Darkstone Code

Chapter 1327: Chapter 1326: Choice

In the room of the Police Station, the young Lawyer looked at the father and son before him. He was about to say something, then lowered his head to flip through the file.

He felt a bit reluctant, but this was his job.

According to the guidance from the Ministry of Justice’s special task force and the "Nagariel New Federation Code (Trial)", robbery and theft in Nagariel with a case value exceeding a thousand dollars can result in a death sentence.

There is four thousand dollars here. If the local Police Station sought numbers, they could enough sentence the whole family to death.

At this moment, his sense of responsibility as a Lawyer came into play. After all, he was still young, around thirty years old, probably just escaping the internship period in the Lawyer industry.

They were just newbies!

"The new legislation has provisions regarding the case value of theft and robbery crimes. The goods you stole are enough to sentence four of you to the death penalty..."

An Jing’s mind went blank again. He subconsciously looked at his father, the middle-aged man was also shocked.

They just followed others into some stores and took things back, how... could they be sentenced to death?

"Isn’t there a mistake?", the middle-aged man mustered the courage to ask.

His body had already started to tremble slightly, the smile on his face was forced and couldn’t be maintained after he finished speaking.

The young Lawyer sighed and looked back at the father and son. "The worst-case scenario is that the Judge considers you accomplices, and both of you would be sentenced to death."

"However, because your relationship is very special, I have a proposal here, only in the worst case, we could find the only proposal that might be slightly better than the ordinary outcome."

The two grabbed the last straw like humble creatures, bowing, bending over, listening to the Lawyer.

"Because you are father and son, one of you can take full responsibility for all crimes, and this way, we can try to persuade the Judge to issue only one death sentence."

"This is the best outcome I could think of."

"You can consider whether to die together or decide who takes all the responsibility."

The Lawyer put the file away. "The court will be held the day after tomorrow, we will meet again before the trial, you can leave now."

The policeman led the soulless shells back to the detention area with an iron chain.

The middle-aged man slid against the wall slowly.

He didn’t sit; he just fell to the ground directly.

There were cries, curses, and some people were frantically pounding the iron cage in the detention area.

Soon, two policemen arrived and dragged the man, who was pounding on the cage demanding his release, to the center aisle of the detention area, and then shot him directly in the head.

The bloodstains and faint smell on the ground made everyone quiet, the silence lasted for one or two minutes, then people started to cry sadly again...

An Jing was also crying. He couldn’t understand how just taking a bit of something together could lead to this.

He understood the Lawyer’s words. He and his father had no other options, they had to pay for their mistakes!

Looking at his father’s appearance, An Jing felt very guilty that his father was involved just because of him, which was only a matter of a few days.

His father was practically brought into this by An Jing, but the Judges didn’t care about that.

Your family has stolen enough to sentence everyone to death, sure enough, someone will die.

As the Lawyer mentioned, the only choice now is to decide who will die.

Death, this word, is actually very remote for a sixteen-year-old boy.

Last night, he was dreaming about working hard to earn money and immigrating with his family to the Federation to live a happy life.

But today, he has to face the heavy decision of choosing who would die.

He kept wiping his tears; overnight, all his future dreams shattered.

Looking at his father, remorse and regret churned in his heart, he opened his mouth, intending to say, "I will take it all," but somehow, he couldn’t say it.

His throat, his voice box, everything related to speaking, were preventing him from voicing it.

This is the situation for most people here; they all face the choice of heavy penalties and death sentences, though compared to this father and son who could have one survive, they seem not so lucky.

Among these people, there were families where brothers or fathers and sons were both caught.

Unfortunately, some of them weren’t detained at the same Police Station, which meant each had to take all responsibility once.

This might make people feel the law... is not very fair.

But sentencing them now is perhaps the fairest for those victims.

There shouldn’t be any ridiculous occurrence where someone does wrong, commits a crime, harms others, yet should be forgiven by society, the people, or the law?

The silence of the night, until dawn, An Jing fell asleep, but he woke up before noon.

Youth granted him almost inexhaustible strength and energy. He saw his father sitting against the corner, seemingly lifeless, and after a long silence, said, "I will plead guilty..."

The grey eyes of the middle-aged man immediately showed surprise; he looked at An Jing without speaking, but his vivid expression made everyone realize, he was "alive."

Yes, he was alive.

Yesterday he was dead, but today, after An Jing’s words, he came alive.

The middle-aged man stood up and hugged him, neither of them spoke.

Resting against his father’s chest, An Jing heard a long sigh.

Two days passed quickly, the place used for temporarily detaining prisoners at the Police Station was already full of people, supposedly prisons were being built everywhere.

According to some Federation Observers, over the next three years, although the crime rate in Nagariel New Federation will decrease significantly, the criminal cases will not decrease much.

Put simply, since the cost of crime becomes high, ordinary people begin to develop a vigilant attitude towards crime, and they will refuse to choose crime due to the inability to bear the consequences of crime.

But for those who have already committed crimes or have no other options but crime, they have already paid a very high cost, even if they immediately cease to commit crimes, they need to pay a heavy price.

In this case, many criminals are highly likely to choose to continue committing crimes.

From no rule of law to rule by law, the whole process will take at least three to five years, so it’s not too late to build prisons everywhere now, it’s just the right time.

In two days, the fate of many people and families was decided.

Two days later, An Jing and his father met the Lawyer again, with less than thirty minutes left before the trial.

Due to the numerous cases and conclusive evidence, the rapid court rules were invoked, no jury.

Of course, to the Federation people, Nagariel people don’t necessarily count as normally evolved humans; they certainly don’t enjoy the rights humans enjoy, which is fair.

The rapid court’s trial process is simple, just presenting evidence, and then the Judge sentencing according to standards.

Of course, the Judge has enough power, which is why Chris (the lady who came second in the bowling competition)’s husband is willing to let his wife use sex bribery everywhere to secure his position.

In rapid courts, the Judge’s power is magnified to the extreme, they can decide whether a person needs to do—

This involves the most interesting part of Federal Judiciary, as long as the evidence is sufficient, the Judge cannot deny someone’s guilt, but guilty does not mean sentencing.

You see, this embodies the spirit of Federation freedom and fairness. Yes, guilty doesn’t necessarily mean sentencing, because the Judge feels it’s unnecessary.

This situation often appears in rapid courts.

For example, a single mother guilty of dangerous driving, she committed a crime, but the Judge felt her crime could be forgiven, so all penalties were waived.

For instance, a college student accused of beating up an immigrant did commit that act, from a judicial standpoint, he committed a crime, but the Judge felt he was right, so he doesn’t need to serve a sentence.

How the rapid court will sentence is all decided by the Judge, now with so many cases waiting for verdicts in Nagariel, rapid court is the only way.

Standing again in front of this father and son, the young Lawyer had matured a bit since the last time.

Within these two days, he witnessed more cases that could be recorded in Federal Judiciary textbooks; he wasn’t as sensitive as he was initially.

"I remember you, have you made your choice?", he flipped the file twice, then looked at the middle-aged man.

In his understanding, in this situation, it should often be the middle-aged person giving the chance to live to their child, after all... he is an adult, he should bear more responsibility!

The young Lawyer thought this way, but the one who stood out was An Jing.

An Jing nodded, "I will admit all charges; he is innocent."

The Lawyer was momentarily surprised, "Are you mistaken, you want to admit all charges?"

He emphasized, "You should know, if you accept all accusations, they will let you die!"

The Lawyer looked angrily at the middle-aged man, whose evasive glance turned elsewhere.

Facing this father and son, the Lawyer sneered twice, accompanied by head shaking and sighing, he took the file in his hand, "Alright, if that’s your choice."

In moments of waiting over ten minutes, it’s time for their case to be tried.

The courtroom wasn’t large, nor were there many people attending, but there were quite a few from the media.

The whole world was closely watching the legal and judicial reforms of the Nagariel New Federation, they were very concerned about what was happening here.

This father and son didn’t know they would make an unexpected choice in front of the world.