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
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.)

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.