OOC - Operating on the basis of
this post having occurred in terms of arrival and who's present.
"Your certainly your mothers daughter, stubborn to the point of foolishness," Serenity said "Primarily your conversation here isn't with me it's with Lieutenant Foster and Lieutenant Newton, I'm fairly confident Nell's itching to give you a law crash course by the way, but they are the attorney's of record for the case so it doesn't matter what I think, I've seen what they've come up with because Nell knows I used to be in Gary's position and I'm happy with it and I would recommend you agree to it. My other bit of advice, and this is because I can somewhat guess what's about to be said - seriously consider whether Lucius Stanley is competent in his role." she leaned back on the seat as Nell leaned forward
"Your Majesty when we talk about introducing drugs as evidence especially in the manner that you did we're talking in a legal sense about the defence of diminished responsbility essentially that means the person committed the crime but was not of sound mind and judgement due to something pertaining to their mental state, think about manslaughter operates you have the act but not the intent if you want something similar, what this defence does is you get a special verdict of guilty by diminished responsibility it's not like provocation or self defence which are what you argue at trial, diminished responsibility is what we call a mitigation defence, it reduces your liability because you're not of sound mind, basically you did it but did not understand what you were doing, but it doesn't eliminate the liability. So you see why a former member of our office." she indicated Serenity "Would tell you to drop the legal challenge to the plea? Because your mother already has a guilty plea, introducing evidence of her being drugged does not change the plea because you'd be arguing diminished responsibility. In short it won't go anywhere and it probably gets dismissed within five minutes."
"You'd also probably get a fine for wasting court time." Gary said "We're about to get very busy with the legal fallout from the Kalasin conflict that's going to take up a lot of legal hours and hearings, time will be at a premium."
"That said." Nell continued "The idea of you being able to get your mother home is not reliant on a legal appeal. The reasons the Court has previously declined to send her back to serve her time in Rokkenjima are firstly because she was so beloved of the public that if she were sent back there was no guarantee she would actually serve the time in prison, that subsided as time moved on but then of course Ofdensen happened, your aunt Kyoko happened and everything became a bit of a mess."
"The current position is that your mother is under house arrest I can file with the Court a motion that the location of that be moved to somewhere of the Prosecution's i.e. Lieutenant Foster's choosing in Rokkenjima, subject to whatever conditions she wishes to impose, think of it like bail terms." Gary said "Just as Empress Serenity has I've seen the list and as technically your mothers counsel I'm happy with the terms." he paused "However these terms will need to be complied with by your nation , so it's down to you. I am recommending as your mother's attorney that you sign them."
"I do need to make one thing clear." Nell said opening her briefcase and getting out the papers "I know you diplomats don't often hear this, yes I know she's your mother and I don't believe her to be an evil witch or anything and it pains me saying this but I have those who instruct me just as Gary does, these conditions are not negotiable." she took a breath "Do you want to say anything before I show you?"
