Shepherds and Butchers Page #3

---

What else, Pierre?

What struck me is

that these warders,

they get to know the men

that they have to hang.

They're their caretakers,

then they haul them out,

string them up.

And this struck you, why?

In a war,

you don't see

the enemy as people.

You're shooting at uniforms,

not men.

The only thing worse

than killing a stranger

is killing someone you know.

Strangers are hard enough.

You have to go

through all of these?

Yes, these 32 men

who were hanged in

the last two weeks

Leon was there.

And what are we

looking for exactly?

It might be useful

to find out something

about the men he hanged

in the days

before the shooting.

He developed a very

close relationship

with these men.

How would you know that?

My brother-in-law has contacts

in the prison system.

He's a warder?

Intelligence. Special forces.

He spent three years

fighting in Angola.

What's that got to do

with anything, John?

Well, for one thing,

it means he knows

first-hand what

killing does to a person.

I'm sorry,

are we assembling evidence

to support your

political pre-conception

about capital punishment,

or are we trying to discover

the extenuating circumstances

that might save Leon

from a death sentence?

Something must have happened

to labuschagne toward the end.

These men all had

reasons for killing.

He must've had a reason.

We need to find

out what it is.

So, we're down to

wild hunches, then.

Look,

i understand that a defense

based on complete

mental breakdown

doesn't succeed very often.

But it's all we've

got at this stage.

Unless you have a better idea.

Do you have a better idea?

No.

Um...

If it pleases my lord

and my lord's

learned assessors.

Yes, yes, carry on.

This is an extraordinary case

in which the evidence

for the prosecution

is undisputed

and the case for

the prosecution is,

in a way, also

the case for the defense.

On a murder charge,

the prosecution has to prove

that the act was

both unlawful and intentional.

We intend to prove

that there was no act

to which the law attaches

legal consequences.

Are you

suggesting there was no act

when we have seven bodies?

My lord is

entitled to be skeptical.

The prosecution

has been at pains

to explain what has happened.

We intend to explain

why these events happened

and whether the accused

can be held

criminally responsible.

Well,

you'd better explain

very carefully

what the defense is,

as I'm at

a loss to understand.

How can you say

there was no act

when you've admitted that

the accused killed

the seven deceased?

With respect,

my lord, the events

at the quarry

are not in dispute,

but the brutality,

the scale of the events,

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes