Chapter 152: Chapter 122 Zhang Wei: Good Thing I Didn’t Take Their Case_2
He was incredibly relieved. Thankfully, those two had rejected his application to be their defense counsel. Otherwise... if something like this erupted in court, he’d probably have a heart attack from sheer anger. Moreover, seeing their extremely arrogant behavior, he suspected that even if they had hired him, they wouldn’t have paid. They most likely would have tried to get his services for free, and he wouldn’t have had much recourse. Civil court judgments meant nothing to those two.
"Order!"
At the head of the courtroom, Zhou Quanmin, looking at the two still quarreling, raised his voice sharply.
The gavel banged, its solemn sound echoing throughout the courtroom.
"BANG! BANG! BANG!"
"Bang your damn hammer!"
"You think you’re right just because you shout louder and have more people? You won’t let us speak?"
"Why can’t we speak? These mouths are ours; we’ll say whatever we damn well please!"
After a moment of silence, Jia Zuoying and Wang Fenlan retaliated again, spittle flying with their shouts.
The bailiffs could only restrain them physically; they couldn’t silence them.
Zhou Quanmin trembled with renewed anger. He had been practicing law for nearly twenty years, yet this was the first time he had encountered such brazen individuals in his courtroom!
He took a deep breath. Suppressing the fury and indignation rising within him, he warned, "This is a courtroom! Disruptive behavior is prohibited. If you continue to disrupt the judicial process, you will bear the corresponding criminal liability!"
According to criminal procedure law, causing a disturbance in court, obstructing judicial proceedings, insulting judges, and contempt of court, if severe, constitute the crime of disrupting court order. Depending on the severity, this is punishable by up to three years of imprisonment or criminal detention.
"Criminal liability? Are you trying to scare us, huh?"
"Always with this ’criminal liability’! We just cursed you out a bit, and suddenly it’s criminal liability?"
"You with the hammer! Go on, sentence us! See if we don’t appeal!"
"We don’t scare easily! You might frighten others, but you won’t frighten us!"
Jia Zuoying and Wang Fenlan continued their furious tirade. They insisted on their innocence, refused to cooperate with the trial, and began to cause an unreasonable scene right then and there.
"You... you two!"
Zhou Quanmin, watching the two throw a shameless tantrum, trembled with rage once more. These two were utterly shameless!
Before the trial, he had reviewed the indictment and the charges against them. If convicted... they would most likely face twenty years in prison.
Honestly, even if he were to add a charge for disrupting court order now, their sentence would still be twenty years! It was completely inconsequential!
"Order!"
Left with no alternative, he could only continue to bang the gavel, trying to silence them.
However... it was utterly futile.
Jia Zuoying and Wang Fenlan, seeing that no one could control them, grew even more audacious. Having finished berating Zhou Quanmin, they started pointing at and cursing the other adjudicators. Once done with the adjudicators, they turned their sights on Zhang Tao in the plaintiff’s section. They postured as if ready to out-argue a legion of Confucian scholars.
"Zhang Tao! We’ve known you for three years, and only now do we realize you’re a two-faced hypocrite!"
"To think we actually pitied you and were planning to return the house!"
"But how did you repay us? You colluded with this hammer-wielder to get us arrested! Do you think you’ll get the house this way?"
"You just wait! Once we’re out, you’ll never have a moment’s peace for the rest of your life!"
In the plaintiff’s section, Zhang Tao’s reaction was, ironically, the calmest in the entire courtroom.
This scene... He had witnessed it far too many times. Heaven only knew how he had endured the past three years. Every attempt to reclaim his house had been met with this.
Although he couldn’t remain completely unfazed, his composure was far better than that of the others. The Judgment Chief and the other two adjudicators, for instance, had never encountered such a spectacle, and their faces were grim.
"Court is in recess!"
Finally, Zhou Quanmin, seeing the trial could not proceed, struck the gavel decisively. He signaled the bailiffs to return the two to the holding cell. Then, he left the courtroom with the two adjudicators, retreating to the conference room at the back to try and compose himself.
「Meanwhile,」
In the spectator’s gallery,
"Xiao Qin, the belligerence of these two... it’s simply overwhelming."
"I just saw how livid the Judgment Chief and the others looked. Jia Zuoying and Wang Fenlan won’t get the death penalty for this, will they?"
"So brazen! Utterly shameless! It seems a long sentence ahead really does give them backbone; they’re not afraid at all!"
"I don’t think they’re just being reckless because they have nothing left to lose; I think they genuinely believe they’re innocent!"
Zhang Qingyuan and the others couldn’t help but discuss as the cacophony of shouts gradually faded.
It was only ten-thirty in the morning, and the trial had been forcibly halted before the court rules had even been fully read out. This meant... the pair had been causing a disturbance for a full half hour.
While the bailiffs could only prevent them from self-harm, they were powerless to stop them from speaking. As for resorting to extreme measures like taping their mouths shut in court... the bailiffs wouldn’t dare attempt it.
"The maximum combined sentence for their various crimes is twenty years; adding a charge for disrupting court order is, indeed, inconsequential," Qin Mu remarked, glancing towards the holding cell, the corner of his mouth twitching. The crime of disrupting court order also carries a sentence of less than three years of imprisonment. Even if they received the maximum for that, it would make no difference to their overall sentence. It would still be twenty years.
However... the sentencing guidelines for combining punishments stipulated that if the total term of imprisonment for all crimes was less than thirty-five years, the executed sentence could not exceed twenty years. If the total term was thirty-five years or more, the executed sentence could not exceed twenty-five years.