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So I was deter, he would see a ht even see the real Ben Corbett

“Thank you, Your Honor,” I said “I will try not to disappoint you”

Chapter 121

BENJAMIN E CORBETT’S SUMMATION to the jury:

“Judge Corbett just told you that you have to let the facts speak for themselves The only problem with that is, facts do not have voices of their own; they can’t actually speak So I’ive voice to the facts That is ive me an ear

“It’s the ht in the Eudora Quarters Three men ride up to execute a search warrant It’s two o’clock in the —hardly the most traditional time to conduct a search of private premises—but that is what these men have decided to do

“Ah, but wait There’s a girl in the house, granddaughter of the old dying man She reads the warrant and accepts it She doesn’t like it, she says, but it’s the word of the law, so she will not resist Come on in, she says Search our house Tors We have coal reason for you to want to search here But she allows it She opens the door She lets them in

“And yet even her total subh for these et in the door They have not coal

“They are here to torture and torht to kill anyone who gets in their way To skirt around the law and execute anyone they decide is guilty To evade juries like the one you gentle on today They are there to kill the idea of fair trial, a jury of a un, the knife, the rope And the terrible rule of the mob”

Calh the events of that night—the shooting and wounding of the guards at Abraharove, the fatal shooting of Jimmie Cooper up on the roof, the spectacle of poor Abrahaun to his head

And finally, I told theone to Abraha, what I did and thought and felt at every moment I explained how lucky Abraha these three Raiders to Phineas Eversman so the law could work as it is supposed to work

“Now, Chief Eversht as an officer of the law Not only that, he stuck his neck out, gentle—and that’s not always easy to do He arrested these ht to trial He s, but the fact remains that Chief Eversman knew instinctively that these men had to be stopped

“He had no choice He saw the blood He smelled it—that’s how fresh it was The blood of their victiht them to him It was on the toes of their boots

“Now you gentlemen are in the saht You have heard the truth from the people of the Quarters itnessed these brutal attacks, these murders You have seen the blood

“Let me put it to you frankly: the evidence has not been refuted, because it cannot be refuted