Sarbanes-Oxley

The Prosecution achieves to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Francis Stevenson is guilty of the murder of Patrick Stevenson, his Father.

When dealing with a charge of murder in first degree, one must first find the motive which lead the murderer to commit the crime, especially when it comes to killing one's own flesh and blood. We believe that Francis had what it takes to kill his father, his motive was pure greed. Although he learnt about the inheritance only after the murder, being a wealthy businessman's son, he knew that his father owned a fortune and it seems that he wanted this fortune for himself. One could claim that being a son of such a wealthy father, he should have known that he would get quite a bit of his father fortune when the latter will die, so why kill him? Well, we claim that the evidence simply speaks for itself.

The prosecution wants to show that all the acts of Francis before and after the murder lead to only one conclusion. He rented a car under a false name, hopping that he would not be found as the murderer, or even as a suspect for the crime - how can somebody trace after him when there are no witnesses for the murder, and the only evidence that can lead to the murderer's name is the name of the owner (or renter in our case) of the car - which is as we said, false. Another way of erasing evidence was to drown the car in the river, it is of course obvious that he tried to get rid of the car and did not turn over the bridge by accident, because he was found safe and sound and was arrested, just the day after the murder.

These two acts, were an attempt to wipe evidence and to drive any slight suspicion away from him. But being a smart man, he didn't want to take any chances. The accused thought, maybe he will get caught after all so he tried to lighten the charge of murder by going to the pub and drinking a few whiskies, having the bar-tender as a witness. Doing so he put a strong basis for the defendant claims, saying that he was driving under alcohol influence and that was what caused the so called murder, which was really only a tragic accident and he should be accused only of driving under the influence of alcohol. The defense could go on further by saying that a minor penalty is sufficient because Francis, feeling guilty of taking his own fathers' life, will suffer from that guilt for the rest of his life.

The prosecution