A headline hit newsstands across the nation.
"Illinois: Family of three, brutally murdered, trace of murderer nowhere to be found."
A couple weeks later, the people got their first, and last, glimpse of closure.
The murderer had been found, a young woman named Linda. Young, beautiful, and intelligent, Linda was the poster child for success, yet she had committed such an unnatural crime that even her family knew she was going to be convicted. However, she was acquitted. After months and months of trials, evidence compilation, witnesses and a seemingly strong prosecution, the jury decided her to be "not guilty". Linda walked free.
Now:
Graduation has just passed for University of Chicago's Law School. 2 lawyers, Aaron and Eliza, new residents in the Chicago Bar Association, are looking for cases to study and analyze while preparing for their first case. Tracing cases and leads back through the years, Eliza stumbles on the case of Linda from 2010. Eliza and Aaron went over the case for days and days, taking it apart piece by piece, reexamining every single piece of evidence used, watching all of the court recordings, reading the transcript from all of the trials. Just as it seemed everyone should have been three years ago, Eliza and Aaron were overwhelmed with evidence pointing to guilt beyond a reasonable doubt for Linda. Nervous but determined, Eliza and Aaron approached the judge of the case, asking for more information. The judge told them very seriously and very adamantly that they needed to shut down their research and stay away from the case. The judge was impressed with their determination to find justice and expressed that their traits of determination would prove to be admirable as lawyers, but this was a case that needed to be put to rest.
The 2 lawyers tried to put the case to rest and move on with their lives, but it seemed as if Linda was haunting them. Within weeks of the initial meeting with the judge, Linda started reappearing on TV and in the media, as if taunting them to give the case another look. So, in secret, Eliza picked back up on the trial. Soon enough, she found the information that backed her acquittal- Linda was the judge's illegitimate daughter. An affair years and years ago led the judge to have Linda, but Linda had been a secret to the public since her birth. Eliza, taken aback by this information and the corruptness of what had happened in Linda's trial, went straight to Aaron. Aaron resisted at first, saying that the judge had warned them to stay away from this case and that he didn't want to lose his license to practice law, but after days of nagging and watching how panicked Eliza was, Aaron decided to look at the case again. He realized the same thing Eliza did, and they decided to approach the judge.
The judge, realizing what these new lawyers had done, was outraged. "I gave you everything you could've wanted as a new lawyer- access to the most publicized cases of the 20th century and even the most high-profile cases of today, and all I asked was for you to stay away from one single case, and you couldn't do that", the judge declared. Though Eliza and Aaron pleaded with the judge to understand, and told the judge that they knew the truth about Linda, the judge was infuriated and showed no budging. The case stayed closed and no one ever found out about Linda's lineage, however Aaron and Eliza permanently lost their licenses to practice law.
No comments:
Post a Comment