"Now, Lieutenant Lunt," Coombes began, "when you arrived at the temporary
camp across the run from Holloway's camp, what did you find there?"
"Two dead people," Lunt said. "A Terran human, who had been shot three
times through the chest, and a Fuzzy, who had been kicked or trampled to
death."
"Your Honors!" Coombes expostulated, "I must ask that the witness be
requested to rephrase his answer, and that the answer he has just made be
stricken from the record. The witness, under the circumstances, has no
right to refer to the Fuzzies as 'people.'"
"Your Honors," Brannhard caught it up, "Mr. Coombes's objection is no less
prejudicial. He has no right, under the circumstances, to deny that the
Fuzzies be referred to as 'people.' This is tantamount to insisting that
the witness speak of them as nonsapient animals."
It went on like that for five minutes. Jack began doodling on a notepad.
Baby picked up a pencil with both hands and began making doodles too. They
looked rather like the knots he had been learning to tie. Finally, the
court intervened and told Lunt to tell, in his own words, why he went to
Holloway's camp, what he found there, what he was told and what he did.
There was some argument between Coombes and Brannhard, at one point, about
the difference between hearsay and _res gestae_. When he was through,
Coombes said, "No questions."
"Lieutenant, you placed Leonard Kellogg under arrest on a complaint of
homicide by Jack Holloway. I take it that you considered this complaint a
valid one?"
"Yes, sir. I believed that Leonard Kellogg had killed a sapient being.
Only sapient beings bury their dead."
Ahmed Khadra testified. The two troopers who had come in the other car,
and the men who had brought the investigative equipment and done the
photographing at the scene testified. Brannhard called Ruth Ortheris to
the stand, and, after some futile objections by Coombes, she was allowed
to tell her own story of the killing of Goldilocks, the beating of Kellogg
and the shooting of Borch. When she had finished, the Chief Justice rapped
with his gavel.
"I believe that this testimony is sufficient to establish the fact that
the being referred to as Jane Doe alias Goldilocks was in fact kicked and
trampled to death by the defendant Leonard Kellogg, and that the Terran
human known as Kurt Borch was in fact shot to death by Jack Holloway. This
being the case, we may now consider whether or not either or both of these
killings constitute murder within the meaning of the law. It is now eleven
forty. We will adjourn for lunch, and court will reconvene at fourteen
hundred. There are a number of things, including some alterations to the
courtroom, which must be done before the afternoon session.... Yes, Mr.
Brannhard?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account