As soon as Lois’s foot hit the newsroom floor that afternoon, Sheila Thompson handed her eleven messages and asked her if she and her sister could work Saturday because Mrs. Grant-Mooney had been out and their work had piled up and because they could really use a little overtime. Lois nodded and made a mental note to fill out the overtime notification e-form and send it to payroll.
She sat down at her desk and flipped through the message blanks until she found the one from Martha Kent. It also said that the Kents would be arriving at Metropolis Regional Airport at four-thirty that afternoon.
She looked at her watch. Three-forty. “Shelia!”
The girl ran to Lois’s office. “Yes, Ms. Lane?”
“I need someone to go to the regional airport and pick up two people. You have your car here?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Get a sign for Jonathan and Martha Kent. That’s spelled K-E-N-T. They’re arriving at four-thirty, flight seven-one-three, Northeast Airlines. Got that?”
She finished scribbling. “Kent, flight seven-thirteen, Northeast, regional airport, four-thirty arrival. Got it.”
Lois fished in her purse for her house key. “Take them to my apartment and help them get their luggage upstairs. They’ll say something about a hotel, but you tell them that you won’t have a job if they aren’t at my place when I get home tonight.”
Sheila snapped her eyes up at Lois and decided that her boss wasn’t kidding. “Yes, ma’am! They’ll be there when you get home if I have to chain them to the furniture!”
Lois’s eyes crinkled. “Well, you probably don’t have to go quite that far, but there’s no sense in them paying for a hotel when I’ve got more than enough room for them at my place.”
Sheila sketched a quick salute. “I’ll get it done, Ms. Lane! Oh, I assume you want me back at work after I drop them off?”
“No. Don’t worry about it, unless you have to come back to pick up your sister.”
Sheila wrinkled her nose. “Not tonight. She’s got a date.”
“Oh? A nice guy?”
The girl shook her head. “Are you kidding? He works here.”
Lois burst out laughing. “Young lady, there are worse things than dating a newspaperman!”
*****
The Daily Planet went to bed quietly for a Friday, and Lois headed home just before six. Since she didn’t know what or when Jonathan and Martha had eaten, she skipped the market and made a beeline for the parking garage.
She smiled as she thought about Bernadette Thompson and her date. She wondered who the guy was and hoped they’d have a good time.
Then a thought struck her. Could Jimmy be the guy? He wasn’t dating Pam any more, and he’d always had an eye for a pretty girl. She considered it, then decided to put the subject of employee dating on the agenda for the next meeting. Just what she’d say, she didn’t know, but surely the paper had some guidelines she could and should review.
Martha must have been perched on a chair beside the door, because Lois was in her embrace before she put her purse down.
“Lois! Honey, it’s so nice of you to have us this weekend! You really didn’t have to have us stepping all over you. We could’ve just as easily gone to a hotel.”
“I have to confess I’m a little selfish. I need some emotional support.” She leaned back. “I assume you’re here for the verdict?”
Jonathan stepped close and hugged her. “I thought we were, but that nice young lady Miss Thompson filled us in on what happened today in court.”
Lois sighed. “You mean Clark testifying?”
“Yes. He didn’t have to, did he?”
“No. I told him, his attorneys told him, the judge told him, but he’s so stubborn!”
Martha exchanged a glance with her husband. “Sounds like someone else I know.”
Lois sat down and kicked off her shoes. “That’s not all.”
“Oh? Jonathan, do you know of anything else?”
“No, and I’m a little afraid to ask.”
Lois put her face in her hands and insisted to herself that she would not cry. Not in front of Clark’s parents. Not in front of the two people who’d treated her like their own daughter.
She straightened. “He said – Clark told me that – he said win or lose he’s leaving.”
There. She’d said it and the building hadn’t collapsed. A black hole hadn’t appeared out of thin air and swallowed her up. A rogue time traveler hadn’t suddenly appeared and marooned her between eternities.
She turned and saw Martha. The older woman was wearing a strange face, one that was having trouble digesting what she’d just heard.
Jonathan leaned closer. “Lois, I’m sorry, but I could’ve sworn you just said that Clark told you he was leaving.”
“That’s what he said.”
Martha gasped. “But – he loves you! What did he mean?”
Lois shrugged. “He said he was leaving me because he didn’t want to hurt me again. I don’t know if he meant leaving Metropolis or New Troy or America or the planet or what, but that’s what he said.”
Lois’s stomach chose that moment to rumble. Jonathan snickered. “Mountains may crumble, seas may dry up, clouds may cover the earth, but people still gotta eat.”
Martha and Lois stared at him, then each woman slowly grinned. “Well, I can see what little I have for dinner, or I can have some Chinese delivered, or I can go to the farmer’s market down the street.”
Jonathan lifted his hand. “Let me go. I haven’t talked to Dimitri for quite a while.” He stood and checked for his wallet. “Anyone have any preferences?”
Martha shook her head. “Not me. Lois?”
“Huh. I think my stomach is about to file for divorce on the grounds of alienation of anything resembling sustenance. Tonight, I’ll eat just about anything as long as it’s free of harmful bacteria, deadly toxins, and mind-altering drugs.”
He smiled. “Okay. In that case, I see steak and baked beans and a Caesar salad in your tummy’s future. I’ll be back as quickly as I can.”
Lois nodded. “Tell Mr. Stephanopoulos I said ‘yasou’.”
*****
Dimitri Stephanopoulos finished arranging the heads of lettuce in the produce display, then he stood back to admire his handiwork. The man he bumped into put a hand on his shoulder to steady them both.
“Oh, sir, I am so sorry that I – Jonathan!” He grabbed his visitor in a bear hug. “I am so glad to see my good friend Jonathan Kent! You have not come to see me in so very long a time! But I am glad that you are here now! Come, you must tell me about Kansas and how the harvesting of your corn is happening.”
Dimitri turned so that one huge arm draped over Jonathan’s shoulders. “It’s good to see you too, Dimitri. We finished the corn harvest last week. Had a bumper crop, too.”
“Wonderful! Then you have brought me samples? You are perhaps expanding your distribution to Metropolis?”
Jonathan laughed. “I wish we could. Actually, Martha and I are here visiting a friend, and she doesn’t have anything for dinner.”
Dimitri smiled even more. “Your beautiful wife is here with you? Of course she is! You will select everything you will need! My nephew Mikhail will carry it back for you!”
“No, please, that’s not – “
“I insist! It is the least I can do for such a fine man as yourself.”
Jonathan gripped the big man’s elbows. “Very well, Dimitri, I accept your kindness, if you will allow me to return it.”
Dimitri laughed out loud. “Then you and you wife will have lunch with me and my wife tomorrow! That is how you will return this kindness! We will laugh and sing and tell many stories and enjoy ourselves together, yes?”
“It’s okay with me, but I’ll have to check with Martha. And I guess Lois has some work – “
“Lois? The lovely Miss Lois Lane? She is the friend with whom you are staying?” He slapped his forehead. “Ah! I am so rude! I am a boor! She must come also! I cannot take her guests away from her without offering her the same hospitality! You will tell her this, yes?”
Jonathan smiled. “Okay, Dimitri, okay! Tomorrow at twelve-thirty, okay? Oh, and Lois asked me to tell you ‘yasou.’”
“She said that?” Jonathan nodded. Dimitri lifted his arms to the ceiling and turned as he spoke. “Oh, it is wonderful! I will tell my wife that a beautiful young woman who remembers to tell Dimitri ‘hello’ in his native tongue is coming to have lunch with him tomorrow and she will be jealous and we will have a wonderful time tonight as we plan our meal tomorrow!” He dropped his arms and grabbed Jonathan’s shoulders. “Come, my good friend Jonathan, you will select your food and Mikhail will be ready to help you when you are finished.” He pointed to the far side of the store. “But I suggest you begin with some fresh fruit, perhaps the grapes beside that tall man there.”
Jonathan stared at the man’s back. He looked familiar, but – no. It couldn’t be Clark. Could it? If it was Clark, why was he here and not in the Philippines, or talking to Lois? Or talking to them?
Dimitri nudged him in the middle of the back. “Here is your shopping bag. Go select your food, Jonathan. And take all the time you need. I must see to Mr. Davis, who cannot find a properly ripened cantaloupe if his marriage depends on it.” Dimitri chuckled. “And sometimes I believe that it does.”
Jonathan nodded and began wandering towards the man in the ragged coat. Instead of speaking to him or touching him, Jonathan stepped up beside him and examined the selection of seedless grapes in the boxes in front of him.
Without turning, the man said, “Hi, Dad.”
Jonathan didn’t turn either. “Hello, Son.”
Clark hesitated. “You look good.”
“Wish I could say the same for you. That beard looks terrible.”
“It’s not real.”
“Good.” He bagged a stem of red grapes and placed them in his bag. “That’s not all that’s not real about you lately.”
“You don’t sound all that pleased to see me.”
“I’m not sure yet.”
Clark paused. “I flew out to see you and Mom, but you weren’t at home. I found your truck at the airport, so I figured you might be here.”
“We thought the verdict might come in today.”
“It might have, but I delayed the closing statements.”
Jonathan placed a pound of green grapes in his bag. “Yeah, we heard. Excuse me.”
Clark moved back to allow his father access to the apples. “How’s Lois?”
“About like you’d expect. She’s putting up a brave front, but she’s barely hanging on by one or two fingernails.”
Clark waited for more information, but none came. “I’m sorry.”
Jonathan placed three Rome apples in his bag. “You should be more than that.”
“What? Dad, what did she tell you?”
Jonathan forced himself to be calm. “She said that you’d decided to leave after the trial, supposedly for her good.”
“Did she tell you she threatened to publish my secret?”
“No. But I really wouldn’t blame her if she did, not after the way you’ve treated her lately.”
“The way I’ve treated her? What – “
“Keep your voice down. This is a public market and you’re not supposed to be here.”
“Oh. Right. But she can’t publish my secret! Doesn’t she understand what it would do to you and Mom?”
Jonathan gritted his teeth. “You dumb – Of course she knows what would happen! But we’ve lived with this possibility for years now, and we’re not about to change just because you’re being so hard-headed.”
“Me? I’m hard-headed?”
“Yes. I guess you come by it honestly, though. Your mother’s always telling me how much you remind her of me when I was much younger.”
“Thanks, I think. But what did you mean about the way I treated Lois?”
Jonathan made a show of selecting carrots and cabbage as he spoke. “Ever since you two decided to get together this past spring, she’s been waiting for you to decide what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it. She’s been patient, she’s been supportive, she’s been encouraging, and you’ve acted like a whipped puppy who’s afraid of his own tail. You tell her you love her but you don’t seem to trust her. You – “
“But Dad, you don’t – “
“Hush! She phoned us and told us how you snubbed her after she testified. She also told us how you acted when she tried to get you to go back to work for the Planet.”
“We settled that, Dad.”
“Yeah, but it took a while. Too long, in my opinion.” He turned to face his son. “You need to act like a man and live up to your words. You say you love Lois, but you treat her like dirt. I’m not sure you really love her and neither is she. And telling her you’re leaving because you love her is about the stupidest thing I’ve heard of since – well, I can’t remember anything stupider right now.”
Jonathan turned away to check out Dimitri’s latest shipment of fresh corn, leaving Clark standing open-mouthed beside the zucchini.
As Jonathan placed two ears of corn in his bag, Clark stepped up behind him. “You don’t understand, Dad. As long as I’m around, I’m a danger to Lois and everyone else around me. It would be safer for all of you if I go away.”
Jonathan took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “If you really believe that, then you’re dumber than a box of Kryptonite. Don’t say anything, just listen to me. Your mother and I love you very much, and one of the things people who love you get to do is tell you when you’re being stupid. Well, Clark, you’re being stupid. If you leave Lois now, you probably won’t get another chance. She may never get married, may never have a family, but I can almost guarantee you she won’t let you back into her life just so you can break her heart again. You leave now and you’ll tell her by your actions that you care more about yourself than you do about her.” He hitched up the bag and turned towards the cash register. “You think about it and you decide if you want to hurt the people who love you the most, because some hurts just don’t heal.”
“Dad. Wait.”
He stopped but didn’t face Clark. “Yes?”
“Are you saying – do you mean that you and Mom won’t want me around any more?”
“No, son, I don’t mean that. You’ll always have a home with us, whether we approve of your actions or not, but I don’t think Lois can take much more from you. If you love her like you say you do, you’ll make this decision with her and not for her. And you’ll forgive and forget anything you think she may have said or done to hurt you.” He started forward again. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have groceries to deliver and a meal to prepare.”
*****
Clark watched his father chat with Mr. Stephanopoulos, saw the man insist that Jonathan take both the steak and the lamb, then saw a rangy teenager take the bags and accompany his father back to Lois’s apartment.
Then he noticed the proprietor staring at him. He decided it was time to leave.
As he approached the front door, Mr. Stephanopoulos called out, “So, I think it is time to face the music.”
Startled, Clark turned around, but the man was facing the stereo system behind the counter and touching buttons. After a moment, a fast Greek tune came tumbling out of the speakers. Mr. Stephanopoulos began dancing and snapping his fingers.
He called out something that sounded like “Wo-paah” and danced into the aisle, then he almost shouted, “Life is for living, not for hiding myself away and hoping nothing bad will happen to me! I will live and love and dance and be happy despite the fools who try to drag me down! Come, my wife, dance with me! Celebrate life with me! Celebrate our love!”
A short, slender, dark-haired woman stepped into the aisle beside him, took his hand, and together they danced a Greek line step that Clark had never seen before. He looked at them in amazement. They enjoying dancing together, they were happy, and their love for each other was apparent in every glance, every touch, every move they made.
It reminded him of the line dance in Smallville that he and Lois had participated in when they’d had that awful run-in with Bureau 39. His feelings and memories from that time were jumbled. He thought of the fun they’d had at the Corn Festival. He thought of the danger they’d all faced from the madman Jason Trask. He remembered that he’d never answered Lois’s joking request to ‘define guys’ for her.
He remembered Lois’s powerful embrace after Trask had almost shot him.
Mr. Stephanopoulos and his wife spun and laughed and danced and called out to their regular customers. Clark smiled. He wasn’t sure whether or not the man was trying to tell him something, but the message had come through loud and clear anyway. As soon as the trial was over, he’d have a talk with Lois.
And this time, he’d listen to what she had to say.
*****
Dimitri and his wife finished their dance to the applause of a score of enthusiastic customers. They bowed to them, then he laughingly shooed his wife back to the bakery area and took up his station beside the cash register.
He smiled at the shorter man who stepped up beside him. “Hello, Mike.”
Dimitri wasn’t surprised to hear the man reply in fluent Greek. “Hello, Dimitri. You did a very good thing just now.”
“Did I?” Dimitri smiled to himself. “I suppose I did. But – “
Mike held up his hand. “I know, you have no idea why you said or did the things you just said and did.” He chuckled. “It’s okay. You still did a very good thing and you should feel very good about it.”
A huge smile slowly it Dimitri’s face. “You know, Mike, I do feel very good about it. Thank you.”
“Oh, no, thank you. We have to work through people, and sometimes it’s hard to find a good person in the right place at the right time.” He punched the big Greek on the shoulder. “But you are one of those good people, and you came through with flying colors. Thanks again.”
“You’re welcome. Say, Mike, since you’re already here, would you like to have dinner with us tonight?”
Mike smiled back and shook his head. “It’s very kind of you, Dimitri, and I really wish I could come, but I have another assignment tonight and I can’t be late.”
“Very well. Will you at least take an apple before you go? My compliments.”
Mike laughed. “Of course I’ll take the apple, you old Greek tempter you!”
>>> Monday, September 29th
“All rise! State Supreme Court of New Troy, Section Eleven, now in session, the Honorable Judge Charles Walter Fields, presiding.”
Before sitting down, Fields adjusted his robes and tapped his gavel. “Everybody here? Everybody ready?” He waited, and when everything seemed in order, he sat. “You folks take your seats now.”
When the murmur of the gallery had subsided, Judge Fields called out, “Ms. Hunter, you may now begin your closing statement.”
Connie stood and smiled at the judge. “Thank you, Your Honor.”
She walked to the front of the jury box. “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you’ve heard the testimony, you’ve heard the evidence, and now you’ll be asked to render a verdict. The defendant, however, isn’t your usual, run-of-the-mill lawbreaker. He’s Superman.”
She turned and paced along the box rail. “Now, I’m certainly not asking you to acquit him simply because of who he is or because of what he’s done in the past, or for what he intends to do in the future. That would be wrong. What I am asking you to do is to keep in mind that he’s an extraordinary person who can do things you and I can literally only dream about. And he uses these gifts, these abilities, these powers, to help people. Remember Superman’s first public act? He prevented the murders of over four hundred colonists aboard the space shuttle Messenger, and then carried those colonists to the space station Prometheus when they missed their launch window.”
She stopped and leaned her elbows on the rail. “And that was just the beginning. He’s done all these wonderful, amazing, impossible things, and yet he’s not perfect.” She grinned. “Kinda like you and me, you know?”
She stood and stepped back. “And we all know how fallible we are. None of us are perfect, either, and that’s the kind of thing that makes Superman a little bit more human, a little bit more like us than we might think.”
Connie put her hands on her hips and spoke louder. “Who was this man who died at Superman’s hands? Was he a hero? Had he saved hundreds of lives? Had he prevented billions of dollars in damages? Had he improved the quality of life for those around him without asking anything in return?”
Her arms crossed and she canted her hips. “No. Bill Church was a murderer many times over. He was a thief. He was an extortionist. He was a destroyer of civilization for his own petty personal gain. He was planning nothing less than a takeover of effective government of Metropolis, Chicago, Gotham City, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and other large cities. He wanted to become the crime boss of this decade, and even of the next century!” She straightened and pounded her fist into her other hand. “That’s the man who died that night!”
She clasped her hands behind her back and resumed her slow pacing. “But was Superman right in taking Bill Church’s life? He’s not an officer of the law. He’s not an officer of any court. He’s not authorized to judge whether or not any person has the right to live or die. He’s certainly never claimed to be our moral compass or the ultimate authority in our society. So why am I asking you to vote ‘not guilty’?”
Her elbow found the witness box. “Because Superman didn’t intend to kill anyone. He didn’t enter that office with murder on his mind. But he had just witnessed a deliberate, senseless death literally right before his eyes, a death caused by one man. He heard casual reports of a number of other deliberate, senseless deaths, all caused by this one man. Superman’s only desire was for justice, and in the passion and intensity of the moment the only justice that made sense to him was to stop Intergang however he could. And the best, most effective, most certain way to stop Intergang was to stop Bill Church permanently.” She turned and faced the defendant’s table. “And that’s what he did.”
She crossed her arms and shifted her weight onto one leg. “The New Troy state statute says that a person isn’t guilty of second degree murder if he or she is acting under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance, for which he or she has a reasonable explanation or excuse. There can be no more extreme emotional disturbance for someone who values life as highly as Superman does than for someone he knows personally to be horribly murdered literally in front of his eyes.” She straightened and raised her voice for a moment. “Unless, of course, he also knows that dozens of other innocent people have just been murdered, all on the orders of one man, just because they were trying to protect the rights and freedoms of people like you and me.”
Connie shook her head and paced some more. “In order to convict Superman of murder in the second degree, you have to believe that he intended for Bill Church to die before he entered that bunker that night. You have to believe that Superman had death in his mind that night. You have to believe that he considers killing a viable course of action in dealing with criminals.”
She raised her arms to her sides, palms upward. “And yet, no other Intergang crime boss died that night. None were even injured. The technician who did get hurt wasn’t a target, he was hurt accidentally while trying to prevent Superman from tracking down twelve other major criminals. And his injuries were slight. He doesn’t even have a scar from them today.”
She lowered her voice again and leaned close to the jury. “Superman stopped a criminal takeover of the entire East Coast of the United States. He personally captured a dozen major criminals and handed over evidence which has directly led to the arrest and conviction of half a hundred more. He ended a danger to law-abiding citizens, one which the lawful authorities were trying to suppress but had not been able to.”
She spun and pointed to Superman. “And how many are alive today because Bill Church isn’t around to kill them or have them killed? How many are alive today because Superman snatched them from the jaws of death? How many owe their lives or their health to this man, this heroic man whom the state wishes to lock up?”
Her arm drifted down. “If you study history, you know that people make mistakes. We make them all the time. And sometimes the result is painful, for ourselves and for others. Sometimes when we make mistakes, people get hurt. Sometimes, people die.”
She lifted her hands before her and gestured. “But we learn! We learn from our mistakes and we improve ourselves. Superman took a life in defense of his friends and in defense of society in general, and not for any thought of selfish gain. He now believes that there were other options, better ways to achieve the goal of making us safer in our homes, in our cars, at our places of business. He may even be right about that.
“But at the moment, that hot, passionate moment, all he could see was the monster in front of him. Even so, knowing what he knew, what did he do? He didn’t go on a murder spree. He didn’t randomly kill people he thought might be associated with Intergang. He didn’t kill everyone he knew was working with Intergang. He didn’t even kill the so-called ‘inner circle’ of decision makers he saw that night who were personally responsible for carrying out Bill Church’s vicious, murderous instructions.”
Connie’s voice took on a personal, intimate tone. “He took one life. He took the life of one man who had masterminded nearly half a hundred deaths in one brief night and planned many more. He stopped a criminal organization from rending to shreds the very fabric of our society. It cost one life. It wasn’t, and isn’t, Superman’s place to render judgment on criminals, but this one time he did, and while perhaps it wasn’t what he should have done, isn’t what he might do if he had the chance to do it over again, it was justifiable at the moment.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I beg you to do the right thing. You have this man’s future in your hands. I ask you, for his sake and for all our sakes, let him be free. Release him. Don’t put him in jail. He’s a hero. And he’s not guilty.”
Connie sat down and dabbed at her face with the hand towel Blair offered to her. Jack Reisman sat for a long moment, apparently thinking, then he slowly stood.
“There’s an intersection not far from the courthouse that I’ve driven past at least once a day since I’ve worked here. It’s directly on my route from my home to my office. This particular intersection has a light that signals when it’s okay to turn left, and it also has a sign that says that you can only turn left when the arrow is green.
“I’ve obeyed that signal for almost seven years. I’ve never made an illegal left turn there, partly because I don’t want to be hit by oncoming traffic, and partly because I don’t want a ticket.”
He smiled, and some of the jury members smiled with him. “I see you understand my motivation. I’ll also confess that some of it is my respect for the law and my desire to see justice done.”
His hands filled his pockets. “But let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that when I come to work tomorrow I make an illegal left turn at that traffic light. No one gets hurt, no cars wreck, no pedestrians have to dive out of my way, no harm, no foul, right?”
He shook his head. “Wrong. Because there’s a police car following me. I get pulled over. The officer looks at my license and registration and insurance verification, all of which are in order. He recognizes me as the city district attorney. He runs my license and my car tags, and they come back clean. Not even an outstanding parking ticket.
“But he says he’s going to write me a citation anyway.” Jack lifted his hands in amazement. “I’m shocked! I tell him that I’ve obeyed that signal for seven years! I tell him I’ve worked hard to put criminals in jail. I’ve respected the rights of individual officers and tried to help them do their jobs better.”
He began pacing. “But the officer tells me that even though all I’ve said is totally and completely true, doing right doesn’t build up credit for me to spend in doing wrong. Just because I’ve obeyed the law every day for seven years, it does not give me the right to disobey it tomorrow morning.”
He grinned and shook his head. “Under those circumstances, you’d see me mailing in a check to pay my fine.”
Several members of the jury chuckled. Reisman’s grin faded as he stopped and faced the jury box. “That, however, is the scenario the defense has painted for us. Ms. Hunter has quite eloquently requested that you acquit the defendant, partly because of the horrible character of the man he killed, and partly because of the upstanding character of the defendant.”
He dropped his arms and raised his voice. “Those are facts, people! They’re true! And the most important of all is this – they don’t matter!” He leaned closer. “The only fact you should consider is whether or not Superman took Bill Church’s life. And he did!”
Jack leaned on the jury rail and spoke more gently. “You can’t acquit a defendant because he’s a good guy any more than you can convict a defendant just because he’s a bad guy. You must decide their guilt or innocence based upon the incident in question and the evidence surrounding that incident. Pete Rose is major league baseball’s career hit leader, but he’s not in the Hall of Fame because he broke baseball’s rules about gambling. Former Congressman Ian Harrington, who was convicted of conspiring to sabotage the Navy’s test of a new underwater defense system, didn’t escape punishment because he was a member of the US House of Representatives.”
He stood and softened his tone further. “Lawbreakers must be punished, or else the legal system means nothing. The law says that Superman was wrong to kill Bill Church, irrespective of what Bill Church had done or was doing or what he probably would have done in the future. The right thing to do would have been to bring Bill Church to justice, but because of Superman’s actions that night, that’s not possible.”
Jack stepped back and spoke louder. “Superman broke the law. He took a human life. He must be punished for breaking the law concerning the deliberate taking of human life. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, your duty is clear. You must convict Superman of murder in the second degree.”
Jack sat down and glanced at Connie. She ignored him.
Judge Fields raised his gavel and let it fall. “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, it’s time for me to give you your instructions. They’re very simple. You must read and consider what the statute says about murder in the second degree, you must weigh all the evidence presented by both the prosecution and the defense, you must examine all the testimony given by the witnesses, and determine whether or not the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
“You may request any part of the trial transcript at any time. You may also ask to examine any of the exhibits submitted by either the prosecution or the defense, as many times as you wish.
“Because of the nature of this charge, you must come to a unanimous verdict. If, after careful deliberation, you are unable to agree on a verdict, I will declare a hung jury and the district attorney may present the charges again. I must warn you that a hung jury means that everybody’s time has been wasted and we haven’t resolved anything, so it’d be in everybody’s best interests for you to arrive at a verdict.”
He smiled at them. “Folks, I’d like for you to get started considering right away. My bailiff will take your lunch orders. Today, and today only, lunch is on the city, as long as you’re willing to risk something from the courtroom cafeteria.”
The members of the jury chuckled. Fields banged his gavel once again. “This court is now adjourned. We will reconvene when the jury has reached a verdict.”
~~~~~
Author's note: If you're willing, I invite the readers to indicate how you would vote if you were a member of the jury. Here's the hyperlink to New York's statute for second degree murder.
New York law Thanks for reading! And thanks for commenting!
