The Court Martial of Lt Col John Sheppard

[ReganX]

Honorable Judge ReganX will be heading this trial. Her duties will be calling the trial to order and ensuring order in the court.

Before I call the trial to order - will the roles of Sheppard and any other witnesses be cast?

[VSS]

I don't see how you can avoid casting Sheppard and Rodney.

[ReganX]

I don't see how you can avoid casting Sheppard and Rodney.

Sheppard will need to be given a chance to speak on his own behalf - any volunteers?

[Pegasus_SGA]

I actually fancy doing shep's bit now. Typical woman, can never make up her mind.

[jelgate]

I actually fancy doing shep's bit now. Typical woman, can never make up her mind.

Can we court martial Peg?

[ReganX]

Has anyone actually seen a court martial, for real or in a movie? Are there any differences regarding things like swearing in witnesses?

Since guilt or innocence will be determined by vote, will we need to run several polls for each count, or have multiple options and enable people to vote more than once*?



* Options would be
- Not guilty (Count 1)
- Guilty (Count 1)
- Not guilty (Count 2)
- Guilty (Count 2)
- Not guilty (Count 3)
- Guilty (Count 3)
and so on, on the understanding that everyone would vote either guilty or not guilty for every count, but we'd need a way of making sure that people weren't checking all the boxes and throwing the result.

[ReganX]

Can we court martial Peg?

If she's playing Sheppard, we can.

[ReganX]

Our players so far:

Judges: ReganX--lead

Prosecutors: Ranlier--lead

Defendant: Konman72--lead

Bailiff--Jackie (me)

Expert medical witness: Vastlysuperiorstuff

Jury: Poll at end of trail--sorry roy--dyslexia--trial.

Any volunteers for seconds for the roles, especially the first three - for example, if the trial is in progress and I'm offline, should we designate someone to step in as Judge?

[Jackie]

Jackie's a judge, she's not setting the charges- I've already done that and falsification isn't one of them.

I am NOT the judge...just the assistant--the bailiff. My job is to make sure the court runs smoothly...in virtual court...that would be assisting with info and keeping the thread from being high jacked.

I would like to take a roll call of the players and cast. Please cut and past the very bottom of this post and place on your title and handle. Thank you--can't find my notes.

Then may I respectfully submit that your witness is not an eyewitness to the crime. The actual falsification of the document was not shown in the ep. Hearsay is not allowed at trial. I have no problem with there being a witness be it a guard or one of the bodybag guys or someone else that knew what really happened and that the report was false.

The transcript can certainly be evidence that what the document says is false, but it can't be the witness.

Mr Woosely brought the tape to the prosecutions attention. --the ep is security footage-- there are many crimes where a man has been convicted of murder based on forensic and video evidence alone. The episode is the forensic evidence--which is your best witness. You do not need an eyewitness to a crime to have a trail. If you did need an eyewitness than there a lot of killers in jail who would be free right now. Matter of fact--the less eyewitnesses the better--the defense will try to discredit any prosecuting eyewitness and vise versa.

The case is based on forensic evidence--the tape--which is the show we watched. A transcript of the tape is available for both sides to view and cross examine. This is a forensic case.

Sheppard will need to be given a chance to speak on his own behalf - any volunteers?

The judge may allow shep to speak, his lawyer would request it first. Most defendants do not take the stand in order to prevent them from being cross examined and inadvertently making themselves look less credible to the jury.

If he takes the stand the prosecution would cross examine him and that--could be--tricky.

It's the judge Reganx's call if Shep request to speak on his behave.


Judges:





bailiff: Jackie (there can be 2 bailiffs if someone else wants to help me police the thread for abuse and dig up info for the judge.)



Prosecutors:



State witness and experts:





Defense team:





Defense experts and witness:





Role Players: (feel free to add if you think of any more--I added people who were not on the tape to have a chance to be character witnesses.)

(please sign up for which character you wish to play)

Rodney McKay:

Jeannie Miller:

John Sheppard:

Zelenka:

Agent Barrett:

Sam Carter:

Richard Woosely:

General Landry:

Wraith Todd:

[ReganX]

I actually fancy doing shep's bit now. Typical woman, can never make up her mind.

We've got our Sheppard. For other roles, maybe the prosecution and defence attorneys could each compile a witness list so we know who we'll need - no point in casting the role if the player won't have anything to do.

In the event that we run out of volunteers here and nobody's interested in doubling up (obviously, judge, defence and prosecution wouldn't be able to play a character too but there's no reason why whoever plays one character can't take on another if they so choose), we could issue open invitations on Character threads for anyone who has yet to be cast - ie. go to the McKay fans thread for McKay, and so on.

[Pegasus_SGA]

Can we court martial Peg?

You can't now, because you're on my side if i'm playing Sheppard. Are you going to switch allegeances now?

Has anyone actually seen a court martial, for real or in a movie? Are there any differences regarding things like swearing in witnesses?

Since guilt or innocence will be determined by vote, will we need to run several polls for each count, or have multiple options and enable people to vote more than once*?



* Options would be
- Not guilty (Count 1)
- Guilty (Count 1)
- Not guilty (Count 2)
- Guilty (Count 2)
- Not guilty (Count 3)
- Guilty (Count 3)
and so on, on the understanding that everyone would vote either guilty or not guilty for every count, but we'd need a way of making sure that people weren't checking all the boxes and throwing the result.

you only get one vote of guilty or not guilty per charge, so you might have to set up multiple polls for that (if you're doing polls) if not, there are ways around it. The jurers can vote on their posts, and we can just keep a 5 bar gate as way of score, then you'll know there's no cheating either, or should I say multiple votes.

If she's playing Sheppard, we can.

Cheeky.

I am NOT the judge...just the assistant--the bailiff. My job is to make sure the court runs smoothly...in virtual court...that would be assisting with info and keeping the thread from being high jacked.

I would like to take a roll call of the players and cast. Please cut and past the very bottom of this post and place on your title and handle. Thank you--can't find my notes.



Mr Woosely brought the tape to the prosecutions attention. --the ep is security footage-- there are many crimes where a man has been convicted of murder based on forensic and video evidence alone. The episode is the forensic evidence--which is your best witness. You do not need an eyewitness to a crime to have a trail. If you did need an eyewitness than there a lot of killers in jail who would be free right now. Matter of fact--the less eyewitnesses the better--the defense will try to discredit any prosecuting eyewitness and vise versa.

The case is based on forensic evidence--the tape--which is the show we watched. A transcript of the tape is available for both sides to view and cross examine. This is a forensic case.

I agree all material can be used, and i'm sure there would be video evidence available.... unless the machine ate the tape?

The judge may allow shep to speak,

That's very kind of you, thanks.

his lawyer would request it first. Most defendants do not take the stand in order to prevent them from being cross examined and inadvertently making themselves look less credible to the jury.

If he takes the stand the prosecution would cross examine him and that--could be--tricky.

It's the judge Reganx's call if Shep request to speak on his behave.

Behave? Since when do I behave? Remember how irreverant I can be.

Judges:





bailiff: Jackie (there can be 2 bailiffs if someone else wants to help me police the thread for abuse and dig up info for the judge.)



Prosecutors:



State witness and experts:





Defense team:





Defense experts and witness:





Role Players: (feel free to add if you think of any more--I added people who were not on the tape to have a chance to be character witnesses.)

(please sign up for which character you wish to play)

Rodney McKay:

Jeannie Miller:

John Sheppard: Peggy I might have to grow some balls for this role. I mean that metaphorically people.

Zelenka:

Agent Barrett:

Sam Carter:

Richard Woosely:

General Landry:

Wraith Todd:

We've got our Sheppard. For other roles, maybe the prosecution and defence attorneys could each compile a witness list so we know who we'll need - no point in casting the role if the player won't have anything to do.

In the event that we run out of volunteers here and nobody's interested in doubling up (obviously, judge, defence and prosecution wouldn't be able to play a character too but there's no reason why whoever plays one character can't take on another if they so choose), we could issue open invitations on Character threads for anyone who has yet to be cast - ie. go to the McKay fans thread for McKay, and so on.

If we don't get enough volunteers, I suppose I could always prosecute myself. Although I do wonder if people don't line up around the block to take pot shots at me. Well, this is their chance, so to speak.

[ReganX]

Behave? Since when do I behave? Remember how irreverant I can be.

Not in my courtroom.

[ReganX]

If we don't get enough volunteers, I suppose I could always prosecute myself. Although I do wonder if people don't line up around the block to take pot shots at me. Well, this is their chance, so to speak.

Didn't Ranlier volunteer as lead prosecuter?

[Pegasus_SGA]

Not in my courtroom.

I might have to amend my sig then.

Didn't Ranlier volunteer as lead prosecuter?

He did. And the last time I spoke to him, he was plotting shep's demise. (or should I say mine? ) I even gave him a few hints, before I turned to the dark side. Maybe he'll change his game plan, now.

[Jackie]

Didn't Ranlier volunteer as lead prosecuter?

yes he did....I also have a post a few back where I posted who was cast last night. I'll go look for it.