Was Gene Forrester Guilty of Committing Voluntary Manslaughter?

On the behalf of the client Gene Forrester, we the prosecution find him Guilty of committing voluntary manslaughter upon Phineas. He is found guilty of voluntary manslaughter on the following counts : He has the means, motive based on a mental illness, the opportunity, the witnesses that will testify against him, as well as a full out written confession.

First, he had the means. While Gene is not an athlete he, at 140 lbs. is still quite capable of climbing a tree branch and there for jostling it, and further more, his diary describes him climbing and jumping out of this tree several times, as you will see on page: 8-9 as he describes his first time jumping the tree upon which the act was committed.

Second, he had the motive. Our psychologist and expert witness: Dr. Brown testifies that Gene suffers from passive-dependant disorder, and that in having this particular disorder has been known to develop in adolescence, and also has the tendency to become violent. In fact, the only reason for it to be seen that the charges are moved down to voluntary manslaughter from second degree murder, is because of this mental illness.

Third, he has the opportunity. Our witness, Mr. Lepellier, can describe in vivid detail of what happened on that day, that as they were about to take a jump from the tree together, Gene jostled the branch so that Phineas would fall to the ground, and thus be maimed or killed.

Fourth, we have a witness, coach Quakenbush, to testify that Gene's character is not in the best of states, that he is quite capable of wishing Phineas maimed or as it later turned out: dead.

Fifth, and finally, we state that we have a full written confession by Mr. Forrester. If you will please turn to page 196 of the defendant's diary, you will see it stated out in the open: "I was on active duty all the time at my school. I killed my enemy there." End quote. So, as you can see, he is perfectly guilty of committing the act of voluntary manslaughter on Mr. Phineas, as we are aware that he did commit no other murders that we are know of.

So, in that we find the defendant guilty of voluntary manslaughter, as demonstrated that he had means, motive by mental illness, opportunity as seen by Mr. Lepellier, bad character as testified by coach Quakenbush, and actually admitted to the crime. Thank you.