The Trial

The Trial Process

When a law is suspected of being broken in ME there are specific rules for opening and prosecuting that crime in any Kingdom’s Court of Law. The four people who are integral to this Trial Process are the Magistrate, the Prosecutor, the Judge, and the Defendant. Additionally the Prosecutor may appoint an Assistant Prosecutor and/or the Defendant may appoint a Defense Attorney to represent them in this process.

The Magistrate

The Vassal elects the Magistrate from among the citizens of the country; he/she is the President of the court of justice, and is responsible for delivering the final verdict of every trial. Verdicts given by the Magistrate should attempt to impartially weigh the Kingdom’s posted Laws against the body of evidence provided by both the Defense and Prosecution.

The Prosecution

The Captain of the Guard leads the Prosecution’s case and functions as the Prosecutor, or he may appoint an Assistant Prosecutor to act in his place.

NOTE: In case of Captain of the Guard absence, the role can be taken by the Vassal or the King. In any case, it must be declared in the trial topic who will be the Prosecutor.

Any person who is a witness to a crime, a victim of criminal activity, or a victim of unfair treatment may contact the Captain of the Guard to present all relevant facts and evidence. The Captain of the Guard then decides whether the facts and/or evidence provided against a suspect merit the opening of a Trial. If so the Captain of the Guard then opens that trial in the appropriate Kingdom Court of Law sub-forum. He would then notify both the Defendant and the Magistrate via PM of the trial along with a URL link to the pertinent trial post.

In order to keep the defendant from leaving town during his trial, the Guard Captain may at any time choose to perform a Restrain act upon the defendant in order to keep that defendant within the country for a period of up to 48 hours.

NOTE: It is possible for the Trial to continue past the 48 hour window of a Restrain act. Once a Restrain act has been lifted, the defendant should not leave town while his Trial is still active or the Trial will end immediately with a Guilty verdict automatically administered.

The Guard Captain may also choose to perform a Confiscate the Market Goods act(s) upon the defendant if the laws of the country give him that authority. In that case the Guard Captain holds those goods for safe keeping during the trial pending the resulting verdict.

The Judge

Upon receiving notification of an opened trial, a Judge of the Kingdom where the trial is taking place must use the in-game functions of the Kingdom’s Court House building menu to create the Crime Procedure. In the form he needs to fill out:

• The name of the Defendant
• A summary of the crime(s) he is accused of
• The URL link to the Trial

Once submitted, the Judge can go back to the Court menu to view and administer the Crime Procedure. When the trial has ended it is from this screen where the Judge sends out the Arrest Warrant, cancels the procedure, and/or imprisons the defendant. For more information on the Crime Procedure read the associated Wiki article.

The Defense

The Defendant upon receiving notification of his trial may choose to defend himself on the forum, or he may appoint a Defense Attorney to act in his place. The role of the Defendant or Defense Attorney in the trial is to present facts or evidence which will refute the Prosecution’s case against them during the Trial.

NOTE: If the Defendant chooses to appoint a Defense Attorney, he should do so in the Trial Posting at his earliest opportunity.

The Trial

File:Evidence Type 1

Screenshot Evidence: Screenshot evidence may be of an in-game function such as an Event List, a Character List, Inventory, but may not include personal in-game or external messages without the author's express written consent. Screenshots of Public messages (viewable to all) are also admissible if accompanied by the appropriate url-link.

File:Evidence Tampering

Admitting Screenshots or Signed Affidavits which are proven as untrue or shown to be doctored in any way is a serious crime which may then open the person(s) in question up to further prosecution and/or the case may be remitted to the Supreme Court of Europe on the charge of Willful Tampering of Evidence.

The Trial must live as a Role-Play in the appropriate Kingdom Court of Law sub-forum. Every Trial concerning cities of each Kingdom will take place in this sub-forum. Each step should be concluded within 24 hours of the previous step.

NOTE: If the Prosecution or the Defense does not present their case within their allotted 24 hours for a given step, the Magistrate has the power to proceed to the next step in the process.

The six Trial steps are as follows:

1: Opening remarks by the Prosecution:

The Prosecution should open the trial with a presentation of the facts of the case, and a listing of what laws were broken by the Defendant. All evidence should be presented at this time and may take the form of a Screenshot (see sidebar).

2: Opening remarks by the Defense:

The Defense should state their side of the case at this time and present any evidence which they have that refutes the facts or evidence which the Prosecution has presented. All evidence should be presented at this time and may take the form of a Screenshot (see sidebar).

3: Closing remarks by the Prosecution:

The Prosecution then may attempt to refute the presented facts/evidence of the Defense and may also ask up to 3 direct questions to the Defendant for which to answer. The Prosecution will then finish with their closing remarks.

4: Closing remarks by the Defense:

The Defense then may attempt to further refute the presented facts/evidence of the Prosecution and may answer any questions that the Prosecution has asked. The Defendant is not under any obligation to do so, however failure to answer questions could be interpreted by the Magistrate as an admission of guilt. The Defense will then finish with their closing remarks.

5: Verdict by the Magistrate:

The Magistrate then weighs the facts and evidence presented by both parties and renders the Verdict. The Verdict can either be Guilty or Not-Guilty.

6: Sentencing or Remuneration by the Magistrate:

If the Magistrate delivers a Guilty Verdict, they must then notify the Judge and Guard Captain of the Verdict and the terms of the penalty in order to proceed to the Imprisonment or Arrest Warrant.

If the Magistrate delivers a Not-Guilty Verdict, they must then notify the Judge of the Verdict, AND he must order the Guard Captain to release and/or reverse any Restrain or Confiscate the Market Goods acts which have been performed on the Defendant.

The Trial now is officially closed.

Closing of the Trial and Crime Procedure

Once notified of the Trial’s end, the Judge then administers the Crime Procedure and in the case of the delivery of a Guilty Verdict he then can Imprison the Defendant directly or if the Defendant has left town then he may issue an Arrest Warrant for which to return him to town.

Upon receiving an Arrest Warrant the Guard Captain can now perform an Arrest act anywhere in Europe upon the guilty Defendant which will transport them both back to the Court House city/town and automatically Restrain the Defendant for a further 48 hours until the Judge is able to Imprison the Defendant. More information on the Arrest Process can be found in the associated Wiki article on Arrests.

In the case of a Not-Guilty Verdict the Judge simply closes the Crime Procedure and the Defendant is free to go.

Notes

• Only the Magistrate, Prosecutor, Defendant, appointed Assistant Prosecutor, or appointed Defense Attorney may speak during a trial. Whoever speaks without permission can be fined 100 silver coins at the Magistrate's discretion. The fine will be collected by Guglielmo di Valenza, by force if needed.

• Trials that don't follow the hereby described procedure may be considered void by ME Administration and the Supreme Court of Europe.