I Became a Law School Genius

Chapter 48

『 Translator – Divinity 』

“Time is up. Participants, please move to the mock courtroom.”

Just as we barely finished writing our brief, the teaching assistant acting as supervisor informed us.

“Wow, that was really tight. We almost didn’t finish.”

“Seriously.”

My two teammates were sweating. Although I didn’t show it, I was also relieved.

There were more factors to consider than I had anticipated, and it took a long time to discuss our opinions while reviewing the materials.

But all of this was just preparation.

The real battle unfolded now.

It was time to strengthen our resolve.

“Then, shall we go?”

With that, I led my teammates to the mock courtroom.

“Good work. We’ll skip the other procedures… and hear the opening statements first.”

Jang Yong-hwan sat in the judge’s seat, looking at us with the same stern expression as when we entered.

The opening statement, simply put, was the procedure of presenting the outline of your argument.

The prosecution would state their case, such as, “The defendant committed such and such act, and it corresponds to such and such crime under Article X of the Criminal Act.”

The defense would then state whether they admitted to the charges or not.

Therefore, the order was to hear the prosecution’s opening statement first, followed by the defendant’s.

“Your Honor,”

Jeong Min-sik, as expected, stepped forward as the representative of the opposing team and began.

As if trying to follow the mock courtroom format, he bowed towards Jang Yong-hwan sitting in the judge’s seat, having seen it somewhere.

“The defendant, Kim Gab-dong, stabbed and murdered the victim, ‘Na Pi-hae’, with a knife on a certain date, and then fled the scene while driving under the influence of alcohol.”

First, he clearly stated the charges, that is, what the defendant actually did.

“This is a clear violation of Article 250 of the Criminal Act, homicide, and Article 44 of the Road Traffic Act, drunk driving, and constitutes a serious criminal act. During the trial, I will present concrete evidence of the defendant’s motive, method of murder, and the details of his escape after the crime.”

He declared the applicable legal provisions and charges. It was a clean and basic structure.

With the prosecution’s opening statement over, it was our turn.

“Defense, do you admit to the facts of the crime?”

Unlike the prosecution’s opening statement, the defendant’s opening statement only required answering whether they admitted to the facts of the crime as claimed by the prosecution.

If they answered “yes” here, it would become a ‘sentencing argument’, aiming to reduce the sentence while admitting to the crime. If they answered “no”, they would have to present an ‘acquittal argument’ to deny the proof of guilt.

All eyes were on us at that moment.

“No.”

I answered in a low voice.

“The defense completely denies all charges. The prosecution does not have any evidence to prove the defendant’s guilt.”

“W-what?”

Jeong Min-sik was aghast.

“Are you kidding me? Did you really come in without reading the record? There’s a mountain of evidence, what nonsense are you…”

“Silence.”

Jang Yong-hwan cautioned him, and he finally closed his mouth.

‘There is a mountain of evidence.’

But in the end, none of it would be admissible.

Because I would make it that way.

“Since the defense has denied the charges, we will begin the evidence admission procedure.”

When the defendant denies the charges, the process of arguing with evidence and legal principles begins in earnest.

‘Evidence admission’ is the process of the defendant admitting or denying each piece of evidence submitted.

In this case, the evidence admitted by the defendant is accepted as is, and for the evidence denied, the truth of its content must be clarified through investigation or witness examination.

However, in this mock trial competition, they don’t actually investigate the evidence or call witnesses.

This is because all the necessary information is already provided in the materials given beforehand.

Therefore, the evidence admission procedure is conducted by pointing out or defending against issues using the existing materials.

“The first piece of evidence is… the record of Kim Gab-dong’s blood alcohol test. Defense, do you admit this evidence?”

It was the evidence we examined first and found the problem with. I answered in a confident voice,

“We do not admit it.”

“No…!”

Jeong Min-sik gave me an incredulous look, but that wouldn’t change my stance.

“The second piece of evidence is… do you admit it?”

“We do not admit it.”

“The third… do you admit it?”

“We do not admit it.”

The same questions and answers were exchanged for all the evidence.

“Since the defense has denied all evidence, we will begin the evidence investigation procedure.”

The time had come.

First, the first piece of evidence, the record of Kim Gab-dong’s blood alcohol test, was brought up.

“This evidence clearly proves that Kim Gab-dong’s blood alcohol concentration at the time of driving exceeded the legal limit, violating Article 44 of the Road Traffic Act. There’s no problem with the application of the Widmark formula, so why…”

“It’s a problem with the stage before that.”

“The stage before that?”

I cut Jeong Min-sik off and continued,

“Your Honor, please take a look at the statement from the judicial police officer in charge regarding how this blood alcohol test record was obtained.”

At the same time, I held up the statement, overlapping it with the blood alcohol test record.

“According to this statement, the judicial police officer in charge conducted the blood alcohol test after forcibly opening the door to the room and observing Kim Gab-dong’s condition, despite Kim Gab-dong clearly expressing his refusal by saying ‘come back later’.”

“So what?!”

“Article 308-2 of the Criminal Procedure Act. Illegally obtained evidence.”

“…!”

“Compulsory investigations, such as searches, can only be conducted with a warrant. In this case, a search was initiated against the defendant’s will without obtaining a warrant, and it doesn’t fall under any of the exceptional circumstances where a warrantless search is allowed.”

I looked directly at Jeong Min-sik.

“The blood alcohol test record, obtained based on an illegal search, is secondary evidence and, according to the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine, one of the basic principles of Criminal Procedure, is also illegal evidence. Therefore, the prosecution cannot use this evidence to prove Kim Gab-dong’s drunk driving charge.”

There was no problem with the content or authenticity of the blood alcohol test record itself.

Kim Gab-dong did indeed drive under the influence of alcohol, and the record left by the police officer clearly showed that fact.

Therefore, the point to focus on for the defense wasn’t the evidence itself.

Just staring at what was presented on the surface wouldn’t lead to the answer, no matter how much we scrutinized it.

The key was to identify the illegality subtly hidden in the circumstances, in the shadows behind the evidence.

“Th-that…!”

Jeong Min-sik’s face turned pale.

“But, but even if the evidence for the drunk driving charge is dismissed, it’s not over! There’s still evidence left to prove Kim Gab-dong’s murder charge!”

“That’s a valid point.”

I nodded.

“So let’s examine it now.”

I picked up the documents related to the second piece of evidence on the list.

This time, it was the murder weapon with Kim Gab-dong’s fingerprints and the victim’s bloodstains.

“Your Honor, this murder weapon undeniably proves the defendant Kim Gab-dong’s murder, and the method of obtaining it was through voluntary submission, so there shouldn’t be any problems.”

Jeong Min-sik emphasized with a confident look.

Article 218 of the Criminal Procedure Act, Seizure of Voluntarily Submitted Objects.

It’s a provision that allows for the seizure and investigation of objects voluntarily submitted by the owner, possessor, or custodian.

Generally, to conduct compulsory investigations such as seizure or search, various strict conditions, including obtaining a warrant, must be met.

But that wasn’t the case for voluntarily submitted objects.

Since they were submitted of one’s own free will, they could be used as evidence without any restrictions.

“The problem is, who is that ‘one’s own free will’, who submitted it?”

“Wh-what…”

I poured cold water on the triumphant Jeong Min-sik.

“Please take a look at the seizure report for the murder weapon. Who submitted this weapon? Could it be the owner, the defendant Kim Gab-dong himself? No.”

I pointed my finger at a passage in the seizure report.

“The person who submitted this weapon is the manager of the mansion where Kim Gab-dong resides. He opened Kim Gab-dong’s door for facility maintenance and inspection, found the bloodstained weapon, and secretly took it out and submitted it to the police.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

Jeong Min-sik protested.

“According to Article 218 of the Criminal Procedure Act, voluntary submission can be done not only by the owner of the object but also by the possessor. Since the manager took the weapon, he, as the possessor, could legally submit it voluntarily!”

“You’ve studied the Criminal Procedure Act diligently.”

I smirked.

Jeong Min-sik was indeed a capable guy.

He accurately grasped the article related to search and seizure and used it as the basis for his argument.

There was only one way to master the Criminal Procedure Act to this extent in such a short time.

‘So you also knew. That to prepare for this competition, you have to study the investigation and evidence sections first.’

Then, it was quite insightful.

Or he had received advice from someone with experience.

‘But…’

That wasn’t enough.

The law was the starting point of all studying, the foundation, and the most powerful weapon, but it didn’t teach you everything you needed to know.

“Does the prosecution happen to know about the issue of ‘illegally obtained evidence by a private citizen’?”

“Illegally obtained evidence… by a private citizen?”

The exclusionary rule was created to protect people from the tyranny of state investigative power.

Therefore, in principle, it only addressed the illegality of investigations conducted by the police or prosecution.

“However, even if the investigative agency doesn’t directly commit an illegal act, there are still cases where someone’s basic rights are violated during the investigation process. For example, if an unrelated person illegally wiretaps my conversation or secretly films my actions and hands it over to the police.”

In this case, the investigative agency hasn’t directly done anything wrong.

They simply investigated the object that was voluntarily submitted to them.

The problem is that the ‘person who voluntarily submitted it’ obtained the object through unlawful means in the first place.

Secret filming and wiretapping are clearly criminal acts.

It’s the same for cases where someone steals my belongings and submits them as evidence.

If this kind of evidence acquisition were allowed, it would be impossible to prevent the infringement of basic rights.

In the worst case, there’s even a risk that investigative agencies might secretly instigate individuals to obtain evidence illegally and then use it as if they had received it by chance.

“Therefore, there is an argument that even evidence obtained through illegal means by a private citizen, not a public authority, should be considered illegally obtained evidence. The precedent also takes the position that the admissibility of evidence should be judged by weighing the necessity of admitting the evidence against the infringed rights.”

I waved the photo of the murder weapon.

“This weapon is the property of the defendant, Kim Gab-dong. It’s his possession, which he purchased by paying a fair price. The act of arbitrarily stealing private property, regardless of the purpose, clearly falls under the crime of theft under the Criminal Act, and we cannot recognize evidence obtained as a result of such a criminal act as voluntarily submitted.”

With this, even the murder weapon, which seemed like the strongest piece of evidence, was crossed off the evidence list.

Jeong Min-sik was speechless, just blankly watching my argument.

“The third piece of evidence is…”

“The fourth piece of evidence is also…”

“This is hearsay evidence, and the defense does not agree to its admission as evidence.”

Countless other pieces of evidence, things we thought were evidence, were shattered one by one by logic.

The tower of evidence for guilt, which had seemed to point so firmly towards Kim Gab-dong’s guilt, had lost its form and was completely dismantled.

I hadn’t discovered any new facts.

I hadn’t called in any previously unknown witnesses to reveal the truth.

I had simply reviewed the hints that were included in the materials from the beginning and pointed out that they were foul play cards that violated the ‘rules’ of the criminal trial game.

A few ideas, a few words, completely turned the entire situation around.

Now, there was not a single piece of evidence left in the materials that could be used to prove Kim Gab-dong’s guilt.

Jeong Min-sik, who had been watching the whole situation with lost eyes, finally managed to utter a single sentence in a trembling voice,

“B-but…”

It was as if he was clinging to the last straw.

“The confession, the confession still remains!”

It was the last argument Jeong Min-sik could muster at this point.

“The defendant, Kim Gab-dong, already confessed to all his crimes in the first trial! The first trial court record, which documented this, is an undeniable piece of evidence written by the court!”

That’s right.

The defendant, Kim Gab-dong, had already confessed to all his crimes while standing in the defendant’s dock.

He confessed everything, from the method, time, and motive of the murder to details that only the culprit could know.

It was strong evidence in itself.

It was the only piece of evidence that was presented in court, free from any procedural issues, and whose existence I couldn’t deny with logic.

If there was even one piece of evidence to prove guilt, obtaining a guilty verdict with it was entirely up to the judge’s conscience and free judgment.

Although the probability of getting a guilty verdict was much lower than with dozens of objective pieces of evidence, it wasn’t an impossible fight.

Jeong Min-sik’s final gambit.

Facing that, I,

“Admit it,”

simply conceded.

“…?”

“The defendant confessed to all his crimes in the first trial. We cannot deny that fact. It would be the same even if he made a different claim now.”

But, I said, nudging Han Seol,

“Huh? M-me?”

“Yes, it’s your turn.”

Actually, this issue had already come up while we were preparing our arguments.

We had put our heads together to figure out how to deal with the one remaining piece of evidence, and Han Seol had found the perfect solution.

‘As expected of a reliable teammate.’

Therefore, it was only right to let her deliver the final blow that would cut off the enemy’s lifeline.

Cooperation between team members and smooth division of roles could also be reflected in the extra points, so even more so.

Although Han Seol was momentarily flustered at being suddenly called upon, she quickly composed herself and cleared her throat, as it was the part she had prepared.

‘Go ahead. Show them how flimsy the straw they’re clinging to is.’

Finally, Han Seol, finished with her preparation, opened her mouth.