While the case of Horaetio Renne Arc'err is in its preliminary stages, and it may all end in a plea bargain or some other way before it goes to trial, I'd like to ask anyone interested in playing a judge and jury to reply to this.

What I'm looking for in a judge:

Preferably someone unattached to Renne (defendant), Dewey Cheetum and Howe (the defense attornies), Harry (prosecutor) and his lot, or anyone else in this case. Tall order, I know! But please consider it if you're interested in being the final say on a case.

I would love to have someone who either knows something of how trials proceed, or who's willing to learn on the fly. Someone who understands motions and objections and whatnot would be awesome.

Someone unbiased and capable of being absolutely objective, weighing the evidence and testimonies of the case and not personal feelings.


What I'm looking for in a jury:

Likewise, twenty people (twelve and then eight alternates) who are unattached to any of the other people mentioned above.

A jury doesn't need to understand the legalities, but jurors should be able to debate amongst themselves to come to a unanimous decision (given that this is a trial for murder) and who are willing to weigh the evidence.


Ultimately, trials take a long time IRL and will IC. That means that aside when your charrie's in the courtroom, you're free to keep on playing them so long as you're willing not to allow them to go forming biases based on outside opinions. It's going to be a public trial, though, so just talking about what happens is acceptable... so long as it doesn't interfere with objectivity. Court dates will be coordinated so that as many people as possible can attend from all sides, and logs will be posted for jurors who can't attend at any given time. It'll be played on AOL or AIM, as well, just so that everyone can participate if they so choose, from either 'half' of the realm.

Mind you, I'm not asking anyone for a commitment unto death or anything. And it will be some time down the road before (even if) this trial goes ahead. So, let me know if you're interested, either in this thread or via PM, and I'll give you e-cookies or lots of love.

Thanks.

This notice is crossposted to Dragonsmark, in order to sample the largest possible base of Rhy'Din FFRPers.

You know, it just so happens that my partner and I have been trying to get this storyline rolling where the Seeker Veritas start flooding Rhydin. Or moving in. Or however you want to look at it.

Trouble is, we know so very few people who have read the Ghatti's Tale series. Which means not many people know exactly what a Seeker Veritas is or what they have to offer.

I've tried to explain them as: "Sort of like judges. They travel around the world in a circuit, going from city to city, sitting in on legal disputes and trying to judge the best verdict." Works a lot like the standard legal system, but no resident judges hanging around any one city long enough for the locals to corrupt them with familiarity and favoritism.

Seekers work in pairs. A human companion and a ghatti counterpart. Ghatti are sort of like psychic cats. Three times the size of normal house cats. Telepathic. Intelligent. Able to read the Truth from people. But they are only able to do this because of their bond with a chosen human bondmate. A link to the human mind to help them further understand each others' species, and all that.

In any case: I don't know if you've got any other responses to this, and I don't know what my partner might have to say, but I might just be interested in being a part of this storyline. If you need a judge still, maybe you'd consider the Seeker alternative?

That is a wicked cool concept! The only problem I could see cropping up is that this is a psych case -- ie, the killer has very deep mental problems and telepathically seeking the truth in his mind would lead to the judge thinking that he's innocent, even though he isn't.

Can you tell me more how that would be handled? Also, are you familiar with court procedure? I've been running this SL along a very "frontier" line of magna carta... meaning, it's similar to the court system of most of the civilized world, but trimmed down to make it somewhat easier given that Rhy'Din doesn't have a crapload of lawyers and judges to work with, and the common man has to be able to grasp the basics of the law.

I really adore the idea of a travelling judge, especially given the involvement of Dewey, Cheetum and Howe (big baddies on the RDI site), would just like to iron out how we could pull this off and maintain your character concept, and my thus-far established judicial system.

Oooh, yeah. That could be terribly difficult. If I remember it correctly (been years since I read the books and should probably read them again - so I keep telling myself), ghatti have a keen sense of when things are just plain wrong. R'cha, I know, has chanted "wrong, wrong, wrong" at Pen on a number of occasions. He doesn't know exactly what that means, but she knows, even if she can't rightly explain it in human terms. So that could be interesting. Frustrating for the Seeker! And I think it'd certainly help to extend the amount of time it takes for any verdict to be reached.

Pen himself isn't the mind-reader. He's not anything more special than a simple human who bonded with a psychic feline. I'm hoping R'cha steps in here some time to help me better explain things.

I'm only familiar with court procedure according to how Law & Order tells it to me. Hah! Addicting enough show. So if you wanted me to be well-versed in standard legal systems and proceedings, I could learn more if need be. Lady knows Pen's going to need to learn them anyway, as are the other Seekers coming to Rhydin. Their method was as close to the Earth-That-Was (hello, Firefly tribute) legal system as they could remember to get it.

On a high note: Pen and R'cha, and any of the other Seekers, are what you're looking for in as far as "people who are not tied to the rest of the group." Or however you worded it. "Someone unattached to Renne" yes, and those defense attornies. Heard of them before, but... Never interacted.

So if you wanted me to be well-versed in standard legal systems and proceedings, I could learn more if need be.

Mostly just the basic stuff. The order with which trials proceed (opening statements to closing statements), plus the terms. For instance, if my character says, "objection, relevance" the judge has to know that means he's objecting on the grounds that the question being asked is not relevant to the case. The attorney says why, for instance, "The witness dressing in lingerie has nothing to do with this case," and the other side says, "We're trying to establish a pattern of behavior," and it's up to the judge to sustain or overrule it. And that takes a keen eye, as not everything really is relevant to a case itself, but could damage it, y'know?

But if we could work it out so that the telepathic part of it doesn't actually end up being what determines the case, it'd be wicked cool. I mean, the case has to be tried on the evidence; the eye witnesses, the expert witnesses, the character witnesses, the actual physical evidence. But I wouldn't see why the telepathy wouldn't just be an addition to the evidence, rather than the sole judgment base, especially in a psych case like this one.

Make sense?

Just as an aside...

I don't know if she still comes around or not but the player of Beth Codet could offer some insight into some of the logistical problems that can occur when running a multi-character/multi-player court trial SL in Rhydin.

I became part of that SL after answering a "shout out" similar to this one. Though Zonker was just a juror (impossible in this case since Renne is technically family), I do recall that making it work was sometimes hair-pullingly (yes I just made that up, deal with it!) difficult for her.

Be that as it may, however, I look forward to either participating or at least lurking when it does happen.

This character "ElfinW0LF" Could not possibly serve as a jury member because Rena has known and loved Renne for years. But I play another Character named Kizzy that is new to Rhydin. Just got transported through the Nexus against her will. I would be willing to play Kizzy as a jury member if you want her. I also know a little about the law process, studied it for a time. Let me know.

HGLowe wrote:
But if we could work it out so that the telepathic part of it doesn't actually end up being what determines the case, it'd be wicked cool. I mean, the case has to be tried on the evidence; the eye witnesses, the expert witnesses, the character witnesses, the actual physical evidence. But I wouldn't see why the telepathy wouldn't just be an addition to the evidence, rather than the sole judgment base, especially in a psych case like this one.

Make sense?

Makes perfect sense! Lucky for you, that's precisely how Seekers handle proceedings like that back on Methuen. Ghatti aren't 100% trusted and accepted, you see. A lot of people are uncomfortable with the fact that these big cats can tip-toe around and their thoughts and dig up all their dirty little secrets, you know.

So the way it's done is: The Seeker (person bonded to the ghatti) sits in as the judge. The ghatti listens to surface thoughts, and sometimes delves a little deeper if need be, to seek out the truth in a person's testimony. The ghatti herself never openly shares this information with anyone but her Seeker bondmate. It's the Seeker's job to figure out how to get the plaintiff and defendant to reveal the information themselves. So a Seeker has to be pretty crafty with words, and help guide things along to the best conclusion, verdict, possible.

One question, though: How would the Ghatti handle people who could shield their thoughts from telepathy? And how would they read those thoughts unless you work it out with the muns prior?

Sorry, just trying to get a feel for it.

::laughs:: How did I miss these posts?

Zonker, you're welcome to lurk away. Afterall, it's not like it's going to be some closed thing. And I can already imagine the logistical headaches -- it might end up coming to posting logs and having the jury read them later, y'know? I'm still trying to figure it out, though we've got time on it.

This character "ElfinW0LF" Could not possibly serve as a jury member because Rena has known and loved Renne for years. But I play another Character named Kizzy that is new to Rhydin. Just got transported through the Nexus against her will. I would be willing to play Kizzy as a jury member if you want her. I also know a little about the law process, studied it for a time. Let me know.

As long as you can keep it objective and Kizzy isn't influenced by mun attachments, I wouldn't see why not. I'll keep your name in mind, then, and hopefully we'll get a lot more people interested as time rolls on.