Application Denied!

Intentional Homicide?

Excessive Self-Defense resulting in death through negligence!?

Everyone present nodded faintly, but their hearts sank. Brows furrowed, they remained speechless for a long time.

Xu De, at the Defendant's Bench, felt no better.

Before the Trial Hearing, he had prepared two approaches.

First, he would rebut every argument from the other side and change the defendant Wang Qiang's fate from guilty to not guilty!

But this was a courtroom.

No one could claim a hundred-percent chance of winning!

So he had prepared a second approach.

That was... the Letter of Understanding and the Settlement Agreement.

Those documents could reduce Wang Qiang's sentence to some extent, so that failing to secure an acquittal would not leave them with nothing.

Why, then, did Xu De think he might lose and need that second approach?

The reason was...

"Intentional Injury, Excessive Self-Defense resulting in death through negligence..."

At the Defendant's Bench.

Xu De took a deep breath. His brows drew together, and an unprecedented gravity entered his eyes.

The prosecution had changed its charges from Intentional Homicide to the two offenses now before the court.

For him, that was not good news.

Why?

Because a charge needed a sound basis before it could be proven.

If Intentional Homicide was a skyscraper and Excessive Self-Defense was a single-story house, the prosecution's evidence was a foundation five feet deep.

It could not support a skyscraper.

But it was more than enough for a single-story house!

And his goal was to keep the court from building anything on that ground!

Difficult... very difficult.

At the Judges' Bench.

"All right."

Zhang Bingxin nodded and withdrew his gaze.

This Trial Hearing was primarily concerned with the criminal case, so he had no intention of letting Chen Wei, who represented the Civil Lawsuit, speak before that investigation was complete.

Presiding Judge Zhang Bingxin turned toward Xu De at the Defendant's Bench and asked,

"Does the defense object to the prosecution's charges?"

As soon as he spoke,

every eye in the courtroom turned to Xu De.

Then

Xu De drew a deep breath and said gravely,

"Presiding Judge, we... object!"

He paused.

From the documents on his desk, he pulled out one piece of evidence.

"Your Honor, the defense submits this evidence: the weapon used in the killing."

He handed it to the clerk.

The clerk had clearly grown used to Xu De's habit of using his opponents' evidence.

After a brief check, the clerk passed it to the Judges' Bench. The three judges looked down at a photograph printed on the page: a curved blade.

"This is a sickle, an extremely sharp sickle used to cut wheat."

"And it clearly did not belong to the defendant, Wang Qiang!"

Xu De rose.

With his opening words, he distanced Wang Qiang from ownership of the weapon.

In a criminal case, three questions were crucial: who owned the weapon, how it appeared, and how it caused a death. If Xu De could sever Wang Qiang's connection to it, his chances of winning would soar!

"Presiding Judge, according to the forensic report, three people's fingerprints were found on the weapon."

"First, Li Erniu's. Second, Wang Qiang's. Third... those of a Li Family Village resident named Li Chunhua!"

"Li Chunhua owned the weapon. When the police and villagers confronted each other, he stood in the crowd holding the sickle."

"So how did it pass from Li Chunhua to Li Erniu, only to end with Li Erniu disemboweled by that very sickle?"

"The answer lies in what happened at the scene."

"The defendant, Wang Qiang, exercised his right to Legitimate Self-Defense, angering the deceased, Li Erniu."

"Li Erniu, agitated and furious, snatched the sickle from Li Chunhua and tried to harm the defendant, Wang Qiang!"

All at once,

Xu De's eyes sharpened, and his words took on an edge.

"At that moment, the defendant had no choice but to defend himself!"

"What followed was what we stated at the first Trial Hearing: the defendant was swallowed by the crowd, and when he was seen again, the victim, Li Erniu, was dead!!!"

"Presiding Judge, members of the court."

"What the defendant Wang Qiang did fully met the requirements for Legitimate Self-Defense under Article 20 of the Criminal Law. We ask the court to dismiss the prosecution's charges and find the defendant not guilty!"

Xu De's argument was clear and tightly reasoned.

In just a few sentences, he had laid out the entire sequence of events. Even listeners who had never seen the case file could picture what had happened.

Below, hundreds of spectators nodded thoughtfully.

At the Judges' Bench, Judge Sun Dong nodded too and said quietly,

"That's right. It matches the testimony of the seven police officers."

Sun Dong could not help feeling impressed.

His argument, its key points, the evidence, and the corroboration all supported one another in just a few sentences... Tsk. Even lawyers from Yanjing could hardly do better!

Zhang Bingxin nodded, though his face betrayed nothing.

He turned toward the Prosecution Bench.

The three prosecutors seated there were neither angry nor rattled. They looked composed.

"Does the prosecution object to what the defense has said?"

Prosecutor Hu Guang nodded. He turned toward the Defendant's Bench and met Xu De's eyes. After a moment, he spoke.

"Presiding Judge, members of the court."

"What we wish to point out is..."

Hu Guang paused, then raised a small detail that made brows tighten across the room.

"Wang Qiang's Excessive Self-Defense did not lie in his response to the knife. It lay in..."

"What Wang Qiang did when Li Erniu first got into the police vehicle!"

At once, Wang Wei rose beside him and submitted several pages, saying,

"This is the police autopsy report."

"It clearly records a deep bite wound on the back of the deceased Li Erniu's hand!"

A bite wound?

Zhang Bingxin paused. Frowning, he held the document and considered it.

What did a bite wound have to do with this case!?

"Presiding Judge, according to the testimony of an officer who was inside the vehicle,"

"when Li Erniu showed his intent to forcibly take Wang Mei away and harm her, the defendant Wang Qiang did not immediately push him out. Before that, Wang Qiang did something else."

"He bit him!"

As Wang Wei spoke, his heavyset frame seemed imposing rather than comical, his expression solemn.

"The defendant first sank his teeth into Li Erniu, causing him pain!"

"And that brings us to the crucial point."

"Because of that pain, Li Erniu let go..."

As he spoke,

Wang Wei submitted the officers' testimony.

It stated plainly that Wang Qiang's bite had made Li Erniu release his grip. Pushing alone... would have been unlikely to make him let go.

But sharp pain could make a person's muscles contract reflexively!

And once Li Erniu had released his grip...

"At that point, he had stopped the assault and made no other move to harm anyone. At least four police officers were also beside him and could have restrained him on the spot!"

Wang Wei's face was stern, his voice grave.

"Yet in those circumstances, the defendant Wang Qiang attacked first, taking the initiative to shove Li Erniu out of the vehicle!"

"In short, when a better way to handle the situation was available and the deceased had shown no intent to assault anyone again..."

"Wang Qiang chose to attack."

Legitimate Self-Defense had a defining limit: the degree of force used in response depended on the threat posed, and one could not pursue an attacker after that threat had ended.

Li Erniu had let go because of the pain.

Objectively, the threat had paused, and the police could have taken control. Wang Qiang's decision to strike again exceeded the bounds of defense.

From that perspective... both the force and the timing of his response had come perilously close to crossing the line.

"Well..."

In the gallery, brows furrowed and eyes filled with uncertainty.

A stir spread through the room, swelling into murmured discussion.

Amid the crowd,

"This is getting tricky..."

Wang Chao sat in his chair, rubbing his chin as he looked toward the bench.

He had not read the case file or seen what happened, but if the facts were as the prosecution described... Wang Qiang's actions might not qualify as Legitimate Self-Defense.

Even if his conduct inside the vehicle did, there were bound to be other actions that could be called excessive.

After all, Wang Qiang's emotions had been running high. Objectively, his actions could look very much like something done "intentionally," and any counterattack could be argued either way.

Will they have to use the evidence they prepared for a reduced sentence already? Wang Chao wondered.

Abandoning the Not-Guilty Defense now might be a sensible choice.

It would leave them enough energy to use that evidence to reduce Wang Qiang's sentence and at least avoid the worst outcome.

"Let's keep watching," Lin Yue whispered.

But...

"Furthermore..."

Wang Wei was about to continue speaking

when an angry voice cut him off and brought the proceedings to a halt.

"Nonsense! That's nonsense!"

"In both legal precedent and real life, those weren't two separate acts. They were one continuous act of defense!"

"The prosecutor is ignoring the immediate danger that persisted through those three seconds. His claim is divorced from reality and tears apart a continuous chain of events!"

Xu De had suddenly spoken. Anger filled his voice as he stared straight at Wang Wei.

Words poured from his mouth like shots from a machine gun, but each one cut like a knife!

Hearing this,

Wang Chao and Lin Yue raised their brows slightly in the gallery.

He's not giving up? He's still fighting for an acquittal?

Exactly.

Xu De's thoughts were perfectly clear. He did not even need to pause; his rebuttal had formed in an instant.

The Not-Guilty Defense...

He was committed to it!

"Misrepresentation! That's misrepresentation!"

"Please observe courtroom procedure. We haven't finished presenting our argument."

At the Prosecution Bench, Prosecutor Wang Wei came to his senses. Anger surged through him, though he kept it in check.

He had not finished speaking, and what he meant to argue was nothing like what Xu De had claimed. He said sharply,

"Defense counsel, you're taking my words out of context!"

But Xu De had no intention of engaging with him.

"Presiding Judge."

Ignoring Wang Wei's furious glare, Xu De turned toward Presiding Judge Zhang Bingxin.

"The prosecution's argument relies on exaggeration and subjective conjecture, not objective information. It is entirely at odds with the facts!"

"Therefore, the defense moves..."

"To dismiss every charge the prosecution has brought against the defendant, Wang Qiang!"

In an instant, the two sides seemed locked in direct confrontation.

A charged, exhilarating tension filled the First Courtroom, setting pulses racing and blood boiling.