Legal Summation Cynthia Tangeria Mr Kennedy
My fellow brothers, the sacred sixth commandment states, “Thou shall not kill”.[footnoteRef:1] Your honour, gentlemen of the jury, it is beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Bromden is clearly guilty of Aggravated Murder under Oregon State Laws, and therefore, has not upheld this Holy Law. To begin there is black and white proof that Mr McMurphy has died at the hands of this Native American man. Gentlemen we have a witness of the unspeakable act!... If the court recalls Mr Scanlon’s testimony, he stated that he saw the defendant ‘wait until the black boys had stopped making their rounds’[footnoteRef:2] and waited ‘until everyone was asleep’[footnoteRef:3], to rise from bed and smother poor Mr McMurphy with a pillow, in a most weak and unsuspecting state following a lobotomy.[footnoteRef:4] Gentlemen, he saw him not someone like him or heard him…he physically saw him…Mr Scanlon said he watched as ‘Mr McMurphy’s body fought for a long time’[footnoteRef:5] against having his life taken away. He testified, ‘his body was flailing and thrashing around soo much Chief had to lie full length on top of it and scissor the kicking legs, still mashing the pillow into his face. Until the trashing stopped.’[footnoteRef:6] He then watched as Mr Bromden fled the scene. Again gentlemen he saw the defendant do these heinous acts, himself… Exhibit A, the autopsy records, reveal that Mr McMurphy’s primary cause of death was asphyxiation. Exhibit B, the pillow case, the weapon that was used to take McMurphy’s life, had copious traces of his saliva and partial traces of the defendants on the counter side. This, gentleman, is more than enough evidence to prove the defendant is guilty of the charges laid against him. [1: (Bennett, 2018)] [2: Pg.278, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest] [3: Pg. 278, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest ] [4: Pg. 277, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest] [5: Pg.278, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest ] [6: Pg.279, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest ]
However, even though with such irrefutable evidence, the defence would still have you believe this grave violation of the law of God is moral and Mr Bromden did the act out of sympathy for Mr McMurphy’s current ill state as it is ‘freedom of the soul’ and is culturally practiced in the defendant’s heritage. However, research shows that in the defendants own Indian culture, people who “developed mental disabilities due to illness or injury were generally not euthanized if they were marginally functional physically”[footnoteRef:7], which the victim was as he fought for his life from the defendant’s savage attack witnessed by Scanlon. Therefore, can this really be an act meant to free the soul? More than anything else his freedom was stolen from him by the defendant. Four essential human freedoms: freedom of speech and expression; freedom of religion; freedom from want; and freedom from fear, these which our brave soldi...
