Miss Witch, please don't leave your fragrance everywhere

Chapter 46 The Witch Lady and Judgment

　　The speech of the citizen representative won such a thunderous cheer from the citizens that Brand's desperate shouts were completely drowned out.
　　"No! He has no evidence at all, he just uses the same rhetoric as public opinion!"
　　Brand even wanted to rush up to debate, because the defense lawyer he hired seemed to have foreseen this outcome and made almost no effective defense afterwards.

　　Angelica stopped Brand.
　　"Wait a minute, Mr. Brand, if you rush forward, it will be considered as contempt of authority."
　　"Authority? They are clearly trying to murder Kelly! How can a citizen jury be convinced by such a debate without any evidence..."

　　"Yes."
　　Angelica gave a sharp answer.
　　“That’s the nature of the City of Justice.”

　　"What...you said, the essence...?"
　　"Richard Kaufmann, the founder of the City of Justice, was a paranoid and stubborn man. He founded the City of Justice based on a certain idea: Richard longed for the right order. He believed that nothing could be above the law. Even a noble figure like the Emperor of the Rhine Confederation should be punished like a commoner if he broke the law. Richard created a citizen jury, which selected representatives from the citizens to make decisions, instead of relying on the judge's judgment, in order to seek absolute justice."
　　Richard believes that factors such as nobility and religion can easily lead to interference from judges. Nobles can use their noble status to plunder young girls and slaves of their choice, and priests of the church can make a lot of money under the guise of religion... It is the common people who suffer every time, and the law should protect the common people, but can judges really speak for the common people?

　　The answer is no, so we must unite the civilians, let them stand together, and give them the right to a citizen jury. In this way, when civilians are treated unfairly again, they will have the ability to resist because they know that the law is truly on their side.
　　Richard's original intention was indeed good, but Angelica firmly opposed Richard's approach at that time. Until Richard's death, he did not reach a consensus with Angelica on this matter. However, the difference in ideas did not affect their friendship. Even though Angelica disagreed, she did not make any changes to the County of Leirber after Richard's death.
　　"However, citizens often do not have complete legal knowledge. They always act on their own will based on their emotions. Whoever can win the support of public opinion will be favored by the citizen jury in their defense."

　　Richard's last words: Citizens have sharp eyes. This sentence has become a famous saying in the country of Leirber. Unfortunately, the reality is not as good as Richard imagined.
　　"The truth and false rumors, as well as the order of reporting, will have unpredictable effects on the direction of public opinion. What's important is that public opinion and citizens are a group, and it is much more difficult for a group to admit mistakes than for a single individual. When public opinion is in a frenzy, it is basically impossible to do so. Even if the Citizens' Tribunal votes unanimously that there is insufficient evidence to prove Kelly's murder, public opinion will not let it go. They will think that the Citizens' Tribunal has betrayed the citizens, not that their views are wrong."
　　It is said that in psychology, there is a view that groups are easily emotional and lose their individual thinking ability. The reason for the establishment of the City of Justice is the hope that the law can be equal. At first, the law punished the powerful, and Richard died contentedly, but it was far from his true ideal.

　　Richard hoped that citizens and those in power would be equal before the law. However, after giving the power of adjudication to citizens, it naturally evolved into citizens' natural hostility towards the powerful. In other words, if one side is the powerful and the other side is the common people, then the judges in the citizen jury who do not support the common people will be considered to have "betrayed the citizens" and "must have accepted the dirty money of the nobles" and be despised or even expelled from the country. As for whether something is right or wrong, you have to think about it after taking a stand, or you don't even have to think about it at all.
　　Citizens do not have complete knowledge of the law - this is the fatal weakness of the citizen jury. They may not be clearly aware that they are here to infer the case.
　　Brand felt his mind go blank, and the cheers of the people around him seemed a thousand miles away from him. After the witch confessed, Brand finally understood that Kelly had already lost the case when public opinion was not on her side.
　　“They don’t want to see the truth…”

　　Brand grabbed his hair in despair.
　　"They just want to hang Kelly... to get what they think is justice!"
　　"Yes. The City of Justice has never been a place to unravel the truth. What everyone says is the truth. Since the citizens say Kelly is the murderer, then no matter what the truth is, she must be the murderer. The matter has already spread, and the judges will protect the reputation of the City of Justice and choose to acquiesce. You should understand this, Mr. Brand, the City of Justice will not wrongly accuse any good person, and there has never been any wrongful conviction."

　　It was a slogan that made the citizens of the City of Justice feel proud, but now it made Brand shudder.
　　"Kelly!!!"
　　Brand couldn't accept it. He couldn't watch his wife die, and he couldn't accept that his wife would die with a stigma. Brand suddenly burst out with infinite power. The witch closed her eyes and chanted a spell quietly, imprisoning Brand and not letting him get close to the execution ground.

　　The trial was hilarious and boring.
　　The opening statements and the detailed evidence presented by Kelly's defense attorney took up 90% of the time, and the speeches of the citizen representatives and the discussions of the citizen jury used the remaining 10% to announce the result.
　　Amid the people's shouts of "Hang her!" and "Hang her!", the citizens' jury passed the decision unanimously.

　　Defendant Kelly, guilty, sentenced to immediate execution.
　　The desperate Kelly was pushed to the gallows, which was the meaning of people coming to watch the trial.
　　Citizens have no interest in overturning Kelly's verdict. They are eager to see justice done. After all, everyone has played a role in the process of doing justice.

　　When Kelly, who was on the gallows and stopped moving, the citizens felt as if their souls had been sublimated, and they experienced great satisfaction.
　　The most heinous criminals would be buried in unmarked graves, and Brand even lost the right to bury Kelly.
　　Kelly was initially suspected simply because she did not cry over her son's death during her testimony.

　　In the future biographies of the City of Justice, it will be recorded that he was once again a citizen who used his wise eyes to sharply see through the subtle flaws revealed by the criminals.
　　She did not cry for her son's death, and her son had been ill in bed for a long time. She happened to be at home when the crime happened. The complete chain of ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ logic easily won the suspicion of the public. Then, justice will be determined.