And Justice For All (standard:drama, 3135 words)
Author: MikeK	Added: Sep 23 2005	Views/Reads: 3525/2398	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Bill Rush just wanted to deposit his check and get some cash. How could he know that when Justice got out of law school she ripped off her blindfold and quickly acquired a rather profligate wardrobe.

And Justice for All A short story by Mike K 

AND JUSTICE FOR ALL 

If what happened to William K. Rush has any relevance it must be seen in
the context of a minimal set of facts.  He was not an educated man.  He 
worked hard in the construction trade to support his family and 
occasionally drank too much on weekends and his only experience with 
the legal system was a parking violation and two speeding tickets.  His 
generally affable nature belied the fact that he had been a Ranger in 
the Army, and was no stranger to the stress of combat; but that was 
many years ago.  His upbringing, and that of his siblings, had been 
rough; he was the only one in his immediate family that had anything 
close to a normal family life. 

A year ago on a Friday night, as was his custom, Bill Rush stopped by
the bank to deposit his paycheck and get some cash.  Shortly after he 
entered the bank two men came it to rob it.  At some point an alarm was 
given and one of the robbers, armed with a rifle, attacked a woman 
lying on the floor next to Mr. Rush, whereupon he somehow got the man's 
rifle away from him and shot to death both robbers.  Mr. Rush was 
Caucasian and both of the robbers were African American.  There had 
been in that community some recent allegations of police brutality 
against African American men and as a result of this publicity and the 
repeated playing of some surveillance videotape of the bank robbery on 
the local news channels, there was a push by some groups to have Mr. 
Rush prosecuted for killing the robbers.  The county DA refused to 
indite and political pressure was brought for a Federal prosecution 
based upon a Civil Rights violation.   These are the only facts of the 
case upon which everyone was in agreement. 

Mr. Silas Delany, the younger of the two robbers, was a senior in high
school and no one who knew him could ever understand how he came to be 
in that bank.  His maternal aunt and uncle had raised him in a good 
home and he had no known gang connections and other than a couple of 
suspensions for minor discipline problems at school had not been in any 
trouble with the law.  Perhaps it was as simple as poor neighborhoods 
and the lure of easy money. 

Mr. Antwon Speck, on the other hand, was a bad man by almost any
standard a society would apply.  He had a history of repeated offences, 
many of them violent, and was known wherever he went as a troublemaker. 
 He had been incarcerated multiple times and showed no inclination to 
change that pattern.  His only living relative was a sister who never 
understood why they kept letting him out of prison.  She was never 
involved in the trial. 

The last person to testify at the trial of Mr. Rush was Mr. Rush
himself.  Not being familiar with legal proceeding he could not 
understand why his lawyer did not want him to testify for he assumed 
that the jury would want to hear his take on things and so he demanded 
that his attorney put him on the stand. 

William K. Rush stood and walked to the stand.  He knew that he needed
to make a good impression and that he must suppress the fire within 
him.  He placed his hand upon the Bible but could not hear a thing 
until the pounding in his ears subsided. 

"...The whole truth, so help you God?" 

"I do." 

"You may be seated." 

J. Ted Bartlett, Bill's lawyer, approached.  "Now Bill I want you to
tell us, in your own words, what happened that day at the bank." 

"I went in to...." 

"Would you speak up, please?" 

"I went into the bank to put my check in, like I done ever Friday after
work.  While I'm waitin' there these two men come in to rob it.  They 
made us all to lie down on the floor and in a little bit there's all 
these sirens and commotion outside.  Reckon someone must have set off 


Click here to read the rest of this story (397 more lines)