Replay

Marc almost hated his job now. When he'd been going through law school and taking the direction toward prosecution, he'd imagined himself up the front of a courtroom, convincing a jury that someone was guilty. He knew in hi heart they were, but they'd been smart and left little proof, but his word and manner help convicted the bastard. Now he stood up the front of the courtroom, his fine suit and looked towards the defendant. He was broken and defeated. He was a regular looking man. Tallish, 40 ish, brown hair, accountant type. He'd killed his wife and then sat waiting for the police. Why? why doe anyone do these things. Apparently she was always nagging him, as were they.
The reason he hated his job now was replay. Replay was a revolution in neuro-science. The wonderful brain tinkerers in Japan, had invented a technology, that not only could replay your own thoughts, so you could watch back your wedding or last nights events like watching a movie, it could also play back the last few minutes of a dead persons input, as they called it.
All courtrooms were now fitted with huge screens and his job was just guiding the jury though the bloodshed. His job was now about watching real life horror movies and providing the live commentary
.
The feed had started to play, there was even sound input, and the lab boys had sharpened up the image so it was very clear. Still it looked a but shaky, and blurred as she was crying.
The vision opened on them eating dinner, they watched as she slowly cut the food in front of her and the sounds of eating which had been muted a bit, the vision looked up to the husband. He was pointing a knife a her, his eating knife, but in a threatening way.
'i know what you do when i'm not here, i'm out working every day and your here whoring yourself to the neighbors, i see the way he smiles at me, thinks he's so smart'
'please john not again, your just acting so crazy' she said back
Marc speaks up, as the view changes. Her husband provoked by her words leaped across the table and stabbed her. The knife going into her as she looked down and watched it. The jury let out a collective cry.

'as you can see the defendant killed his wife in a fit of jealousy, she'd be hospitalized three times before and he had a known history of mental illness' he said

On the screen, she dropped to the floor of their dinning room, gripping her chest as the blood flowed around her hands. Her watching as her life dripped away.

He needed a new job, you didn't even need a law degree to do this. He hated replay, it had taken over the world. Law enforcement was only one of the fields it was used in. The biggest hit was to the porn industry, why would people watch strangers when they could watch their own greatest hits. Travel was down, jut relive the trip you took, three years ago. People just watched there own lives over and over, and if he had to see another fucking three hour long clip on facebook of someones night out, in full length, he'd go crazy.

The judge looked down at him, it was a look he knew, he barley had to say it.

'we ask for a guilty verdict'

The only part he liked about this, was the defense. Previously defense lawyers were happy to represent scum criminals. They would hid behind saying they though they were innocent or not thinking about it. Now it was in front of their faces, not only that the jury saw it all. He was surprised he even plead innocent, 90% of cases plead guilty if there was 'replay' evidence.
The lawyer for the other side stood up and walked to the front. He looked up, the tech had left the last scene frozen, the pool of blood and her looking up at her killer, his face distorted i rage. He waved to him and it went blank.

'what would drive a man to do this, to his lovely wife. This shows to me a man who is unstable, who needs our help, i certainly can't say eh didn't do it, only that their were reasons, even if only in his mind, we seek a sentence of mental evaluation and a sentence to a psychiatric center.' he sat down
Marc got one more rebuttal, he was surprised, he'd gone for that, they had two charges, manslaughter and assault with intent to kill, also the judge could still give a weak sentence. He looked at the man and he looked weak, he was one of those three years for a rape, five for a murder types. Marc felt a fire in his belly, he'd get this bastard.

He stood 'it is said that 1 in four people suffer from mental illness. I'm sure all of us have know someone who was effected by depression or the like and maybe even in our own lives had to overcome hard times. Doe that mean 1 in 4 have a right to kill? was this man seeking treatment? no was he trying to get help? no. He put his wife in the hospital three times before this and never once asked for help, he asks for help now, says it wasn't his fault, but i ask you to help the women who was on the screen. Helen Jones, 37,  help her get justice she didn't find in life.
He sat down and smiled, he felt good. He looked over at the defendant and saw hatred, that felt good to. Maybe he still was needed. The jury was lead out and they were led back in in less than five minutes. That was good for him and happened a lot. The time saved for the legal system, was the only good thing about replay.

The judge looked to them 'foreman, your verdict'

A young women stood and read it out 'we find te defendant guilty of both counts and ask to make a plea to the judge' she said

It was new system, but gave jury a bit more power over weak judges.

'the plea?'

'we ask for the maxim sentence'