The room was uncannily hushed when we filed into the jury box. The thrill of serving on a high-profile case was tempered by being in a position of public scrutiny if we screwed up the verdict.
For the first two days, we heard testimony from specialists and hired experts. Without our binder of documents, it would have been impossible to understand all the legal jargon.
The defendant was finally scheduled to take the stand, and the gallery was filled to capacity by the morbidly curious. News pundits were predicting a brutal cross-examination from Assistant District Attorney Bonnie Post, a woman on a campaign against domestic violence, and for her boss’ high-backed leather chair.
Looking uncomfortable in his suit and tie, the defendant kept nervously tugging at his tight collar. When answering questions from his attorney, he leaned awkwardly toward the microphone at the witness stand, until the judge told him he didn’t need to move.
After an hour, Post stepped up. The hatred she felt toward him was palpable.
“Do you feel like a man when you push her around?” She wasted no time in her attack. “Do you beat all your girlfriends?”
The judge fielded objections from his attorney on nearly every question the ADA posed.
“Why did you try to kill the victim?”
“I didn’t try to kill her,” his voice rising. “After I made it rain at the restaurant, throwing all her whore money back in her face, she came at me.”
“She’s nearly half your size, you expect the court to believe you felt threatened?” Post added a condescending chuckle to punctuate her question.
“Her size didn’t matter,” bringing his volume back under control. “A knife can kill big people too. I pushed her to get away from that switchblade. It wasn’t the first time she tried to cut me.”
Unbuttoning his shirt, he revealed crisscrossed pink scars on his chest, evidence of prior attacks.
“Women aren’t the only victims of domestic violence.”
For the Scriptic prompt exchange this week, Diane gave me this prompt: Do you feel like a man when you push her around?.
I gave Julia Mae this prompt: Interpret the quote however you want, and you don’t have to use the actual quote: “The present was an egg laid by the past that had the future inside its shell.”–Zora Neale Hurston
Thin spiral notebook 
Oh that was an unexpected twist. I really liked the dialogue….
PS.. I think you might mean tampered not tempered in the first part.
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I was using ‘tempered’ as in ‘ to serve as a neutralizing or counterbalancing force to.’ The jurist was excited about being on the jury, but worried about being in the public eye.
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sorry… my mistake.. 😉 still learning.
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No prob… I looked it up just to make sure I did use the right word. I’ve been known to use the wrong one all the time.
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Funny, it could almost work with tampered as well 😉
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True, English can be such a complicated language.
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And it’s my second language 😉
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Great piece showing the flip side of a tragic situation. One minor crit: The plaintiff in a criminal case is the state. The alleged victim would be the plaintiff in a civil suit. Well written and interesting story.
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Ooof… thanks for the catch.
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Great courtroom drama, Tara! Love the twist.
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We do forget in our society that abuse can come from any gender to any gender from violent acts to bullying. At least someone got their comeuppance well and truly… Very good read.
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This is definitely something a lot of people forget! I bet that attorney doesn’t feel so hot now…
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Innocent until proven guilty… and this is why!
http://www.kimnelsonwrites.com/2013/04/01/it-begins/
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I like how you both handled your prompts and how you handled his abuse. It felt real.
You also make me laugh every time you use whore. You used it as a noun, pronoun, verb, and adjective. You have a talent for “the whore”.
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Maybe we could get the Trifecta Powers That Be to pick ‘whore’ as a future prompt.
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Back in October, but it was the third variant. Gotta find a synonym in a third definition.
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There is no excuse for abuse of any kind. Terrific post.
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Never ceases to amaze what we are able and willing to do to each other.
I liked the twist.
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As much as I hate it when men abuse women – it’s just as bad when women abuse men. There’s no excuse for physical abuse on anyone’s part, in a relationship, none at all. And even less excuse for emotional abuse.
Now that I’m off my soapbox – I like this piece – a LOT. Well done.
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