After the end of the Prosecution's argument, Tower Jayne spend a few minutes reviewing his notes and conferring with a couple other Towers before standing up.
"Noble Crowns, Esteemed Towers, Your Honor,
When I took up this case, I expected I would have to defend a guilty man. Tower Windborn was the prime suspect, said the Centuria, and I had no reason to doubt them. Still, when no one else volunteered,I offered to serve as the defense's counsel. Defending the guilty might be less politically appealing than trying to secure a popular conviction, but it is something that must be done if our republicans ideals are to be preserved.
However, the more I dug into the case, the more I interrogated witnesses and the more I reviewed what little evidence the prosecution would let me have access to, the less convinced I was of Tower Windborn's guilt. I do not claim to know who caused the death of Harald Stonetree, but I think it is not Tower Windborn.
If the Judge permits, I would like to first discuss why the evidence presented by the prosecution does not establish Avery Windborn's guilt. I will then offer the reasons I think him innocent.
First I will deal with the matter of the documentary evidence offered by the prosecution. Leaving aside the fact that this evidence was produced by Jeremi Stonetree - hardly a neutral party - it establish very little indeed. Tower Riskov would have us belief that Tower Windborn wanted to murder Tower Goldbloom, an old friend of his. That Tower Windborn, contrary to all precautions, brought in a third party, whose contribution to the planned murder would have been minimal. That finally, that third party having refused to participate in the assassination, Avery Windborn forgot entirely about his target, and went on a murder spree in Tower Stonetree's household. Finally, that Tower Stonetree, knowing that Tower Windborn had planned an assassination during the concert, still decided to attend.
I do not think I need to point the many failings of that line of though. Still you may ask, what of the letters? What of the meeting?
Well, the letter is genuine enough, and the meeting did take place as described in the Stonetree diary. There is however a perfectly innocent reason for them: Tower Windborn had learned that some enmity existed between his friend Goldbloom and Tower Stonetree. To make sure that Stonetree was not planning some dirty trick, he posed as a would-be assassins, trying to get into Stonetree's confidence.
The witness is a sham. Accused of murder, and with cooperation his only hope to save his neck a man would say anything that might get him out alive. Anyone can see this man learned that speech by heart, and he couldn't even learn it well.
Tower Riskov claims this man is a servant of the Windborns, but neither I nor any other Tower I talked to remember ever seeing him on the Windborn estate. If you bring Avery Windborn from his cell, he would swear in front of the gods that this man is no member of this household.
Now, here is why I do not think Tower Windborn was behind the Stonetree assassination. First of all, those of you that were in the amphitheater on that fateful day will remember that Tower Windborn was standing close enough to Tower Stonetree as to be splattered by his blood. For those that weren't , I have here the clothes worn by Windborn on that day.
What assassin would stand less than a yard from his target, knowing an arrow would come this way any moment? But for a gust of wind, we could be holding the trial of the murderer of Avery Windborn on this day!!
The second reason I do not believe in Avery Windborn's guilt is the untimely demise of our Judge. I think that the death of two of our Tower at a short interval is best explained by a single killer. Avery Windborn however was taken into custody by the Centuria almost immediately after the death of Harald Stonetree. Unless you believe the Centuria let him mastermind the murder of the judge from behind his cell's walls, I have to conclude that Tower Windborn was not involved.
Noble Crowns, Esteemed Towers, Your Honor, I do not know who murdered Harald Stonetree. I do not even know if Harald Stonetree was even the intended target of the murder. But I know we have no solid reasons to believe Tower Windborn had anything to do with it."
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Topic: Towers of Ragona [Game Thread] (Read 19054 times)