IN THE MAGISTRATE COURT OF THE KINGDOM OF ALEXANDRIA
NOTICE OF INTENT NOT TO OBJECT (AND ENTREATY OF PROMPTING)
Defendants have no objections to questions 1-3 in entry #217.
Defendants encourage the Crown to post its followups whenever they are ready -- potentially before the witness responds. (under the assumption that the Crown knows how its own witness is going to answer)
To the court, Defendants observe a nascent procedural issue:
- The Crown entered evidence in discovery and has implied that it intends to use it.
- This round of questioning is ostensibly going to be the last; that is, we are going to do cross-examination and then the Crown is going to be forced to rest its case.
Effectively, the Crown in its left hand has the evidence and in its right hand has the claims from its complaint and opening statement. The Crown is specifically required (by
CCPA 10(5)(d)) to put those things together -- a specific and separate action called "presentation of evidence." The effect of doing so is to legally establish those claims as valid to incorporate in closing statements, creating the basis for the defense by setting out what Defendants are accused of.
The Crown has now had six weeks since the start of the trial to do this, but hasn't. Now it is running up on its last chance.
To the extent that presenting nothing is harmful to the Crown's case, Defendants have no objection. However, what Defendants anticipate is the following:
- The Crown will, as repeatedly before, follow this round of questioning by immediately requesting another continuance, this time in order to present the evidence properly.
- The Crown will, as repeatedly before, describe its opinions on why the evidence meets a bare relevance standard without taking any stance on what the evidence is supposed to signify.
- Its first attempt to connect the evidence to the crime in any way will be its closing statement -- made immediately after the Defendants' closing statement. (
CCPA 10(5)(d), 10(5)(e))
The immediate effect of this would be further unnecessary delays during which Defendants' funds continue to remain frozen.
The ultimate effect of this would be to take away Defendants' access to a genuine defense. It is logically impossible for Defendants to respond to accusations made days after their response, just as it's logically impossible to plan a conspiracy days after committing it.
So, Defendants propose:
- The Crown should be given a new deadline for presentation of evidence in service of any concrete theory of the crime.
- This deadline should be close to the deadline for the Crown's final round of questioning; maybe within 24 hours after that, or concurrent with the end of cross.
- This should be the Crown's last opportunity to take trial actions: the Crown is already free to take these actions, has been since November 4th, and should not require any further continuances to do so now.
- If the Crown fails to meet this minimum standard, the case must be dismissed with prejudice, since the Crown's failure to present any concrete theory of the crime will have spanned two prosecutors, two magistrates, the replacement of the entire Chancery -- and, imminently --
the end of my office and
the total restructuring of the court system.
Nyeogmi Choi
Director, Public Defense
Kingdom of Alexandria