6.
Trial
Will, Kent, Silvio, Martha, and Eve got no sleep that night. The men—supplemented by Alexandra Lescov, the Borough chair, and Érico Lopes, the Borough secretary—discussed procedures with Douglas Morgan and a task force on Earth until an hour after dawn. When Aurorae Outpost awakened the next morning, they encountered a short, simple announcement that, because someone had been accused of the serious crime of rape, there would be a town meeting at 1:30 p.m. that afternoon to discuss legal procedures.
No one could talk about anything else at breakfast and brunch. The interfaith service at 10:30 quickly changed its theme to “the life of society” and Father Greg was engaged to deliver a sermon on the subject. Over half the adults attended; an excellent turnout. Even more watched parts of it on the web. It shaped the tone of lunchtime discussion.
By 1:30, the food had been cleared from the tables and everyone was seated and ready for the town meeting, which was held on the patio where everyone dined. Alexandra called the meeting to order and asked for the “meditation,” a quotation approved by the three Borough Officers that was meant to set the tone of the gathering. Then before she could say anything more, a sea of hands shot up.
“My goodness, people have something to say! Okay, we can entertain a few questions. Roger, you’re waving your hand too forcefully.”
He took that as recognition and stood. “Shouldn’t we know who is accused of raping whom?”
Alexandra paused to select her words carefully. “The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the legal proceedings that should be followed when a crime such as rape is reported. This is not the place to discuss guilt or innocence, nor should the question of who is accused of what influence our planning.”
“But I’ve already heard who the accused is!” exclaimed Zach.
Silvio rose and looked at Alexandra, who nodded. “Look, we know there’s gossiping and rumors, and I won’t deny the accuracy of some of them. While gossiping and rumors are not against the law, we don’t think they should be encouraged. If you want to know what the gossip says, no one will punish you for asking. But we don’t see any reason the town meeting should be a forum for them. There has to be a trial of some sort and the question of guilt or innocence will be discussed and decided then. Our purpose here is to decide on the procedure. The procedure is unaffected by the details or who is accused of what.”
“A trial,” said Irina, shaking her head.
“Yes, a trial,” replied Alexandra. “Look, friends, most of us are still a bit in shock this would happen here. Mars has less than 100 adults and they are all highly trained professionals who have been screened for the ability to work in a team. But that doesn’t mean we’re perfect. All of us make mistakes, and occasionally the social behavior of professionals will cross the line. When that happens, there have to be consequences. We have a chair because we have to agree on rules together and that requires a facilitator of discussion. We have a secretary to record our decisions and implement tasks we agree we all need. We have a treasurer because as a population we want things done and they have to be paid for. And we have elected a judge because we need someone to keep us in line sometimes.”
“Is this an issue being handled by the borough government or by the Commander?”
“Raise your hand please, Lal. The answer to your question is ‘yes.’ It is being handled by one or the other. We’re still not completely sure which.”
“No, no,” replied Will, raising his hand. Alexandra nodded, so he stood. “Look, Mars no longer consists just of employees of the Mars Commission. It has employees of two companies and the Borough now officially employs an elementary school teacher. Plans are underway to incorporate Aurorae Hospital and MarTech. The store and the bank have part time employees and many of us have small weekend businesses. I am not Commander of all these enterprises. The Borough has to be the institution to determine what to do here. I am the servant of the Borough in this case and I have participated in the planning heretofore at the pleasure of our elected officers.”
Alexandra raised an eyebrow at that comment; Will had called them together, after all, rather than the Borough officers inviting him. “Our understanding of this crisis has developed quite a lot in the last twelve hours,” she added. “One lesson is that until we decide which tasks here are done by the Commission and which by the Borough—because in a sense, a transition has started—the town meeting probably should appoint Dr. Will Elliott as the Borough Manager. Other questions?” She looked around. “Thierry.”
Thierry Colmar rose. “I want to know what the Commission’s position about this town meeting is. Do we really have the freedom to make decisions?”
Alexandra looked at Will, who stood to reply. “Yes, we do. The Commission participated in the discussion to hold this town meeting, and we made it clear to Morgan and the others present by videophone that we live a hundred million kilometers from them and have to decide our own fate in matters such as this. Otherwise, morale and our collective will would suffer. The Mars effort, after all, is not just our jobs; it is our lives.”
Will sat and Alexandra pointed to Tina Hvitmer. Tina rose. “I’m concerned that discussion of legal procedures is premature because they hinge on the concept of the society we want to create. A trial assumes a certain adversarial relationship in determining guilt or innocence. Even the terms guilt and innocence imply concepts of right and wrong. I’m wondering whether we need to start at a more basic level.”
Hands immediately shot up, including Silvio’s. Alexandra nodded to him. He rose. “I’m afraid we do not have the luxury of starting from scratch, in terms of social organization. After thousand of years of living together, human beings have discovered that they have to have laws, government, and a legal system. No society has every abolished them. If we were to try, we have to remember that a breakdown of society endangers our lives profoundly; we can’t scatter all over this world to get away from each other. The Outpost has a population density of about 15,000 persons per square kilometer, higher than many cities on Earth. Finally, the treaties on which this settlement is based specify that the laws of the state of Texas apply here.”
“But how can we possibly behave as if we were in Texas!” exclaimed Jacques Deschanel mockingly.
“Look, that’s what the treaties say,” replied Silvio, ignoring Alexandra. “Some Texas laws would be silly here. Others would be absurd. But this town meeting has not yet passed an entire body of laws and it has yet to define a legal procedure. We have to make a start in order to replace the Texas laws with our own.”
“That’s the purpose of this meeting,” added Alexandra. “I said we’d have a few questions. We have done that. I propose we turn to Judge Diponte’s report. I don’t see a point to debating utopian matters now.”
No one disagreed with that, much to her surprise. Many residents did not possess utopian dreams; their political philosophies represented the full spectrum one found on Earth, with no position able to dominate. Under those circumstances, a variant of the terrestrial status quo had to prevail and could be changed only slowly.
Silvio Diponte walked to the stage. He tapped some keys on his attaché and a slide—the first of seven—appeared on the screen behind him. “One: the proposal is fairly simple. The town meeting can only determine the procedure in Aurorae Borough, so that’s all we are discussing this sol. We have a legal vacuum if someone commits a crime on an expedition, so we will have to develop a mechanism for handling Mars-wide crimes eventually, but not this sol.
“Two: We have an elected judge. Theoretically he can preside over a trial and render the verdict, if we want. But we have an educated population here and we already have the institution of the town meeting, so I’d favor trial by a randomly chosen jury of twelve persons, which will be randomly reduced to nine jurors after the defense and prosecution have rested.
“Three: Since we have no lawyers here besides myself, I recommend that the role of the presiding judge be to insure that the jury gets full and impartial information. The Borough can appoint someone to prosecute the case and the defendant can appoint someone to defend him or her, lawyer or not, subject to the approval of the presiding judge. Whether the system is adversarial or not, it will have to be used if the crime cannot be resolved in any other way.
“Four: For felonies—which are crimes such as theft, rape, and murder that potentially carry prison terms—the punishment should in the foreseeable future assume transfer of the individual to Earth for imprisonment; however, the length of the sentence there will be dependent on the individual’s cooperation with us up here, and the possibility of a substantial reduction in the sentence should be an available option to the presiding judge in order to give the individual an incentive to function as a member of society here until he or she can be returned to Earth. Such individuals will live under special restrictions until they return to Earth; they will be expected to perform as model employees, then return straight home to eat their meals until the next sol. Their freedom of movement will be sharply restricted inside the Outpost and they would not be allowed to leave it at all.
“Five: If the individual is judged unable or unwilling to function as a member of society, we have two alternatives. One would be to set up a pair of connected shelters a short distance from here and place the individual there without a space suit or vehicle so they could not escape. We could provide the individual with consumables and periodically order him or her to move from one shelter to the other, so the first could be depressurized, then entered for repairs. The individual would be expected to perform useful work in his or her prison cell, and thus would be contributing to society.
“Six: The other alternative is much more gruesome, but could be necessary under some circumstances: execution. I am not suggesting we discuss and debate this matter this sol because I am sure it will take a lot of thought and debate. But I mention it because we have unusual circumstances up here: we must protect ourselves from an individual who could seek to endanger all of us. As a society we must make every effort to prevent felonies in the first place; even more of an effort than societies on Earth make, because our population density is so high and our life support systems so fragile. But we also must be prepared to protect ourselves as a society.
“Seven: This entire matter will no doubt provoke a discussion of the rights of the individual versus the rights of society. Perhaps I should say up front that my position about this eternal debate is a bit different than many, and it has influenced my proposal. I think our small population and the vastness of the world demands that individual initiative be tapped to the fullest. On the other hand, our high population density and fragile life support systems demand that social cohesion be maintained under all circumstances. We cannot afford a breakdown of law and order. Furthermore—and here is where my view is different from many on Earth, at least—I feel that maximal individual initiative and maximal social cohesion somehow have to be held together in a creative tension. They are not mutually contradictory; just mutually difficult to balance. Government has to be an instrument to maximize both, and if it fails in either case it will fail all of us and the society we are building. My hunch is that our technological and environmental circumstances can allow us to build a society that will hold both together, even though no one has done this on Earth before.”
“Here, here,” exclaimed Will, nodding.
Alexandra glared at him for speaking without permission. Hands shot into the air; nearly everyone wanted to speak. “I can see this is going to be a long afternoon, and I suspect Silvio’s last remarks are going to cost us an extra hour. Okay, folks, we’re going to start with questions about the proposal, to clarify its contents, then we’ll debate aspects of it. Philosophy comes last! So who has questions? Érico, I need you up here to keep track of who gets the floor.”
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The town meeting ended only when supper came out and children—who had run underfoot during much of the meeting—had to be fed. Will invited Érico, Silvio, and Alexandra to abandon their families and sit with him to discuss while they ate. “I think this sol went very well,” Will said. “It was long and exhausting, and not everyone is satisfied, but the vote in favor of Silvio’s procedure was solid.”
Silvio nodded. “It means we can proceed to the trial next week.”
“What about the matter of the admissibility of the emergency audio and video?” asked Érico. “That’s a huge privacy issue.”
“Waiting for those arguments are the biggest delay we could face because we’ll have to engage legal minds on Earth. We could proceed to trial without the tapes. I think the evidence will be strong enough without them. After all, we will soon know what the medical evidence of sexual relations was, the medical evidence of their degree of inebriation, and both parties will have a chance to say what happened. Kent can testify as to Sheila’s mental state as well.”
“We’ll have to resolve the issue of the tapes sooner or later, so we probably should wait,” said Érico. “We all know there are audio and video recorders in our private quarters, but they are there to determine whether someone is trapped in an emergency. I don’t think they should be expected to provide evidence of a crime. If they are used that way, people will have an incentive to deactivate them and that will thwart their purpose.”
“Then we may be waiting a few months, which raises the issue of what to do with Chester and how to keep him away from Sheila. Besides, this is a small community and it needs closure.”
“Someone will have to decide whether to push the prosecution now or later,” said Alexandra. “The role of Borough Chair is to facilitate meetings, not manage. The Aurorae Declaration does not envisage what to do in this situation.”
“We need more law,” agreed Will.
“For Mars, not just for Aurorae,” replied Silvio. “The creation of Cassini forces us to separate the two. We need to plan a constitutional convention to draw up bylaws for Martian government, including a legal framework. Relying on Texas law, we’ve already seen, is problematic.”
“But we still have less than a hundred adults,” said Alexandra.
“So?” replied Will. “This isn’t a remote Australian village; we’re a hundred million kilometers from Earth. We’re not talking about independence, just civil authority. The Commission is essential to us as a conduit for development, but it doesn’t have to provide us with government.”
“Then we need another town meeting to appoint a Borough Manager,” replied Alexandra.
“We’re never going to get any work done,” replied Will.
“How’s all this going to play out with the public?” asked Silvio.
“We’ll see,” replied Will. “Louisa says that the criminal act of one individual cannot damage us very much, but our reaction to that act can either raise our prestige or lower it. The wiser we are, the better we will look.”
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By skipping the issue of whether the audio and video taping of Chester’s room would be used, the trial was able to proceed two sols later in the new MarTech classroom, which was set up as a courtroom for the occasion. Twelve jurors were chosen randomly from the eligible population and sworn in; Silvio drafted the oath. Then with Greg Harris serving as defense counsel and Daniel Shapiro serving as prosecutor, they proceeded through the evidence. Eve and Arieh, the physicians who had examined the two parties, testified that sexual intercourse had occurred; Kent testified about Sheila’s tearful arrival and played the audio and videotape of the two of them on the patio and in the hall outside Chester’s room, as well as the tape of Sheila leaving, clearly upset. Both were given the chance to testify; Sheila did; Chester declined. The jury found him guilty three hours later. He was sentenced to house arrest until he could return to earth, when he faced two to ten years in prison, depending on his behavior.
“I was hoping this verdict would resolve the matter, but now I’m not so sure,” Will said to Silvio and Alexandra after the trial ended. They had retreated to Silvio’s office behind the store after everyone had left the courtroom.
“Oh, I wasn’t expecting that,” replied Silvio. “The Chinese, the Arabs, and some of the Latins seem baffled by the idea that Chester could be thrown in prison, while the Americans and Europeans largely are outraged by his behavior.”
“And the prospect that he might spend only two years in prison outrages some women,” added Alexandra.
“The cultural divisions are a bit more complicated than that,” said Will. “Some of the Chinese say he got what he deserved, and I’ve heard one American man say Sheila should have known better.”
Alexandra was startled. “I hope you straightened him out.”
“I tried. Those attitudes are hard to change. We have racism up here, too. Ask Friday Nguru.”
“And all sorts of tensions,” agreed Silvio. “Arieh has complained to me that the Arabs won’t associate with him because he’s Israeli.”
Will sighed. “I suppose we shouldn’t dwell on the negative side of life here. We need to plan some dialogues on these issues, and give everyone time off to attend. The Commission needs to schedule more cultural sensitivity into its terrestrial training program for Columbus 7.”
“How’s all this playing in the media?” asked Silvio.
“We’ll see how the trial is received. Louise is calling me with a report about midnight. But she told me yestersol that in several countries there has been extensive media coverage of the issue of rape as a result, and national discourse has begun. So that’s good.”
“Very good,” agreed Alexandra.
“Tomorrow’s Christmas,” reflected Silvio. “We have a good healing period coming up. Many people are taking vacation between now and New Year’s, and there’s Cornelius and Tatiana’s wedding on Satursol. There will be a lot of time to relax together, talk together, and think about what happened.”
“We should start planning another town meeting for later in the week,” added Alexandra. “We need to have the town meeting appoint the Commander as the official Borough manager, so that there is no question that he has authority to initiate law enforcement efforts in a situation like this.”
“That’s fine with me, but I’ll leave the planning to you.”
“I wish this meant I didn’t have to go to Cassini.”
Will chuckled. “Sounds like you’re looking for any available excuse to avoid he trip! I doubt the Borough Chair will have to handle a crisis like this again any time soon. No, I need you in Cassini, Alexandra. I’ve planned to videoconference with both Bach and Curry tomorrow and lay down the law. No more eighty-hour work weeks. Low morale was a contributing factor to this incident. You and your engineers have to look over their mining equipment closely with an eye to making permanent improvements. Chester told me, before all this trouble started, that the cold was causing a lot of unanticipated maintenance. Either the companies have to heat the rock before processing it or the equipment has to be redesigned. Take along your best engineers. They’ll have to spend some time doing construction as well, but they’ll have a new and interesting challenge to tackle.”
“Will, that could take a lot of time. We don’t have experience building mining equipment to work well at forty below.”
“Alexandra, we need the money. Besides, your people love engineering challenges.”
“We already have a few challenges scheduled, you know.”
“Yes, but this one is higher priority than you anticipated. We’ve got to recover more gold, or we have to recover the same amount in fewer hours.”
“Or maybe we should spend less money and enjoy more time with our families.”
“Maybe,” replied Will. “We’re still only four months into Columbus 6; this is the time to work. The relaxation comes later. Tell you what, Alexandra. Get all these tasks done and you and your team will be able to fly back to Aurorae. That’ll save you ten sols.”
Alexandra smiled at the thought, then frowned. “Wait a minute. If the dust storm isn’t over, we won’t be able to fly; and if it is over, you’ll be flying the shuttles back here anyway.”
Will smiled and shrugged. “Then pray the storm will be over!”
© 2004 Robert H. Stockman