Verdict In a Minute

This article serves as an index for my series of courtroom drama stories. I started out with the first story for the Just A Minute challenge and realized, prompted by Hannah Moore, that it could be told from different angles and perspectives of various characters.

The first story was written from the perspective of the victim, the killer's wife who survived a deadly attack from her violently abusive husband. I have to make a disclaimer that this series is based on a true story of a dear friend, and in that real story no one survived, including the violent husband. I still miss that friend in my life and try to honor her and her children as I can, mostly through my work with abused women and children. Perhaps these series of stories are also a way to do that: I just tried to imagine what would have happened if the events took place in America and part of the family survived.

The second story is written from the perspective of the victim's sister. I thought it was important to introduce the sister and present her perspective as someone who is the main support provider for the victim. Many domestic violence victims find themselves in much more difficult circumstances when they have no family support and when they are surrounded by people whose first question after a violent incident is along the lines of "What did YOU do to provoke him?"

The defendant's perspective is presented in the third story. I thought it would be interesting to get into his head and show what kind of a self-absorbed narcissist he is, not with a single hint of regret or remorse in his thinking. I also tried to show that he does understand the gravity of his crime, just wouldn't admit it was his fault.

The fourth version of the story is written from the perspective of the judge who has seen her share of domestic violence cases and needs to balance her empathy for the victim with the expectations of professionalism and objectivity. She also obviously has some "publishing" side game with the court clerk that we can't quite figure out yet.

Version 5 of the story is presented through the eyes of the court's clerk, and the mystery of the "publishing" game is resolved here. This is probably the most straightforward and no-nonsense presentation of the story.

The Forelady brings her perspective on the verdict pronouncement in the sixth version of the story. Just like the clerk, she is both detached and empathetic with the victim and proud of how quickly she shepherded the jurors to the unanimous decision.

The seventh story in the series comes from the bailiff's perspective. There's not much new information there, but it gives a little more volume to the overall picture and the relationship between the three officers of the court, I hope.

Finally, the eighth and last version of the story is written from the perspective of the court reporter covering the case. I tried to show how a professional journalist can care about accuracy and objectivity even while being empathetic towards the victim.

I’ve had so much fun writing this series! It’s all about following the same skeletal structure of the story - the actions and words of the characters - but from different perspectives of the participants and observers.

I’ve watched a lot of crime documentaries to know for a fact that the verdict can be delivered in a minute. And that minute will be either too long or too short, depending on your perspective and expectations. Time is a truly perceptual concept.