Chapter 506 - 235: Court Hearing
"Your Honor, you say this is irrelevant?"
"The reason Luigi Randall opened fire is because he saw this photo! It’s because he saw that denial-of-claim form!"
"Arthur Vance may not have held the knife himself, but he approved that claim-denial algorithm!"
"That algorithm is right on this form!"
Wayne slammed the denial-of-claim form down on the table.
"This is the murder weapon!"
"Arthur Vance used this pen to kill Erin Quinn! He killed those retired steelworkers! He killed those single mothers who died waiting for surgery!"
"Luigi was just stopping an ongoing massacre!"
"If we’re not going to let the victims speak, if we’re not going to let the mothers of the dead speak, then what are we putting on trial here?"
"Are we trying a hero who tried to stop a murderer?"
The courtroom erupted in an uproar.
The people in the gallery began to stir, and some couldn’t help but cheer.
Judge Harrison’s face turned livid.
He frantically hammered his gavel, producing a continuous BANG! BANG! sound.
"Order! Order!"
"Lawyer Wayne, I’m warning you! Watch your words! You are in contempt of court!"
"If you continue with this irrelevant tirade, I will have you removed from this courtroom at once!"
Wayne didn’t stop.
He turned, his back to the judge, and faced the cameras.
He looked like a madman, an enraged beast.
"Contempt of court?"
Wayne burst out laughing.
He pointed a finger at the flag in the courtroom.
"Of course I despise this court!"
"Because this court is blind!"
Wayne charged toward the plaintiff’s table, startling Hart into taking a step back.
Wayne grabbed the indictment from Hart’s table and tore it to shreds.
Shreds of paper fluttered through the air.
"In Pennsylvania alone, this insurance company’s claim-denial algorithm has, over the past five years, directly led to the deaths of four thousand policyholders who were unable to get treatment!"
Wayne roared out the number.
"Four thousand people!"
"That’s the strength of a brigade! That’s the population of a small town!"
"And as for the number of people who died indirectly, we have no way of even counting them."
"Has anyone gone to jail for this?"
Wayne pointed at Hart, at the judge, at all the legal elites present.
"Have you ever sued the insurance company? Have you ever arrested Arthur Vance? Have you ever once banged the gavel for those four thousand souls who died unjustly?"
"No!"
"Because it’s legal! It’s business! It’s damn ’cutting losses’!"
"Killing by algorithm isn’t murder, it’s ’data optimization’!"
Wayne spun around, pointing at the silent Luigi in the defendant’s box.
"And my client, he killed the man who created this algorithm. He killed a butcher with the blood of four thousand people on his hands."
"And you want to send him to the electric chair for it?"
"What kind of law is this?"
"What kind of justice is this?"
"This is a shield for the rich!"
"It’s a license to kill issued to Vampires!"
"If you won’t let the dead speak, if you won’t let the truth speak."
Wayne stared into Judge Harrison’s eyes and said, enunciating every word.
"Then this court is an accomplice to murder!"
"And you, Your Honor, you are the accomplice!"
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Judge Harrison banged his gavel as if he were trying to break it.
He stood up, pointing a trembling finger at Wayne.
"Enough!"
"Bailiffs! Take him away!"
"Now! Immediately!"
"Hold the defense attorney in contempt of court! Twenty-four hours in custody!"
Four burly bailiffs rushed forward.
They held down Wayne’s shoulders and twisted his arms.
Wayne didn’t resist, letting the bailiffs drag him toward a side door.
But he still held his head high, facing the cameras, facing everyone, and let out a final roar.
"You can arrest me! You can lock me up!"
"But you can’t lock up the truth!"
"This debt of four thousand lives will be paid sooner or later!"
"The people will not forget!"
"Cut the feed! Cut the feed, now!"
Hart waved frantically at the broadcast director.
The image on the television screens suddenly turned to static, then went black.
The live broadcast was cut.
The courtroom descended into chaos.
Reporters frantically rushed for the exits, wanting to send everything that had just happened back to their newsrooms.
The citizens in the gallery stood up; some were cursing the judge, others were shouting Wayne’s name.
Luigi remained seated in the defendant’s box, his face devoid of any expression.
No one knew what he was thinking.
...
「Outside the courthouse, in the plaza.」
The massive electronic screen suddenly went dark.
The thousands of citizens gathered in the plaza were stunned for a moment.
Immediately after, news began to spread from inside.
"Wayne’s been arrested!"
"The judge wouldn’t let the witness speak!"
"They cut the live feed!"
"They said Wayne was in contempt of court!"
The crowd exploded.
This crude and heavy-handed suppression was more convincing than any legal argument could ever be.
It proved that Wayne was right.
The court was afraid of the truth. The system was protecting the guilty.
Anger spread through the crowd like wildfire.
"Let him go!"
No one knew who shouted it first.
"Let him go!"
"Let him go!"
The waves of sound grew louder and louder, rattling the courthouse windows.
Louis stood at the very front. He took off his hard hat and slammed it fiercely onto the ground.
"Brothers! They won’t let us speak!"
"Then let’s give ’em something to listen to!"
Several hundred workers charged the police line.
They linked arms, advancing step by step toward the courthouse doors.
On the other side of the line, riot police from the Philadelphia Police Department raised their shields.
The wind grew stronger, sending tens of thousands of despair-filled claim denial forms twisting in the air, causing the massive Wailing Wall to RUSTLE loudly.