A young, well spoken lawyer entered the Court after depositing the correct papers as per the laws of Baltimn, such as they were. He was a firm supporter and an up and coming member of the Revolutionary movement, as as such when rumours came out of a massacre, he had been keen to investigate and had found out much of the surrounding circumstances. Meeting with the weeping families he has spoken to each family, giving his consolences for the loss of their children, and also for the surviving children of the debris victims.

As such, having been officially taken on as Counsel for the Prosecution, he sought out several critical pieces of evidence, and was able to secure sworn testimony from the Jedi involved, as well as the survivors. With a selection of other lawyers, some sent by sympathetic worlds, also working pro-bono, many having travelled to be a part of this historic prosecution.

"Your Honor, I present before you the private prosecution on the behalf of the next of kin of the following individuals

The Group dubbed the “Baltimn 25, by the Galactic Media”

1. Enriqueta Ferré (15) (Survivor)
2. Asunción Royo (14) (Survivor)
3. Francesca Orella (29) (Survivor)
4. Martin Casado (12) (Survivor)
5. Phil O'Brien (19) (Survivor)
6. Dave Seddon (17)
7. Xavier Amatller (9)
8. Jaime Prats (10)
9. Jose Luis Prats (10)
10. Carles Vilarrasa (13)
11. Fina Alcaniz (13)
12. Claudio Domínguez (25)
13. Ernesto Grau (20)
14. Maria Folch (10)
15. Maite Lucas (17)
16. Sebastia Marmana (16)
17. Lola Olives (11)
18. Ma Eugenia Palatsi (14)
19. Enrique Salvadore (14)
20. Miguel Quintana (10)
21. Aniceto Rallo (32)
22. Roberto Favor (23)
23. Consol Segura (35)
24. Manolo Vicent (27)
25. Cristóbal Estudillo (15)

The victims of the careless explosion
1. Henrique Escobar (42)
2. Martha Escobar (38)
3. Julius Escobar (12)

This Prosecution alledges that one Mr Drasek Cale, styled Duke of Baltimn, did knowingly, and with malice aforethought place weapon systems, comprising several laser turrets of different types around his property, recklessly, in the knowledge that this might cause the death or injury of any individual unfortunate enough to stray onto his land. Furthermore, these recklessly placed weapon systems, which Duke Cale knew could cause massive damage, and I argue intended to cause massive damage to sentient beings.

The Prosecution will freely admit that the "Baltimn 25" were tresspassing, it was a group made up of children (abeit armed, but what farmers son never took his blaster to the fields to play or hunt small game), however, this does not excuse their unlawful killings. They entered the property, in search of survivors, and were quick to dispatch individuals to break down the door of the "School of Hidden Wisdom" and many moved into the breach in its wall caused by an earlier accidental detonation. These individuals progressed into the building in search of survivors or wounded. The group carried a pair of red flags, to mark that there was an emergency to any passing airspeeders, one group (the survivors erected a flag on the roof and were able to signal for rescue with this).

It should be clarified for the purposes of the court that warnings were issued, and so I will examine, using the measurement of an Old Republic statute (Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 BBY) which is still in force via the ancient legal principle of stare decisis (below), clearly the principle is established

'2 Extent of occupier’s ordinary duty

(1)An occupier of premises owes the same duty, the “common duty of care”, to all his visitors, except in so far as he is free to and does extend, restrict, modify or exclude his duty to any visitor or visitors by agreement or otherwise.

(2)The common duty of care is a duty to take such care as in all the circumstances of the case is reasonable to see that the visitor will be reasonably safe in using the premises for the purposes for which he is invited or permitted by the occupier to be there.

(3)The circumstances relevant for the present purpose include the degree of care, and of want of care, which would ordinarily be looked for in such a visitor, so that (for example) in proper cases—

(a)an occupier must be prepared for children to be less careful than adults**(*It should be noted the most of the deceased are below the age of majority) (**Interpreted by R v Smith as meaning a simple warning does not suffice where a child is involved); and

(b)an occupier may expect that a person, in the exercise of his calling, will appreciate and guard against any special risks ordinarily incident to it, so far as the occupier leaves him free to do so.

(4)In determining whether the occupier of premises has discharged the common duty of care to a visitor, regard is to be had to all the circumstances, so that (for example)—

(a)where damage is caused to a visitor by a danger of which he had been warned by the occupier, the warning is not to be treated without more as absolving the occupier from liability, unless in all the circumstances it was enough to enable the visitor to be reasonably safe; and

(b)where damage is caused to a visitor by a danger due to the faulty execution of any work of construction, maintenance or repair by an independent contractor employed by the occupier, the occupier is not to be treated without more as answerable for the danger if in all the circumstances he had acted reasonably in entrusting the work to an independent contractor and had taken such steps (if any) as he reasonably ought in order to satisfy himself that the contractor was competent and that the work had been properly done.

(5)The common duty of care does not impose on an occupier any obligation to a visitor in respect of risks willingly accepted as his by the visitor (the question whether a risk was so accepted to be decided on the same principles as in other cases in which one person owes a duty of care to another).

(6)For the purposes of this section, persons who enter premises for any purpose in the exercise of a right conferred by law are to be treated as permitted by the occupier to be there for that purpose, whether they in fact have his permission or not.'

Simultaniously a set of turrets opened fire upon the individuals still outside and also upon those who had climbed through the breech, unaware of how to deactivate these lethal systems they returned fire with such weapons as they had, in the defence of their lives, a couple of turrets were disabled, but to no avail, within a minute 25 people were dead or close to death.

Fortunately at this point, Jedi Knight Paul Oriel of Coruscant appeared back on the scene (having fled after his earlier accident) and made a daring rescue of the survivors of this incident. In Mr Oriels own words I will play a quote from his record to Master Skywalker of the Jedi Order, kindly loaned by permission of Mr Oriel "I destroyed the weapons which fired on me, before bringing the kids down from the roof and putting them safely in my ship. The whole place stank of blood, burned flesh and death, it was the slaughter of innocents, resembling a macabre abattoir of some kind rather than any other scene. I was appauled as I saw the horror wreaked by Drasek's (refering to Mr Cale) disgusting implements of death, how could any sentient set up such systems? with no failsafe? I approached the house and sensed there were maybe three or.. two still alive inside the breach, One I knew I could save if I could get to. I then made the decision that I needed to act immediately, and using an Ion charge I moved to disable the turretry by the breach in order that I might extract any survivors alive"

Then, a disgusting weapon, an abhominable, inconsiderate, bloody weapon of mass destruction was activated by the non-sentient computer Mr Cale had placed in command of his defenses, a self-destruct device was activated detonating 4 massive proton charges, resulting in the complete annihalation of the School of Hidden Wisdom. The individuals still living within the breach were at this juncture killed.

Allow me to quote the official Baltimn Government record, in order that I might be accurate "a mere half second before the ion blast (would have) fried the droid brain, all four explosives detonated. oriel, with the force, had a chance to survive the explosion, as well as well as the pieces of building that were hurled everywhere as the school seemed first to lift off and then erupt from within, utterly destroyed as it hurled flaming pieces for nearly a mile around. of any items from the interior, nothing was left recognizable."

Now, roughly a kilometer away from the School of Hidden Wisdom were a family at their evening entertainment of sabacc, they were an industrious family, a hard working family, the salt of the earth.. Little did they know, that seconds after hearing a loud explosion, all would be dead. The house of the Escobar family was crushed utterly, and the Escobars had to be identified by their DNA, such was the extent of the burning from the 3m wide fragment of red hot metal. These were innocent people, enjoying entertainment on their own land. Will it be allowed on Baltimn that such individuals may be cut down without a second thought, to defend the "rights" of a toff to place giant explosive charges under his residence at the expensive of innocent countrypeoples lives. I must caution the Government on this, the people are watching.

Twenty five deaths occured on that fateful day. Six young adults, Nineteen children, two parents and their child. All perished, none of these deserved death. No individual was threatened that day by this group of children, the house was empty. So these children were gunned down by cold and calculating machines.

Allow me to quote from Katko v. Briney (1971) (one of the Seminal cases of the last 3000 years), "the law has always placed a higher value upon sentient safety than upon mere rights of property." this was an Old Republic case cited by judges across the galaxy. I remind the court again, 28 deaths have been caused by the criminal recklessness and negligence of Drasek Cale.

Now, let us move onto another example in Old Republic law, in the case of Bird v. Holbook (1825 BBY) is a case also of great relevance, where a spring-gun set to protect a tulip garden injured a trespasser. The man who set the spring-gun was liable for the damage caused.

I would argue this precedent is directly relavent to this case, if a spring gun (a low technology booby trap)'s owner is held acountable for the injury caused, then it is absolutely clear as crystal that a setting a higher technology trap is equally a cause of guilt. Signposting and placing warnings was held not to be mitigation for placing a deadly mantrap and as such the individual placing such must be considered directly responsible for the action of his mantrap, this is upheld in all civilised jurisdictions, it simply is not acceptable to place unmonitored deathtraps, automated weapons and killing devides unattended on property then expect to not be liable for their actions.

As such, the prosecution contends Mr Drasek Cale be indicted for the crimes of:

Four Counts of unsafe storage of an Explosive weapon.
One Count of Murder by use of an Explosive weapon.
Three Counts of Murder by shrapnel from a reckless reployment of an explosive weapon.
Six Counts of Murder (Adult) via the use of deadly mantraps (laser turrets).
Thirteen Counts of Murder (Child) via the use of deadly mantraps (laser turrets).
Five Counts of Infanticide via the use of deadly mantraps (laser turrets)
One Count of Attempted Murder on a Civilian attempting to rescue civilians from an illegal mantrap.
One Count of Attempted Murder on a Civilian through reckless deployment of an Explosive weapon.
One Count of Terrorism (In causing a wide scale explosion to the detriment of the community at large).
Fourty Counts of reckless placement of deadly weapons in a position likely to cause harm.

Furthermore, allow me to head off and quickly dismiss the first and very bad argument the defense might make, Baltimn has a rather strong self-defense ethic, while little statue is laid down it is generally held that a certain amount of what has been called a "Castle Principle" applies, where an individual may defend his place of residence with "reasonable force" if he feels in "immediate danger".

It should be clarified that Drasek Cale was not at the school during the events taken place, and had merely deployed these weapons, indiscriminately, in advance. Furthermore, using dozens of turrets to sythe down children to their deaths, to fire at citizens attempting to rescue other citizens from mantraps etc is not an example of "reasonable force" and Drasek Cale can hardly be said to be in "immediate danger" when at the time he was lightyears away. Would not a simple automated law enforcement summoning mechanism, or even simply stun turrets (if set to safe levels), perhaps even using a sentient watchman, to operate both systems, in order to avoid bloodbaths like this in future.

So, the prosecution accepts that the use of some (it is not the role of the prosecution to speculate here) force would be appropriate if Drasek Cale was at home and felt in immediate danger (although even in this case there is an abundance of case law backing up that the use of physical force must be a last resort).

Your Honor, today we are in this courtroom and the very direction of the future is in the balance, not just for a simple application of the laws (although it is a fairly simple application) but today we are able to assert to those who are in power and wealth that it is simply not acceptable to cause (by recklessness or otherwise) the deaths of two score and eight sentient men, women and children.

Do we serve Justice? Do we interpret statute in line with Morals, Principles and Ethics? Or do we simply accept that with a few million credits you are immune to the law, that you may not be touched and may do as you please? wreck lives indiscriminately?

A whole village has a lost generation thanks to the recklessnes and thoughtlessness of the man, who in my professional opinion, is well deserving of the nickname he has been branded with by the people of the countryside "El Sangriento Duque", "The Bloody Duke", and as such I call for him to be punished upto the fullest extent of the law.

*A round of applause was heard as the Prosecution Statement was made, the families and friends of the dead people packed the galleries and there had been much weeping, but now only happiness at a man who cared for them, who wanted Justice for their lost families and friends*

If I may make a further deposition, Your Honor. On the evidence already submitted.

One Count of Endangering the Safety of an Aircraft.