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Eluvatar:Permission granted.flemingovia:Your honour, the prosecution has failed to respond to my doodle request for a time when testimony might be obtained from my client, New Kenya. The period when my client indicated he would be available for testimony has now expired.
I would like your permission to open a thread for his testimony to be obtained on a forum thread, as per this rule:
Witness depositions may be taken over instant messenger or in a forum thread separate from the trial thread. A deposition may only be conducted in a forum thread if a deposition over instant messenger is not feasible.
I do not think there will be time to take much in the way of testimony. Although this will doubtless damage the defence's case, we will not be seeking further time extension. This evidence submission has gone on long enough and we look forward to moving on to the argument phase of the trial.
A forum thread is provided as a possibility because of the potential difficulty. Real-time confrontation is understood to obtain better testimony however, and so the rules require it if possible.flemingovia:Lord Ravenclaw has not responded at all to my request for testimony. I have given up on the possibility of obtaining testimony from him. Once again, we will run with what we have.
If I might be indulged with a more general point, your honour. I think this had illustrated a failing in our court rules which the justices might wish to address. It is very very difficult to coordinate times for testimony between three busy individuals. Would it be better to move to testimony on a forum thread?
The Court is expected to deal with any such hypothetical shenanigans.flemingovia:In addition it seems to me that the present system is open for abuse. One counsel who does not wish the court to hear a particular testimony might effectively block the or delay witness by failing to make themselves available to hear the testimony. I am not saying that this necessarily has happened in this case but it is a potential for abuse, and might be seen to break a defendant's right to a fair trial, enshrined in the Bill of Rights.
...
Guy:I'd like to apologise for my absence - I've been somewhat sick, and now on a weekend getaway. I will not be back home before Monday.
Thank you for letting us know. At the risk of hypocrisy, however, I must say that advance notice is necessary for this trial to function. It would have been even better to get the Attorney General or another designee of theirs to cover the trial in your absence.
Ordering an extension of evidence submission past the 24th, and I imagine it would need to be several days past the 24th to give the Deputy Attorney General time to find times to interview the several witnesses, would apparently be opposed by the defense and could lead to this trial continuing into the next month and threatening to continue into the next court term. I would suggest that if you file a motion for an extension, you do so promptly and include arguments for why it should carry. In no case will I accept a request to extend evidence submission which is made on the24th22nd.
I will warn the Attorney General's office that they are at risk of failure to have any evidence submitted.
Eluvatar:In my preceding post I say that requests to extend evidence submission made on the 24th will not be accepted. That was in error.
Evidence submission is scheduled to end the 22nd. I should have stated that I will not accept any request to extend evidence submission made on the 22nd.
SillyString:I apologize for my office's oversight regarding the delays - I was not aware the Deputy AG would be absent, and failed to check in on this in a timely manner.
I have not been included in prior communications between the defense, the prosecution, and any named witnesses, so I do not know where things stand. Ergo, and given the obvious prior scheduling difficulties, I would like to request that the prosecution be permitted to collect witness testimony from Pierconium and from Aleisyr via two concurrent forum threads rather than via IRC or other medium.
If the requested deposition of Pierconium (or Aleisyr?) by the defense takes place, I have no objection to it occurring in either the same thread, or in a different one.
I would also like to request the extension of Evidence Submission to the 24th, as the Court indicated may be an option.
It is likely that two days (from now until the 22nd) would be sufficient to allow us to gather the requisite witness testimony from our own witness. However, I am not sure that it would be sufficient to allow flemingovia time to object and/or to conduct his own deposition of the witness, and I think it would be preferable to allow a little more time in case any complications arise during depositions. Additionally, as I said, I am playing catch-up on the question of witness scheduling, and I am not sure whether two days is enough time for a complete deposition of the defendant along with possible prosecution objections to any line of questioning. I do think an extension to four days should likely be sufficient, particularly if the defense has no issue with that timeline.
Additionally, on the matter of the Security Council's deliberations, I have no objection to the Court's ordered release and have conveyed the command to the SC. However, the SC must make a final determination about whether any parts of the discussion need to be classified on regional security grounds. I believe that extending evidence submission another two days would ensure that the SC can come to a decision and provide the thread within the required timeline, allowing the defense to use it at their discretion.
To allay any concerns over the SC's (admitted) slowness so far potentiating further delays, I will personally urge the Council to come to a quick decision - repeatedly, if necessary - and guarantee that I will, myself, as a member of the Council, make the thread available to the defense within the allotted time frame if the Council and Vice Delegate do not.
I thank the Court for its time.
Eluvatar:The defense has 1 day to object to extending evidence submission through the 24th.
flemingovia:Opening Post:Timetable
Plea Submission - 2016-10-05 - 2016-10-06
Evidence Submission - 2016-10-06 - 2016-10-22
Your honour, defence must protest in the strongest possible terms. Although we have sympathy with Guy's real life illness, the attorney general’s office is bigger than one individual. An alternate could easily have been found at any point during this process. If Guy was having problems, it was for him to convey that and sort it out.
The opening post states that the Evidence submission phase of the trial will end on 22nd October. We have been working hard towards and within that deadline. At every stage the defence has kept the court informed of the progress of our evidence submission. At no point have we asked for extension - recognising the authority of the court we expect to work to the deadlines set, and if we cannot get the evidence sorted in time, we work without it.
the prosecution has done nothing much apart from ask for extension after extension and seek to dictate to the court how evidence submission will be handled.
The period for evidence submission has already been extended from 10th October to 14th October to 22nd October, all at the prosecution's request. Your honour, enough is enough. If the defence is expected to work within court rules, so must the prosecution. the opening post states that the evidence submission phase ends on 22nd October. If the defence can work within a sixteen day evidence submission phase, so ought the prosecution.
Should further extension be granted the defence will immediately file for a mistrial on the grounds that the excessive leniency shown to the prosecution is is infringing my client’s right to a fair and impartial trial.
As regards the Security council evidence, they too have had more than enough time to comply with the request, and the court has ordered a full disclosure. Any less would be in defiance of the court order. The defence has indicated that it is totally willing to view the evidence in Camera, and have your honour edit out any text which ought to be kept from the public guise.
Your honour, the dignity of the court is at stake here. At some point the word of the presiding justice should be taken as a decision, not an opening point for negotiations.
flemingovia:Eluvatar:The extension through the 14th motioned by the prosecution was motivated by the defense's requests, and granted.
The extension through the 22nd was granted not by request, of the prosecution or otherwise, but because the request for review filed by the defense was answered affirmatively only on the 17th.
The Court is aware of efforts by the prosecution to schedule depositions which took place on the 8th and the 14th and were frustrated by timezone difficulties.
For historical reference, evidence submission took 16 days in TNP v Tomb, the only other trial to follow the currently adopted court rules.
I have made clear that I will consider requests for the extension of evidence submission made previous to the last day of evidence submission.
I have no concerns that giving an extension of two additional days would undermine the dignity of the court. Extension of evidence submission through the 24th is granted.
The motion to dismiss will be considered and ruled on as soon as possible.
Your honour, this extension takes us into half term week in the UK, which was not what was expected at the beginning of the trial. This new timetable greatly disadvantages the defence. But since it seems that any accommodation will be made to the prosecution the defence is forced, under extreme protest, to comply.
We do not, however, appreciate the attempt to shift the onus of blame for the extensions on to the defence. As stated above, we have kept the court fully informed of the progress of our evidence submission and AT NO TIME have we asked for, or expected an extension.
We believe that a deadline is a deadline, and that authority in the court rests with the Presiding Justice. We have worked hard to keep to the schedule set by the court only to see the prosecution disappear for days on end then reappear to repeatedly ask for more time.
No. we no longer believe that this trial is being conducted in an even handed manner. We believe our objections to this further extension are reasonable and had merit.
The prosecution has had more than enough time.
Eluvatar:Are you appealing my granting of the extension to the court as a whole?
Eluvatar:flemingovia:If that is what it takes.
Although I assume that GM has recused himself from all deliberation surrounding this case.
Your appeal is being presented to Kialga and Temporary Hearing Officer Altmoras.
