Free Web NovelChapter 802: Chapter 284: Verdict Announced: Death Penalty Demanded!
On the defendant’s side.
Qin Mu, seated at the defense table, saw the timing was right and stood up as well.
Striking while the iron was hot.
He glanced at the opposing counsel.
And said coolly, "Even someone like me, who doesn’t believe in God, knows that the Lord’s glory is not to be profaned. And you people... actually laid your hands on money donated to the Church. What fear of God do you have left?"
"You just swore on the Bible. To be honest, I don’t believe a single word you said."
No sooner had he finished speaking.
The jury behind him...
Once again grew restless.
They had finally calmed down, and in an instant Qin Mu’s spark...
Set them ablaze again!
What Qin Mu said hit them right where it hurt.
As devout believers...
They would never allow anyone to dare insult the dignity of their Church like this!
In that moment.
Everyone glared furiously at George and Xu Liming, curses pouring out one after another.
And George, who had just been about to smooth things over...
Seeing this scene.
His face suddenly changed, turning incredibly ugly.
He had thought Qin Mu would oppose what he said at this stage; he never expected Qin Mu to be so shameless.
First he lit the fire.
Now he was fanning it.
He wasn’t giving him the slightest chance to put it out.
"Order!"
"Order!"
"Order!"
In the courtroom.
Old Judge Anthony saw this and his face darkened with rage.
He kept banging his gavel.
Reiterating courtroom discipline.
The bailiffs also came forward one by one to warn and admonish the loudest of the twelve jurors.
But...
The effect was minimal.
In their fanaticism, they kept glaring at George and Xu Liming, as if they wished they could kill them.
"You scum! Frauds! The Lord will never forgive you. After you die, you’re going to Hell!"
"You don’t even deserve to be called human. You actually dare mess with the Church’s donations. You think that by dumping the blame on that Zhao Wan or whatever his name is, everything will just be fine?"
"Pah! Do you dare swear on the Bible that you never touched that money?"
"The Bible? They’re not worthy of touching the Bible, let alone of listening to the Lord’s teachings!"
"..."
The twelve jurors were furious.
The more they looked at George and Xu Liming right in front of them, the angrier they became.
Anyone with half a brain could see...
Zhao Wan was just the scapegoat.
The real beneficiaries behind this were definitely the travel group, and that included George and Xu Liming!
Blinded by rage...
They no longer cared about what was right or wrong; they only wanted these two to suffer the punishment they deserved!
To make them pay for embezzling donations and profaning the Lord’s glory!
As for the case of Zhang Qingyuan and Feng Cuihua, they had zero interest.
"Order!"
Meanwhile, in the courtroom.
Old Judge Anthony exhausted his tongue and spent a good while.
Before finally calming the enraged twelve jurors down.
Then...
He fixed his face into a stern expression and looked at Qin Mu.
He snorted coldly, "Counsel for the defense, watch your remarks. Do not bring up irrelevant topics to inflame emotions!"
From his position as an observer just now, he had seen everything clearly.
Qin Mu’s remarks...
Had nothing to do with evidence or legal arguments.
They were aimed directly at sowing discord.
Using that to stir up the jurors’ anger, so as to tilt the situation in his favor.
"Uh... Your Honor, I just made an offhand comment. I wasn’t inflaming emotions, was I?"
Qin Mu, hearing this, looked utterly innocent.
He blinked.
At most...
He could only be said to be learning from the other side and making use of the jury as well.
This was exactly where the jury system was vulnerable.
From whatever angle you approached it... fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
As long as you could win the jury’s support, you could, by the rules, win the case.
In fact.
He had really wanted to use evidence and legal knowledge alone to beat the other side.
But...
Under a case law system, there were too many existing precedents.
The judge would never side with him.
His only option was to start with gaining the jury’s approval.
As long as he tore off the true masks of George and Xu Liming...
The jury’s view of them would completely change.
The twelve didn’t need to support them; it was enough that they loathed George and Xu Liming.
For that...
At the pretrial conference, he had deliberately feigned weakness.
So the other side would relax.
Then he threw out an excuse to force them to abandon Zhao Wan and use him as a scapegoat.
After Zhao Wan took the fall.
He then used the already exposed facts to win over the jury’s leanings.
Otherwise...
If he had directly thrown out the fact that the other side had embezzled donations, with George’s eloquence, he would have come up with some sophistry.
The jurors wouldn’t know which side to believe.
"Brilliant, that’s just brilliant..."
Off to the side.
Chen Tiankuo looked at Qin Mu and couldn’t help swallowing.
The look in his eyes toward Qin Mu grew more and more wary.
At that moment just now.
He had finally figured out all these interlocking moves.
Aside from the jury selection...
There was also the earlier demand that the other side disclose the detailed records of the donation funds—it was all for this moment!
And now.
All these things together meant the jury had completely swung to their side.
For the rest of this case...
You could put a pig in here to argue it and they still couldn’t lose.
And right after that.
He saw Qin Mu take a deep breath and throw out another piece of evidence: "Here is what we collected back home regarding the reputation of the Red Sunset Travel Group, as well as the administrative penalty decisions issued by the relevant law enforcement agencies!"
As he spoke.
He handed the materials he had prepared to the court clerk.
These reputation materials...
Were all gathered for him back home by Qing Lan.
As for the penalty decisions...
