You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 151

You Have Been Defended – Episode 151

January 29, 2010

Seoul Central District Court, Courtroom 421

People’s Participation Trial for the Oh Sang-hyun Injury Case – Trial Date

“Do you think you can handle it?”

I asked Kang Min-jae, who was sitting at the defense table mechanically loosening his lips.

Kang Min-jae, who had been blankly opening and closing his mouth while focusing on something in the air, slowly turned his head to look at me.

“I’m incredibly nervous.”

“You were doing well on the preliminary hearing.”

“…That was the preliminary hearing. There weren’t any jurors then.”

Once a People’s Participation Trial is decided, the judge must submit the case to a preliminary hearing procedure.

The preliminary hearing proceeds almost identically to a regular trial.

Confirmation of charges, examination of evidence, organization of issues.

It ends in less than half the time compared to the People’s Participation Trial.

Since Kang Min-jae did most of the talking that day, I was thinking I could entrust him with part of today’s trial as well.

But if he’s this nervous, I might have to change my mind.

“I’m a bit anxious because I can’t predict the reaction to the CCTV [closed-circuit television footage].”

Kang Min-jae said, wiping the cold sweat that had gathered on his palm with a handkerchief.

“There’s no need to worry too much.”

“Are you confident, Attorney?”

“About what?”

“Whether that evidence will be accepted… I believe there’s a reason why you’re so confident. But from what I know, I’m not sure if we can be certain.”

Kang Min-jae said, rolling a pen on his finger.

This is why I have to appear composed and confident.

If I show any signs of anxiety, there are two people here who will be twice as anxious.

My client, and my partner attorney.

“I don’t know whether the evidence will be accepted or not. I’ve minimized the possibility of it not being accepted as much as possible, so I’m just thinking of doing my best within those parameters.”

“So, you’re saying do everything possible and leave the rest to fate?”

“Kang Attorney, I’m more invested in this than you think. If we lose, I think I’ll have even more sleepless nights than the night I fractured my arm.”

It’s a case against Go Yoon-sung, and at the same time, it’s an incident that didn’t happen in my previous life.

Moreover, this is like a test that reporter Choi Jong-hyun threw at me, betting his credibility on me.

The desire to expose Go Yoon-sung’s misdeeds on the front page of the newspaper, the desire to make Choi Jong-hyun my ally.

I can’t give up on either of them.

Even if I were promised billions in fees for this case, it wouldn’t be a greater motivation than those two desires.

“So you really couldn’t sleep that night because you were in pain, right? I told the doctor not to say unnecessary things.”

As the conversation drifted elsewhere, Kang Min-jae seemed to relax a bit.

“The jurors aren’t going to eat you alive, Kang Attorney. Just do what you’ve been doing.”

“Yes.”

Kang Min-jae scanned the audience seats and swallowed hard.

The audience seats were already filled with jury candidates who had received their summons.

And before long, Yang Han-seok, wearing his legal robe, entered the courtroom with a blank expression.

He bowed to me as soon as our eyes met, and then sat at the prosecutor’s table.

“Somehow, we’re making Senior Yang look bad in the same way again. Whether the CCTV evidence is admitted or not, just the fact that it exists will make Senior Yang sweat bullets.”

Kang Min-jae also watched Yang Han-seok, then leaned slightly towards me and whispered.

He seemed to be referring to the Kim Hyung-joon patricide case, which was our first case after opening our practice.

“It’s a coincidence. I don’t have any particular ill feelings towards Yang Prosecutor, but it seems like he’s misunderstanding something, right?”

I said, glancing at Yang Han-seok, who was looking our way.

The reason I didn’t reveal the CCTV evidence beforehand was to increase the case’s publicity and prevent the debate over its legality from dragging on.

The thought of making Hwang Young-chan look bad in the same way once again… of course, I won’t say I didn’t think about it, but it was only a secondary consideration.

“Attorney, Chief Hwang Young-chan is also in the audience.”

“……”

As I turned my gaze towards the audience, I surprisingly met eyes with Hwang Young-chan, who was sitting at the very end.

He was sitting far away, as if trying to act like he was a stranger to Go Yoon-sung’s lawyer.

“Everyone, please rise.”

At that moment, the courtroom door opened and the bailiff’s voice was heard.

I looked away from Hwang Young-chan and stood up.

“Now, we will select eight jurors from among you. One of them will be an alternate juror, but they will participate in the trial from the jury box just like the other jurors.”

After the presiding judge finished speaking, the lottery began immediately.

Among the 60 or so jury candidates, 8 were selected to sit in the jury box. The selected jurors had a slightly higher proportion of women, and about half of them appeared to be in their 20s.

“Are there any of you who believe that violence cannot be justified for any reason?”

“Would those of you who are employed, excluding the self-employed, business owners, freelancers, and the unemployed, please raise your hands?”

“Among those of you who are married, would those whose income is solely from one spouse please raise your hands?”

“Do you think it’s unfair that assault is a crime that cannot be prosecuted if the victim does not want the perpetrator to be punished [referring to the concept of ‘non-prosecution’ or ‘dropping charges’ upon the victim’s request]?”

“Do any of you agree with the saying, ‘There’s no smoke without fire’?”

The prosecution and the defense continued to ask the jurors several questions.

The jury candidates are people who meet the minimum requirements stipulated by law.

However, after questioning them, the prosecutor and the defense can challenge jurors who they believe would have difficulty judging the case objectively.

After replacing the jurors up to the 5th round, the challenge procedure finally came to an end.

Although the challenges were not made with gender and age in mind, the gender ratio was somewhat balanced, and people in their 30s and 40s made up the majority of the jury.

“I solemnly swear to fairly judge the facts and to truthfully render a verdict based on the law and evidence explained by the judge.”

After the jury representative’s oath, the judge began to emphasize what the jurors could and could not do.

After completing all the necessary procedures before entering into full-scale deliberation, about an hour had passed.

The amount of concentration required was different from that of a typical trial, which lasts for as little as 5 minutes or as long as 30 minutes.

The trial began with the judge confirming the defendant Oh Sang-hyun’s personal information.

“Prosecutor, make your opening statement.”

At the judge’s words, Yang Han-seok raised the microphone that had been placed on both sides.

And he displayed PPT [PowerPoint presentation] materials on the beam projector located across from the jury box.

The opening statement in a People’s Participation Trial is very detailed, unlike in a regular trial.

Visual aids must be used because the legal provisions corresponding to the charges and, if necessary, the general principles and terms of the law must be explained in detail.

Looking at his PPT slides, I could tell how hard he had prepared.

Not a single font or highlight was overlooked.

“The defendant Oh Sang-hyun was a deputy in the apartment business division of Wooshin Corporation’s construction sector as of September 10, 2009, and went on a site inspection with the victim, Go Yoon-sung, who is the head of the company’s headquarters.”

Yang Han-seok continued his explanation, making eye contact with the jurors.

“…However, the defendant assaulted the victim and inflicted injuries requiring 8 weeks of treatment. Therefore, we are indicting the defendant Oh Sang-hyun for injury under Article 257, Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Act.”

“Defendant, do you admit to the charges?”

“I deny all the charges. The defendant only engaged in legitimate self-defense against a special assault and did not assault Go Yoon-sung. Rather, he suffered injuries requiring 7 weeks of treatment due to a special assault by Go Yoon-sung and his total of 7 escorts.”

The jurors all looked surprised after hearing both sides’ opening statements.

During the prosecutor’s opening statement, they must have been surprised that the person referred to as the victim was the youngest son of the great Chairman Go Sang-joon.

During the defendant’s opening statement, they must have been surprised that it was the opposite.

The reason Yang Han-seok challenged the juror who agreed with the saying, “There’s no smoke without fire,” was probably because of the ‘rumors’ circulating about Go Yoon-sung.

Go Yoon-sung had already made a name for himself as Go Sang-joon’s troublesome youngest son, so the perception that ‘there’s no way a normal guy would be called a troublemaker’ was ingrained in people’s minds.

In the end, although he did challenge the juror who agreed with that saying, it would still be difficult to break Go Yoon-sung’s image as a troublemaker.

“So, the prosecutor is currently indicting the defendant on charges of injury for unilaterally assaulting the victim, Go Yoon-sung. However, the defendant is denying all charges. And in addition to that, he is claiming that the defendant’s side was actually the one who was assaulted.”

The judge began to explain the main points of contention to the jurors.

The explanation became longer.

Usually, in cases where the arguments are so sharply divided, it is common for both sides to be injured if there is no clear evidence.

If the other party had not been Go Yoon-sung, this case would have been the same, of course.

Thanks to the prosecution’s extremely biased investigation, Oh Sang-hyun is the only one in the situation of being a defendant.

Moreover, the situation had to be presented in more detail because we were not only claiming innocence but also claiming to be the victim.

“Okay, shall we begin the examination of evidence now?”

The judge, the prosecutor, and the defendant’s side had already gone through the procedures during the preliminary hearing, so there was nothing new.

However, it is the prosecutor’s and the lawyer’s desire to drag out the empty talk in order to gain the jurors’ trust.

Yang Han-seok explained the evidence one by one with an unusually warm face.

And soon after, a witness appeared who would strengthen Yang Han-seok’s argument.

“We are requesting worker Shin Kyung-ho, who has been working at the site since before the day the defendant and the victim went on a site inspection together, to be a witness.”

Shin Kyung-ho was not originally on the witness list, but appeared about a week before the trial.

Originally, they were going to use Kim Eui-cheol and the site manager as witnesses, but I think they gave up after the day we contacted the site manager.

So, they urgently found a new witness among the workers, and that person is Shin Kyung-ho.

As a result of the investigation, Shin Kyung-ho had been working at the Wooshin Corporation site for a long time.

He is said to be friendly with the workers, so the credibility of the witness is also high.

It can be said to be the next best thing among the worker witnesses.

Of course, even so, it would not match the impact of Kim Eui-cheol, who was known to have received help from Oh Sang-hyun, giving testimony in favor of Go Yoon-sung.

The courtroom door opened, and Shin Kyung-ho entered.

“Witness, you have been at this construction site for a long time, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Then you must have seen the defendant, who is in charge of managing the apartment construction site, quite often at the site.”

“Of course. I saw him often. Is that all? I even had *makgeolli* [Korean rice wine] with him, and I even told him to just call me ‘*hyung*’ [older brother – a term of endearment used by males]. We were quite close.”

The word [Truth] was floating above his head until he said that he had told him to call him ‘*hyung*,’ but as soon as Shin Kyung-ho uttered the words ‘quite close,’ the word [Lie] floated above his head.

Oh Sang-hyun, who was sitting at the defendant’s seat, let out a dumbfounded laugh.

“What was your reaction when you first heard the news that the defendant had assaulted the victim, Go Yoon-sung? Since it’s absurd for a regular employee to hit a so-called ‘royal family’ member [referring to a member of a powerful or wealthy family], you must have dismissed it as, ‘No way.’”

At Yang Han-seok’s question, Shin Kyung-ho shook his head firmly and said.

“I wasn’t surprised. Ah, rather, I thought it was coming.”

Oh Sang-hyun’s face contorted.