Trial Guide

Guide to a Proper Trial
So, you decided to arrest the captain for running through a couple asteroids and endangering the ship? But now you have a problem, what do you do? Well this guide will help you figure out how to properly execute the law with a 'fair' trial.
First: For their to be a trial you must meet certain requirements:

1. The Trial Must be a high crime, that falls under the red paragraph section of The Agreement
2. There must be at least 2 Heads of Staff
3. A)The Majority of the crew requests a trial, or B) The Defendant requests one (The Captain (Or Acting Captain) can decline if he chooses too, but the second in command must agree)

Second: If you have succeeded in the first step that means you are now eligible for a trial and now the presiding officers of the court shall be chosen (Judge, Lawyer, Prosecutor): The order of officers of court go like this:

• Judge (Captain is always judge unless the Captain is not mentally competent, MIA, Dead, Bias, unavailable (Expedition) or he is on trial, in that case, the role of judge my fall to Ironhammer Commander)
• The Prosecutor (Normally the FO unless he is not mentally competent, MIA, Dead, Unavailable, Bias, or he is the one on trial, in that case the role of Prosecutor falls onto the next guild merchant, this is because guild has experience with some law and paperwork)
• The Defense Attorney (This is chosen by the defendant, and can be anyone who is considered able to defend, it CAN NOT be someone who is a co-conspirator in the crime, The judge can overrule the choice of the defense attorney if he does not believe it is in the defendants best interest)

The Roles Explained:
Judge: Be as non-bias as possible, keep order in court, sentence if necessary. If need be you can declare a brief recess for a break, also before trial give everyone 20ish minutes to prepare.
Prosecutor: Your job is to get a conviction, if you feel the case is not going your way then you can negotiate and offer a plea, however the plea offered must be accepted by the defendant and judge.
Defense Attorney: Defend your client to the best of your ability, and help him get off the hook.

Now you set up the trial:
Jury Trial?: If the defendant requests a jury trial you must oblige unless there is reasonable suspicion of the crew being rouge/Bias toward defendant and supporting him. If not a jury trial then judge makes ruling.

Gather all Documents and Evidence: Any Exculpatory Evidence (Evidence that may clear defendant) MUST BE SHARED with defense, defense EX: The prosecutor must disclose an agreement not to prosecute a witness in exchange for the witness's testimony.) However the defense is not obligated to share anything with prosecutor.

Get Witnesses: In the world of law there is no such thing as a surprise witness (unless a Judge allows it, which is rare because their MUST be a reasonable reason for this witness not being on witness list) All Attorneys, and prosecutors are REQUIRED to share a witness list with each other.

Pretrial Checklist:

• Is the offender eligible for trial?
• Is a jury trial requested?
• Have the prosecutors, defense attorney, and judge been selected?
• Has the defense stated their what they are pleading and on what grounds? (You Must notify prosecutors of this) (Ex: Not guilty on account of intoxication (The type of defense changes your burden of proof, for example, you here you must prove the defendant was intoxicated, and had no real control, but this defense admits to a part of the crime, sense you are saying you where intoxicated when you did it, you are still saying YOU DID IT.)

Pleas	Definition
Impossibility Defense	This plea is stating that it was impossible for your client (Defendant) To have committed the crime
Self Defense	Justifiable Use of force, must prove that he had no other REASONABLE option
Lawful Capacity of Office	You can not put someone on trial for doing their job (Ex: Ironhammer arrests someone, and in the process said person gets killed because they grabbed a gun, the Operative that arested and killed the person was doing their job, this can also apply to the Captain flying the ship)
Duress	Someone is forced against their will to do something
Insanity	Lost all control, the problem with this defense is that even if you win your case, you most likely will get sentenced to phyc ward for a loooooong time.

Phases of Trial
A trial always goes in this order:

1. Opening Statement
2. Witnesses
3. Closing Statement

Furthermore a trial always has the prosecution go first, no mater what. This includes all phases of the trial.

How Each Phase Goes:
Phase 1: The opening statement is essentially what you are planning to do in this trial. (EX: Ladies and gentleman of the jury, my client didn't do this crime and through this trial we plan to show you that the prosecution can not prove without a reasonable doubt that my client did this.) (Prosecution Ex: Ladies and gentleman of the jury, the person on trial here is accused of a heinous crime, and through these proceeding we plan to show you just how premeditated, and conspired it was.)
Phase 2: Phase 2 has 2 parts:
Part A: This is where the prosecution calls its witnesses, these witnesses can be anyone having knowledge of the crime, or managing evidence for it (Ex: The forensic analysis, the witnesses, the arresting cop)
Part B: The defense's witnesses, these witnesses can be anyone helping the defendant in someway, but all witness (including prosecutions MUST STICK TO THE FACTS, there are some exceptions to this though)
Phase 3: This is the closing statement, this is important, as this is your last chance to influence the jury, or judge to your point of view, here you can you say (for the most part) anything, as long as it remains generally on the subject.

Where and What to Object To:
Remember when you object to say why, and you can only object during phase 2:

Objection	Where its Used:
Argumentative	- This is not an objection to opposing counsel making a good point. It is used when the questioning attorney is not asking a question and is instead making an argument of law or application of law that should be argued in phase 3 (summation). It is only valid when the witness is not being asked a question that he or she can properly answer.
Asked and Answered	- When the question being asked has both been asked and been answered before by this attorney and this witness. It is not an objection to a question on cross that has been covered in direct.
Assumes Facts Not in Evidence	- A question by the directing attorney that contains information not yet in the record. On cross, the counsel is the one testifying, so this is not an objection.
Hearsay	Someone heard someone say something, there are exemptions to this rule (EX: Someones dying breath, but of course was that person mentally competent or just rambling?)
Speculation	- The witness does not have first-hand knowledge of the fact she is testifying to. - This could be what someone else thought or why someone did something. It could also include what would have happened had x occurred.
Relevance	- The evidence being solicited does not relate to merits of the case or another admissible purpose such as foundation or permissible character evidence. - This is not the same as “Irrelevancy” which is neither a real objection nor a real word.
Leading	- The question on direct suggests an answer.
Opinion	- Witness offers an opinion they are not qualified or have no expertise in

Bonus things:

• If you have already interviewed the witness, and the opposing team has finished you can do something called redirect, which means you go up and ask some more questions, the judge must agree to this.
• The only people who are qualified to give opinions are professionals, a Vega bound cant testify with their opinion stating he thinks he did it because he had the same blood type, he did not go to school for forensics so he does not have the professional skills to have an opinion of forensics, remember if interviewing a professional witness state the question as (In your professional opinion).
  

Quick Notes:

• Burden Of Proof: You must have enough evidence, for there to even be a trial, and if you don't have enough, (Say just 1 unreliable witness) then the defense can ask the judge to stop the trial.
• Reasonable Doubt: Reasonable doubt is essentially the phrase "Could someone else have done it and would it make an equal amount of sense if that person did it instead of the defendant?" Essentially speaking it is the goal of the prosecutor to prove beyond a reasonable doubt (meaning it is highly HIGHLY unlikely that someone else did it) That the defendant did it.
• Professionals testify to evidence, you can not go up and take the stand yourself.
• The charges can NOT be changed after the trial begins, their are rare exemptions to this but i'm simplifying things.

Oh Hi, ummm so you found this, well thanks cool, umm this is my first wiki page so I figured this should be my first Easter egg, but uh i'm Nerdy General and I wrote this --Nerdygeneral (talk) 15:03, 26 February 2020 (EST)