Academy Murders: How Selfish

Brenda paced. “We’ve heard a lot over these past few weeks. We’ve seen how one idea can explode. We’ve seen how testimony can evolve over time. But that is not what we’re here for, ladies and gentlemen. We’re not here for the ‘courtroom drama.’ We’re not here for the ‘spectacle.’”

“What we’re here for is to clear the name, permanently for a woman wrongly accused twice. While she cleared that case, she is still waiting. Like we all are waiting. We’re waiting for justice to be served. It is because she deserves it. With all the time we’ve spent on trying to designate this shred of evidence or that dangling piece of wording said by a witness, we may have lost sight of who we’re actually trying here.”

“The timing seems to be off here. What we should be focused on is not the fact that my client ever even encountered Susan but whether she would even go so far as to murder her. It didn’t make sense at the beginning of this trial and it doesn’t make sense now. The truth is that there is a shortage of truth here. We’re here to make sure that truth reigns supreme in these proceedings. A metal bar and a slab of cement are the only things that have been put on the table as evidence against Detective Jergensen. She has shown in her deportment, her very posture, that she is ready to withstand the barrage of fallacies, fake statements, and flatout lies. As we transition to the final aspects of this case, I want you to know there is a difference in the way we conduct ourselves. As someone in law enforcement knows, it’s about digging and digging for the truth until crepuscular rays shine from it.”

“You should allow those rays to shine a light on the facts. At eight o’clock, lights out. Where was the detective? In her bunk. An inmate testified that there was a commotion in the cell Susan occupied at approximately nine-fifteen. I still would like to know how my client was asleep and assaulting the deceased at the same time. Who found Susan? A guard. His testimony was that he had checked her cell and found her not breathing. How did he not alert for help for fifteen full minutes? Why did it take the guard to enter the adjacent empty cell and wake up Detective Jergensen? She was roused from her slumber to look into a possible murder at that time. Something is undone about all of this. It’s sketchy to say the least. The finality of this case rests in your hands. I want you to forget about the lights and cameras and the paparazzi. I want you to focus on the reality of an upstanding pillar of the community. I want you to consider how rationally self—how selfish Detective Jergensen is. I don’t mean that in the traditional, false sense. I mean to say she pursues and preserves values. The value she wishes to preserve right now is her freedom. If we cannot secure the most basic right behind life for this woman, we would have failed. We would have allowed a great injustice to pass by us without even blinking. What we ought to do is look at this lady of the law and remember the rudiments of the case. We should use common sense to stitch together the finer details that belong to what happened to Susan. My client never got to know Susan. In the previous case, a cleaning lady dispatched Naomi on the same night. All of the evidence, including the investigation that Miss Jergensen performed suggests thst Susan committed suicide. The guard just came to shift her body to make it look like she was killed.”