Episode 57

"You've grasped the key issues well."

In an instant, everyone's attention focused on him.

It was Gu Min-hwan, who rarely ever opened his mouth.

That low, heavy voice had a power that grabbed at the ears.

'Is he trying to interrupt the flow?'

"...The evidence examination is conducted by the prosecution first. Surely you, a senior, aren't saying you don't know the procedures of litigation law?" I asked, trying to keep my tone even.

"That doesn't mean I'm not allowed to speak," Gu Min-hwan retorted, not losing his composure.

"Anyway."

He picked up the stack of documents.

"The evidence you're going to present will probably be around page 23 or page 64, wouldn't you say? Or not?"

"...!"

I couldn't help but flinch, because that was exactly right.

Page 23 contained testimony about the deceased A's attitude during his life, and page 64 was the report containing the attending physician's opinion.

Both were evidence that could be used to show that this case did not meet the standards of the precedents.

He was definitely not an easy opponent.

Gu Min-hwan already knew what cards I was going to play.

'But then it's even stranger.'

If he had seen that, then he couldn't be unaware of the fact that it was difficult to argue that the suspension of life-sustaining treatment in this case was legal.

Even so, I couldn't guess why he was insisting on innocence.

"Let's look at page 23 first."

Regardless, Gu Min-hwan arbitrarily began the review of the evidence.

"What kind of person was A?"

He flipped through the pages with his rough hands.

"A was a very simple person."

If he was thirsty for alcohol, he would drink it, and if he wanted to cause trouble, he would cause it.

He didn't have grand ideologies, religious beliefs, or a will of his own. He was just a piece of junk living according to his instincts.

If that was the case.

"It's extremely unlikely that such a one-dimensional person would make the decision to give up on sustaining his life."

Gu Min-hwan looked straight at me.

"Isn't that what the prosecutor wants to argue?"

"What if it is?"

"Reading a person's heart isn't that simple."

Gu Min-hwan turned his head towards the judge's seat.

"I request that the video footage, evidence item number 5, be shown as counter-evidence."

"...Granted."

'Video footage number 5?'

The teaching assistant who had been waiting operated the remote control and unfolded a screen on one side of the mock courtroom.

The video, which was an item of evidence, was projected onto it.

"This is..."

"This is the video of A's accident."

The A in the video was an old man with a disheveled appearance.

He was staggering and walking while intoxicated.

Since this wasn't an actual case, it was probably a video made by hiring a professional re-enactment actor.

But even knowing that, it was quite realistic acting.

• Haa... What a dog's life.

A let out a deep sigh.

• I'd rather not live so miserably, oh!

The next moment, A lost his footing, and as a result, he staggered forward a few steps.

In that direction, there was a concrete pillar that looked very hard.

'So he tripped and hit the pillar like that.'

The circumstances of the accident could also be confirmed in the documents, so I hadn't bothered to check the video.

This was a moot court competition where the preparation time was especially tight.

You couldn't look at everything, and there was a need to make choices according to your own standards.

However, I could guess why Gu Min-hwan had requested to show this video.

'Was he trying to show that he had no attachment to life?'

A was a retiree who had become useless in this society, and an old man who didn't have a good relationship with his family.

No one was looking for him, and no one wanted him.

As A's daughter-in-law, Kim Gap-dong's wife, had said, he was a person who was living because he couldn't die.

But that was just content that could be understood through the documents.

Moreover, even if A didn't have any attachment to life, it couldn't be concluded that he had a will to actively accept death, or that he had the decisiveness to do so.

Then, what was that confident, shining gaze in Gu Min-hwan's eyes?

It was the moment that such a thought flashed through my mind.

"...Huh?"

• Ha, ha ha!

A in the video, who had seemed as if he was about to fall forward, regained his balance a short distance away from the concrete pillar.

He paused there for a brief moment.

• Hmmm...

Then, he let out a hollow laugh, and then, as if he had made up his mind, he charged towards the pillar himself and hit his head against it.

• Thud!

With a dull sound of impact, the video ended.

"Wh, what..."

Gu Min-hwan explained to me, who was speechless.

"A didn't simply lose his footing and hit the pillar."

He added.

"He charged into it himself, intending to end his life."

"...!"

The spectators who had been watching also began to stir.

"Oh, so it was actually a suicide attempt!"

"It's proof that he had decided to die on his own. If he chose death from a life that was hard to bear, then isn't it highly likely that he would also refuse to live meaninglessly by relying on life-sustaining treatment?"

This flow was dangerous. I hurriedly rose from my seat.

"You can't be so sure of that."

I pointed at the screen.

"At the time of the accident, A was intoxicated. It's highly likely that it wasn't a result of serious deliberation and a reflection on life, but rather, it was an act that was done due to a temporary and emotional impulse."

I opened page 23, the page where Kim Gap-dong's wife's testimony was written.

"From the beginning, the deceased A was an impulsive person. Especially when he was drunk, he would say harsh things and beat his family, showing that he couldn't control himself at all. Just based on an action that he did while intoxicated, you can't..."

"That's why it might be even closer to his true feelings," Gu Min-hwan retorted.

"He was A, who constantly said that there was nothing left for him to do while living. It's more natural to think that alcohol didn't create an impulse that wasn't there, but rather, it pushed the old man, who had always just thought about it but had never acted on it, over the edge, wouldn't you say?"

Gaze and gaze collided in mid-air.

In the audience seats as well, a debate was naturally beginning to take place.

'I stopped it from being a one-sided sweep.'

You couldn't be sure that a person who had once tried to die would also have the will to stop life-sustaining treatment.

It could have been a temporary impulse, and if it wasn't based on firm beliefs or values, then their thoughts could change at any time.

Therefore, the video from just now also couldn't be called 100% solid evidence that proved the patient A's will.

'But...'

The image of the video remained intensely. In the audience's minds, and in mine as well.

Of course, it remained in the mind of Jang Yong-hwan, the judge in the judge's seat, who was watching all of this as well.

'He's making it unnecessarily high quality.'

The old man's empty voice as he stopped in his tracks and laughed in a hollow manner.

The dry face as if all emotions had evaporated.

The momentum with which he charged towards the pillar.

It was clear that the scales that the goddess of justice held were leaning a little more towards that side.

"Stop."

At that time, Jang Yong-hwan stood up.

"I will have a 15-minute recess. Both sides, please take a sufficient rest and come back after reorganizing yourselves."

* * *

"It was my mistake."

During the short break that was given to us, I admitted honestly as I returned to the waiting room with my teammates.

"I missed that video while selecting the evidence to examine within the limited time."

"It can't be helped. On the other hand, we did get some points in our favor regarding A's possibility of recovery, didn't we?"

As Han Seol said, that was true.

According to the precedents, both of the two requirements had to be satisfied for the suspension of life-sustaining treatment to be legal.

It had to be inferred that the patient had the will to stop treatment, and in addition to that, the patient's condition had to have no possibility of recovery.

We had pushed for our argument that it was difficult to say that there was no possibility of recovery based on the doctors' analysis of A's diagnosis results.

According to the doctors' analysis of A's diagnosis results, A's possibility of recovery was excessively higher compared to the numbers that were acknowledged in the precedents.

Logically, it was difficult to say that it was at a level where recovery was absolutely impossible.

Gu Min-hwan had not made any particular rebuttals regarding this point. I didn't know if he couldn't, or if he just hadn't done it.

"If even one of the requirements is denied, then it's not legally permissible, right? Then aren't we in a more advantageous situation?"

In the end, it was difficult to see the suspension of life-sustaining treatment in this case as legal euthanasia.

For now, it was a violation of the law, in other words, we had to move forward with the premise that it was murder, and then discuss the culpability of Kim Gap-dong and Lee Eul-nam again.

"Well, that's true."

I nodded.

"We did take a hard hit, but we managed to deal with it well enough."

But.

"...That's exactly the problem."

"Huh?"

"That's what made it clear. Gu Min-hwan is a much more difficult opponent than I had thought."

Our side had divided the analysis of the materials and records among three people.

One was even an officially acknowledged memorization prodigy, and another was utilizing an AI program that was practically a cheat code when it came to document processing speed.

Even so, we had no choice but to select the evidence that we would be looking at because of the lack of time.

And it was in this process that we had missed the problem video.

On the other hand, what about Gu Min-hwan?

"He's a one-man team over there."

He didn't rely on his teammates.

He looked through all of the materials and evidence on his own, designed the arguments, and even completed and submitted the written document.

Even in the middle of all of that, he had had the leeway to view even the evidence that contained the content that was already written in the documents.

It was a speed of work that made me wonder if it was even physically possible.

"Someone with that level of skill couldn't possibly be unaware that this alone isn't enough to conclude that it's legal euthanasia."

A's video was certainly meaningful evidence.

Perhaps Gu Min-hwan had also earned some points by finding it and pointing it out.

But that was all.

In the end, it was highly likely that this case would be recognized as murder, and we had to continue the fight with that as our premise.

That meant.

"...Gu Min-hwan's real goal is somewhere else."

"Somewhere else?"

"Yeah. But I don't know what it is yet."

The logic of making Kim Gap-dong the principal offender of murder and punishing Lee Eul-nam as an accomplice had already been completed.

We had, of course, also checked any counterarguments or evidence that supported those counterarguments.

But all of those were at a level that was easily refuted.

I didn't think that Gu Min-hwan, with all of his skill, would have taken such a bold move, claiming innocence, while relying on something like that.

He wouldn't have come out like this without having found some kind of extraordinary secret strategy.

"What could it be? What could Gu Min-hwan be holding in his mind..."

I stared at the materials that I had brought and agonized over it.

Perhaps it was because I had been keeping up a somewhat reckless schedule recently, but my head was throbbing.

My eyes also felt dry and as if they were about to fall out.

But I couldn't waste time.

I hurriedly read the pages that I had put aside due to the lack of time, and I clung to the materials, determined to find something I had missed.

"Okay, that's enough."

Han Seol covered my eyes with her hand, blocking my sight.

"What are you doing?"

"Cool your head a bit. You're the one who always says that if you push yourself too hard, even what's doable will become undoable."

"No, but right now..."

"Uh-uh."

Her voice was rather strict.

It didn't seem like she would let me keep reading if I tried to force it.

I had no choice but to comply and relaxed my body on the chair.

"Good boy."

Han Seol's fingers gently massaged the area around my eyes.

She was more skilled than I had thought. I could feel the fatigue that had accumulated during the preliminary rounds slowly melting away.

'...I guess I was a bit too overheated.'

Honestly speaking, I was a bit worked up.

I was annoyed that I had been treated as Shin Seo-joon's replacement, and also that I had suffered an unexpected blow in the fight over the evidence.

Because of that, I was even more determined to beat him up, regardless of whether he was a former police officer or not.

But there was no point in being impatient.

From the beginning, if the answer was outside of my abilities, it was already over, and if it was an answer that I could find, then I wouldn't be able to find it if I lost my composure.

'Right, let's rest for at least a little bit.'

I leaned back on the chair and rested for about 5 minutes. Finally, Han Seol removed her hand.

"...Ugh, that was refreshing."

"Hehe, what's with that reaction? You sound like an old man."

"Hey."

I grabbed the materials again with my much-improved condition.

It felt like my vision had become a bit clearer, and the words were also more easily readable.

"How is it? Do you have any hunches?"

"Not yet."

But it wasn't like I had come up with anything miraculous.

If it didn't work out, then I could just deal with it as it came, according to what Gu Min-hwan would argue, but I was honestly hoping to read his strategy here and now, and then strike him down with one blow.

"Uhm, it's difficult."

I could hear Han Seol murmuring as I was agonizing over it.

"That side is also someone who knows how to use the cards that the other side has prepared."

"...Wait a minute. What did you say?"

I suddenly stopped.

"You know," Han Seol replied.

"We were planning to use the precedents to show the requirements for the legal suspension of life-sustaining treatment, and to show that A didn't have the will to stop treatment... but instead, he used the stage that we had prepared, and even used the evidence that we had requested to prove his own point."

"That's it!"

I shouted.

"Yes. Why didn't I think of that?"

"Wh, why are you suddenly like that...?"

My head lit up like a lightning bolt had struck.

Eureka! I wanted to yell it and jump around.

I was so excited that I jumped up from my seat and grabbed Han Seol's hand.

"Wh, why are you suddenly like this...?"

"I figured it out!"

"...Huh?"

"The way that Gu Min-hwan is going to argue for innocence. Oh man. What a ridiculous scheme. Haha!"

"Ah, I see, so calm down and let go of my hand...!"