Authors Note: This begins just after the events of Justice for All .

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"Hold still! I'm telling you, I can't get at the thing if you don't hold still!"


"And I'm telling YOU to stop trying to tear my arm off!"


"I'm only trying to get it out of your shoulder, now hold still...it's almost out--if I don't get it out, you could bleed to death..."


"A wonderful consolation for the--nngh--pain..."

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"This court will now come to order," the judge said, banging his gavel. "The...retrial of Manfred von Karma will come to order." He glanced over at the prosecutor, and asked, "Is the prosecution ready?"


A young woman stood there, with (to the judge at least) oddly familiar and angular dark hair. She looked quite familiar, but he didn't say anything else on the issue.


"The prosecution is ready, your honor," she said. She was rather tall for a woman, with tanned skin and green eyes, as well as a pair of glasses that seemed to perpetually be on the end of her nose. Her outfit consisted of a black pair of dress pants, what appeared to be an orange mens' shirt, and a gray sweater vest.


"Is the defense ready?"


"The defense is ready, your honor," said the defense. She was petite--her soft blue hair tied in a french braid, amber eyes focused on the prosecutor, and her arms crossed. She was glaring across the room at the prosecution.


"Very well then," the judge said. "Prosecutor, your opening statement, please."


"Your Honor...nothing has changed," the prosecutor said, "The evidence is the same...the victim, the killer...but the defense seems to have something to say. So I will allow her to say it."


"Thank you, Prosecutor..." the defense said. "Your honor. New evidence has come to light...you see, the first autopsy that was performed on Gregory Edgeworth...was flawed!"


This got the court abuzz.


"ORDER! ORDER! We will have order!" the judge said, "I hope you're prepared to present evidence on this, miss..." He looked at the court papers, "Elise."


"Of course," Elise replied, "You see, the man who performed the last autopsy...he, shall we say, recently passed away. And on his deathbed, he confessed to a number of things...one of which was that he removed the bullet from a location not in the heart, but...just outside the heart. Now, I can see why he would assume the bullet killed Gregory Edgeworth...but there were other factors."


"Such as?" the judge asked.


"Such as Mr. Edgeworth was afflicted by heart failure," Elise said. "...I do not myself know the proper medical terms, but with your honor's permission, I will call a witness who does know and can easily explain things."


"Fine, then you can call this witness," The judge replied.


"I call to the stand--Sophia Merewether."


A woman who looked to be about 40 years old walked into the courtroom. She was holding a lot of papers and was followed by a bailiff who was bringing in a television and a VCR.


"My witness did the second autopsy," Elise stated.


"But Edgeworth's body--"


"Has been perfectly frozen. For some reason the man who did the last autopsy had a guilty conscience and recommended it be frozen...just in case."


"Witness," the prosecutor said, "...state your name and profession."


Sophia took the witness stand confidently. She was of medium height and had dark hair that was put back into a bun, and blue eyes that glanced down at her papers. "Sophia Merewether. Currently working doing autopsies, and an ex-detective."


"If you don't mind my asking," the prosecutor said, "How did you make the leap from investigation to autopsies? Seems like a pretty difficult thing to do..."


OBJECTION!


"That is irrelevant to this case," Elise said, "We need not grill her about her credentials, do we? Now. If we can continue..."


"Of course," the prosecutor said. "Witness...proceed, then."


"Thank you," Sophia said, "Well, first of all..." she took a picture out of her file. "I'd like the court to look at this picture, here. This is a photograph of a normal human heart."
"We...we see," the judge said--he looked a bit green.


"And this--" she changed that picture for another one,"--is Gregory Edgeworth's heart."
There were gasps. Gregory's heart was very nearly spherical!


"How in the--what's--" the prosecutor watched. "I'm no med school graduate, but even I can tell that's not healthy."


"Indeed," Sophia said. "To further explain this, I'm going to have to get a little technical. So if you can't understand, please say so. Alright...Gregory Edgeworth suffered from two things at his time of death. Heart failure, and hypoxia--oxygen deprivation." She put in a video, and said, "Oh, by the way. If you have a weak stomach, I suggest you leave the courtroom. This is very disturbing material you're going to see."


Even the prosecutor felt her stomach flip-flop when the video began.


"This is the first autopsy that was done on Mr. Edgeworth," Sophia said, "If you notice...he did take a look into the lungs, just to be certain." She pointed to the incision the man in the video was making. "His lungs were nearly full of fluid...his own fluid."
"But how is that possible?" the judge asked, "I thought you said he suffered from heart failure. Doesn't that mean--"


"No, your honor," Sophia replied. "Heart failure does not mean cardiac arrest. Heart failure means the heart's failing to pump out enough blood to sustain the body. This in turn, causes the heart to be unable to remove the fluid from the lung circulation, which builds up in the lungs. This condition, we know as pulmonary edema--or in layman's terms, fluid accumulation in the lungs."


Everyone cringed and turned their attention back to the video.


Sophia pointed, "You see where he's reaching with the forceps? ...now, if the bullet had been removed from the heart, wouldn't he need the scalpel first? You cannot claim he already used it to open the heart, because--his scalpel, there on the table, is completely clean. Yes, he used one to open the body, but he threw it away earlier in the video. As you can see..."


That caused more chatter in the courtroom, causing the judge to bang the gavel down again. "Order! Order! We shall have order! Well, Ms. Merewether...you've certainly proven Mr. von Karma's innocence of the murder, but--if he didn't do it, who did?"
"I suggest that there was no murderer--"


OBJECTION!


"Nonsense, Ms. Merewether..." the prosecutor said, "...how could there be no murderer? Even you must--"


"Ms...what's your name?"


"Devina."


"Ms. Devina," Sophia said, "...look at the fluid buildup in his lungs." By now of course she had changed to her autopsy tape, of course. "The fluid has hardened in the time since the last autopsy. Look at this--" She pointed to the screen, where she'd cut open the lungs, showing that each one was at least three-fourths full.


"Dear god..."


"No wonder he died..."


Many people were murmuring things like this to themselves.


"While he may not be guilty of murder," Devina said, attempting to hold onto her words. "He is guilty of...what's the term for it...abuse of a corpse?"


"The defense acknowledges this," Elise said, calmly--almost nonchalantly.


"Then...then--" the judge seemed to be turning a bit green once more. "On the count of murder, the defendant, Manfred von Karma, is hereby found...
NOT GUILTY!