporter from the New York Daily, had already noticed the unexpected situation outside the courtroom. He took the opportunity to go to the restroom during the recess and did not forget to bring his camera.
From the toilet window, he saw many people gathering outside the court. They came from all directions of the street. Some were crossing the road, some were browsing their mobile phones, and some were staying in the cafe. But he didn't know what called them, and they walked to the front entrance of the court.
Even the bailiff seemed confused, and these people did not storm the courtroom -
They didn't look like they were armed.
Jeff thought for a moment, then rushed out of the toilet and arrived at the main entrance of the court. A truck screeched to a stop, and about seventy or eighty people began to take out...wait, musical instruments?
This was obviously a band made up of local people from Gotam, and as soon as they started playing their instruments, Jeff couldn't help but frown: It was too bad, this was just a folk band that had almost no training and could only barely keep tune.
But why would a folk band perform in front of the court?
They had just finished a song and no one was singing, so Jeff stood up and decided to go in and continue watching the trial, but the moment he turned around, he heard more and more frequent footsteps.
A large number of children came from the left side of the road. The oldest was only about ten years old, and the youngest was probably only seven or eight years old. They were led by priests and nuns. Was this the choir of the local church in Gotan? There were more children than in a normal choir.
Coming from the right side of the road were what seemed to be white-collar workers who had just gotten off work, hip-hop artists with tattoos on their arms, construction workers, and some tourists who were surrounded and looked puzzled.
Then, Jeff raised the camera, put the bow on the strings, and hundreds of people came together, converged together, the children stood in the front, the orchestra was surrounded in the middle, and as the not-so-pleasant music flowed out, the children took the lead in singing -
“All the life——she has seen——”
"All the meaner side of me"
She had experienced such a terrible life. She saw the evil side of human nature. God had never shown mercy to her. In the face of malice, everyone was equally insignificant.
Jeff subconsciously took a step back, and then others followed the children's voices. The adult voices mixed with the children's sharp and crisp voices, becoming deeper and more powerful.
“She's got a lions in her heart”
“A fire in her soul”
"He's a got a beast in his belly"
“That’s so hard to control”
The singing of hundreds of people was far superior to the previous instrumental sounds and children's voices. The singing spread into the courtroom during recess. People subconsciously walked to the corridor, and Jane was supported by Nora to the window.
The sound overwhelmed the music, becoming even louder, almost like a roar -
“Cause they've taken too much hits”
“Taking blow by blow”
Now light them up.
Now light it all up.
Jane leaned her forehead against the window, listening to the singing outside, which made the glass vibrate.
“When you've been fighting”
“For it all your life”
When you try your best to change your destiny and your life——
You are the hero.
A huge, torrent-like sound penetrated the door. Except for the defendant who stayed in the dock and could not move freely, almost everyone else left the courtroom and walked out, letting the song surround them.
Jeff pressed the shutter, taking pictures of faces, but it was not enough. He saw more people gathering. Some seemed to know what to do, while others had confused looks on their faces, but because people around them were singing, they started singing along. Someone in the distance was recording a video, and the bailiff held his gun, not knowing whether to fire a warning shot.
Jeff approached the bailiff and heard the man holding the barrel of the gun listening and singing along quietly.
“That's how a superhero learns to fly”
The song ended and the music became dim, but someone in the front jumped onto the roof of a truck and began to conduct with amateurish gestures. The music returned to the original tune and they began to sing again. The dusk was deep and the priest took out the votive candles and lit them one by one and passed them around. They kept lighting them, passing them around and singing until they were hoarse.
——But the light has already gathered into a sea of stars.
Jeff had no idea when he returned to the courtroom. He saw a woman in the witness stand, but he couldn't see her face clearly. There were flashing orange lights in front of his eyes. The woman's face seemed to be hidden in the firelight, and only hazy lines could be seen.
He heard the other party's calm but slightly trembling voice, and he also heard the increasingly irritable and strange tone of the men in the dock.
When Jeff finally came to his senses, he only heard the sound of the Chief Justice's gavel falling.
The trial is over and the dust has settled.
In addition to some local people, a total of 1,187 people involved in the South Hinckley case need to be transferred to Washington for retrial together with people involved in the case in New Haven and Detroit. After the retrial is completed, this drug and human trafficking case that has traveled almost half the world from South Hinckley to New Haven, into Detroit and then into St. Petersburg can be said to have been settled.
Among them, it can be predicted that some of the people involved in the case will need to be extradited and shot in a foreign country.
This includes the black masked Roman Sionis. The only regrettable thing is that Roman Sionis is "on the run for fear of crime" and cannot be arrested, so some people have to take the gun before him.
When the criminal was taken away, the judges left their seats and the people in the audience stood up. Then, I don't know who started it, the first person applauded, then the second person, and they applauded and looked at each other with smiles.
The increasingly low music and singing outside gradually faded away, and suddenly, through the door and the outer wall, there broke out a cheer so loud that it could be heard inside the room. The cheers lasted for several minutes until the applause in the courtroom stopped, but it had not yet disappeared.
Bruce looked at Mayor Alec with a smile. She was staring at a blank wall, as if in a daze, or looking at something through the crowd, but there was a faint smile on her face.
Maybe they should go out for a meal, bring Dick and Tim, the warden and Vicki, Gordon and Barbara? Bruce thought it was like a family dinner, which was a bit weird.
But before he could open his mouth to invite her, the warden came over, the mayor walked over to meet her, and the two ladies walked out side by side, nodding and greeting everyone, but also declining other people's invitations to the banquet.
……All right.
In fact, Bruce was right. Weiwei was indeed looking at something.
She saw her reputation rise.
To be honest, she almost forgot about the reputation panel.
When the reputation module was just activated and 50% of the people in Gotan City knew the mayor, her rating on the module was [Medium to Evil]. But just now, her reputation increased a lot, and the system prompted that 75% of people knew her as the mayor, and her rating changed to [Medium to Good].
[Current Influence: No matter where you are, your influence will cover your subordinates, and all subordinates' obedience level will be 3]
[Current bias: When a person is too far away from them, they tend to be reluctant to make an accurate evaluation of her. Therefore, they vaguely think that you should be a good person, but some people naturally do not trust you because of your profession.]
[Attribute: Moderate to good]
[You are unable to promote changes to the laws of Gotan City at your current level. Please continue to improve your reputation.]
It seemed that although her reputation had greatly improved, it couldn't change anything for the time being. Weiwei left it alone and quickly changed her identity.
All criminals will be escorted to Washington tomorrow morning, and she must achieve her goal tonight.
Weiwei was transported to Blackgate Prison.
Of course, she wasn't the only one, but——
"Doctor?"
Dr. Stephen Strange appeared silently. Before this, he had been to one of the three major hospitals in Gothenburg.
The wizard, who was called Doctor Strange, stared at the girl in front of him for a long time. He said, "...I have never tried to make so many people out of their bodies. For ordinary people, it would be very dangerous to have their souls out of their bodies for a long time."
"Hurry up, doctor," the girl complained. "I'm not going to hurt them. That's impossible, is it?"
Strange closed one eye and then opened it again, staring at the dark fog that was thicker and more dangerous than before, and hesitated to speak.
Just one day later, the strange aura around Vivi White became even more terrifying, and he still hasn't figured it out.
But Strange discovered through getting along with her that Vivi herself had nothing to do with evil. This girl seemed to simply want to change the city and was working hard for it. In this case, thinking about what happened in New York, Strange guessed that Vivi was either chosen by the sleeping evil god to absorb these malicious forces, or her physique was suitable for sealing evil, so evil attacked her, but she called Strange a "reward", which made him suspect that the former was more likely, or even that the former gods from other dimensions might not be really asleep.
...Because it is still unclear who is behind the other person, Stephen generally will not refuse a girl's reasonable request.
For example, teaching students and building roads.
In Blackgate Prison, thousands of people in South Hinckley were sleeping soundly. Their souls were knocked out of their bodies. Then, Vivi followed behind them, seemingly holding something invisible in her hands. Under the cover of shadows, the prisoners' bodies disappeared one by one.
——There are serious criminals here who should be shot in theory, and there are also scum who are "only" convicted of rape and abuse and can barely be considered as light criminals. Stephen treats them all equally.
The soul floating in the air was in a sleeping state, and then the girl who had used Stephen and discarded him turned around and disappeared.
Stephen: “…”
He stood in the corridor of Blackgate Prison, staring at the sleeping prison guards and the destroyed surveillance cameras, feeling as if he was an ally of the girl in doing bad things.
rose garden.
Cards that cannot be seen by anyone except the players appear in mid-air one after another, with the left and right clearly separated. The bronze card [Item: Compression (One-time)] is copied using the [Copy Card]. The soulless human body is nothing more than an "object" composed of various elements. The victims and perpetrators float equally on both sides, and their bodies have all turned into cards.
After a while, Weiwei took out the golden scale.
Justice will not be late. After completing the justice in the trial, she must bring true justice to these people - this part is what the law cannot do and is called the realm of magic.
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