Original subtitles

Boy, is that ever incendiary, right?

Jesus Christ.

Yes, it is.

That's just an outrage.

That's just a fucking outrage.

Hey, how are you? Er, we just got the autopsy report.

Give me your fax number so I can fax it to you.

Yes, ma'am.

Right.

8722. I'll fax it right now and then, er...

I'll call you back.

Oh, Jesus!

Me again.

I'm going to fax...uh, we just got the autopsy report.

Can I fax it to you? Are you at your office?

I have to go back to court at 2.30,

and the press is trying to unseal this thing,

so I need to talk with you some before 2.30.

OK. I'll get it to you right away.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

Hey. I got this autopsy on this Germany thing.

As soon as you take a look at it, would you call me?

Well, they concluded these injuries were as a result

of a homicidal attack, so I need for you to take a look at this.

MUTTERING

I mean, I've read... How many autopsies we read? Never seen that.

Never.

Hi, is John around, please? Thank you.

Dave Rudolf.

I've got a question for you.

I've read 260 autopsies from blunt trauma to the head

and never once did I see any of your people say,

"The inflicted trauma is clearly from a homicidal assault."

Um...

All right, well, could you call me back after you get done?

Yeah, I appreciate it. Thanks.

Outrageous.

I just know that, um, my mom died in '85.

Think it was the winter of '85, and, um...

..she...she...

I know that she died of a brain haemorrhage.

She had been having many headaches before.

I mean, there's people... many people have said this,

that she called her mother, complaining of headaches.

She hated doctors. Like, I don't like doctors either.

Neither does Martha.

Um...so she didn't want to go see one, no matter how much, you know...

Mike and Patty, I guess, told her to go

and she basically died

before she even hit the bottom of the stairs

and I-I think it's interesting, you know,

that they both were found at the bottom of the stairs,

but at the same time,

the two things they had in common besides being my mothers were

that Dad loved them both very, very, very much,

and he would have never, ever hurt either of them,

so I think that's what they have in common more than anything malicious.

So...

The autopsy report released this afternoon

details how this woman died more than a decade ago.

The Ratliff autopsy report says her fatal wounds appear to be

the result of several blows to the head,

injuries that happened while Ratliff was still alive.

The conclusion - those injuries came from a homicidal assault.

That's inflammatory. That's not a doctor...

That's what a jury determines.

Now the Peterson defence team

hopes this report will not prejudice a potential jury.

All right, it gets curioser and curioser.

You can read the entire autopsy report on our website

at abc11tv.com.

I've had one of my biggest fuckings in court ever.

The judge unsealed all this stuff,

you know, this new autopsy.

The headlines tonight are, "Homicidal Assault".

Just outrageous.

Anyway, I think I'm going to need to call these people

as witnesses on Wednesday, and I think I'm going to need

your presence here to help me cross-examine them.

Yeah, and we're going to have... you know, I'm going to have

to cross-examine them pretty vigorously, I think, so... Yes.

Yes, I want you to be there when he testifies

so that we can cross-examine him.

All right?

Well, if this is admitted the way it stands,

the one we got from the medical examiner, will that hurt your case?

Well, keep in mind it's not... This doesn't get admitted.

Somebody's going to have to get up on the witness stand and testify,

and that's really the unfairness of this current procedure -

what gets released to the public right now

is simply a one-sided report that we haven't had

a chance to ask any questions about,

and I think that's part of the problem here is that all that

gets put into the news media is, you know,

a fairly inflammatory statement that is completely unnecessary

to the autopsy findings, and were just sort of gratuitous, and,

you know, I don't blame you guys.

It was put in there because

that's exactly what you guys would gravitate to.

Those aren't really lined up the way... They're not anything like...

They are, interestingly enough, mainly curved in some way.

I don't know the significance of that.

This one, this one, this one, curved...

This is kind of curved with a split. Kathleen's or...

It's almost like something...

I don't know what caused this curvature, for example.

Is that indicative of something?

Can only Kathleen...? Let's get her... Let's get her autopsy.

That... That's the same?

The truth is, these are spread out more.

You've got the top of the head,

you've got the hair, you've got the left...

Oh, yeah, you've also got bruising on the back of the neck,

which would be indicative of...

Falling. Falling, right.

The top... How do you bang someone in the top of the head? What?

You know, this is supposed to be a signature thing.

You know, there's supposed to be some way in which these are similar.

How does one...

Other than the fact

that they're both found at the bottom of stairs...

You get a false impression, I think a misleading impression...

Yeah, I was surprised

when I saw the photographs how close together they were.

Those look like pattern injuries or crescent-shaped things

from some sort of instrument.

When you look at the photographs, I don't get that impression at all.

No, no, not at all.

Yeah, looking at the sketch, this... it doesn't work for me.

I mean, the pictures, that's the work of...

The sketch is just simply that,

but I don't think they truly reflect very well what is in these pictures.

Here. The correspondence...

I mean, if that's what they're relying on to reconstruct

and to draw conclusions on... this is very misleading.

The diagram is very misleading. Cos of...

These look like they're linear, linear and simple.

These are not simple.

They're very complex, and when you do this sort of thing,

what sort of impacts produce scalp lacerations like that?

Yeah. Probably not blows. I mean, what instrument would do that?

Ah, I see.

These are more characteristic of impacts where the skin just splits.

Right.

Well, the hearing tomorrow, on Ratliff,

I think is probably the most important hearing,

may very well be the most important day in court

that we have in this entire case.

I think that the evidence about the death in Germany,

if it comes in,

will have a substantial impact even subconsciously

on how the jurors evaluate the evidence in this case,

even though there's not a shred of evidence that Michael

had anything to do with Elizabeth Ratliff's death.

The mere fact that it comes in evidence will have an impact,

so my view is that if we win the motion tomorrow

and keep the Ratliff evidence out, because it's not relevant,

this is not a technicality...

Because it's not relevant

and because the state can't show that it's relevant,

we will have a very good chance of winning this trial,

because the rest of the evidence, I think, is pretty minimal.

Well, what we've done is we've subpoenaed their witnesses,

some of the doctors who have done the autopsies,

and we want to put them on the stand and force them to do more

than just give their bare conclusions.

Their reports are very bare bones.

What we want to do is we want to get them on the stand and be able

to ask them the hard questions that they don't address in their reports

to show that the basis of their conclusions is simply flawed.

This is the kind of evidence that can really prejudice and taint

a trial unfairly.

It's the kind of evidence

that courts have traditionally said you just don't let in.

In my opinion, the '85 death...

If the state try to introduce evidence of that in the court,

it could come in any number of ways

for which I will listen to arguments about...

Has the state filed

a motion to have the court consider Miss Ratliff's death?

We are not a proponent of that evidence at this point,

and will not be until the court actually is involved in this trial

and begins hearing evidence of all these matters.

Judge, um...two weeks ago, or three weeks ago, you sat there

and agreed that this was an issue, particularly Ratliff...

It is an issue.

Well, that has to be decided

before jury selection for very good reasons.

I'm not aware of any law that...

that the court can direct the state to do it.

No, what the court can... I mean, I can...I can...

I'm not sure there's a North Carolina state law

that the court can order

the state to do something. I don't think you can order them to do that.

What you can do is say, "If you don't file the notice and have

"the hearing today, you're not going to be allowed to introduce

"that evidence, because it's prejudicial to the defence."

Let's just look at this from a practical perspective.

If I don't know whether or not that's coming in.

I've got to assume it is.

And therefore I'm going to spend lots of time in opening statement

talking to the jurors about that, finding out what they think

and talking about the facts and all of that stuff.

So now all of a sudden, Mr Hardin says, "Judge, I'm sorry,

"we're not going to introduce," right?

Now, are you going to instruct the jury to disregard everything

that I said in my opening statement?

How is that...

How are you going to instruct them to disregard what I said and have me

maintain my credibility with a jury that is deciding my client's life?

I believe, frankly, it would be ineffective assistance to counsel

for him not to deal with it,

whether the evidence is admissible or not,

because it's out there, the news media has spent three or four days

using the same footage of the exhumation down in Texas.

It's still going on up until this morning,

which raises another question about all of these interviews that

Mr Rudolf likes to give to the media about the evidence.

My client's wanted this trial to proceed for a long time.

The DA delayed that exhumation for months and months and months.

Now, two weeks before, or three weeks before trial, he decides

to go ahead with an exhumation, and that is simply unfair.

He did it intentionally, he did it knowingly. He stands here

and talks sanctimoniously about how I'm talking to the press

in response to a medical examiner's report...

I knew you would bring that up. Yeah...

..that gratuitously uses the term "homicidal attack", or "assault".

And I'm supposed to sit back and allow my client to be prejudiced

by that and buy this show that he's put together...

..and just sit back and do nothing?

The court declines Mr Rudolf and his discretion to determine

the admissibility of the death of Miss Ratliff...

..today,

and pre-trial, court in its discretion

will rule on its admissibility when proffered

by the state of North Carolina as evidence of this particular case.

You know, I subpoenaed all three medical examiners

and was prepared to cross-examine all of them. Today. Today!

So why is it that it's OK for them

to write reports that have conclusions like "homicidal assault"

and yet not have to get up on a witness stand today?

What is his sexual preference?

What is whose sexual preference, Mr Hardin's? The client's.

Not Mr Hardin's! Oh, I don't know what Mr Hardin's is. You know...

Would you really expect... What's your sexual... Come on!

No, your guy's on trial - I'm not.

Well, we can change that.

No, I'm not going to answer those kind of questions. OK.

INAUDIBLE

Well, wherever's...

Get me a Diet Coke...

BARKING

Where the hell's your silverware?

Er, on the right, in the top...second drawer.

I keep the pans and the other stuff in the top drawer.

INAUDIBLE

There is no doubt in my mind that those two guys knew exactly

what was going to happen before that hearing started.

I mean, the little speech that Orlando did at the beginning,

you know, Hardin... He didn't say to Hardin, "What are you talking about?

"We're here for a hearing!"

You know? Er...

"What do you mean, you don't think we ought to go forward?

"I mean, on Monday we sat here for three...all day talking about

"whether this hearing should be closed or not -

"you didn't say anything then!"

I just don't understand it. I mean, what's in it for Judge Hudson...?

There's got to be a political pay-off somewhere.

That's all I can say.

I don't know what it is, but there's something in it for him.

No, I mean, do you have any doubt that this was...?

INAUDIBLE You ask me, it's been scripted.

It was just choreographed. It was just completely choreographed.

I've been in front of lots of judges with lots of prosecutors

in lots of situations, and I've got to tell you,

I have never, ever seen something like that before. Never.

I don't think David and I don't think Tom, you know,

believe me, or anybody from the beginning, but when I said,

this isn't Chapel Hill, this isn't Charlotte...this is Durham.

It's unique, it's particular, it's dirty, it's corrupt,

it's small, you know,

I don't think anybody knows this town better than I do,

and I... It's what I've believed for years,

and I told you guys from the beginning that this is it.

I've had a personal relationship with Orlando for years, and it never

got through to me that it could affect him personally in that way.

Yeah, but... I just find him disgusting.

So...the Ratliff stuff is coming in evidence.

The gay stuff is coming in evidence. Sure. All right?

So we've got to deal with it, no matter what.

You can almost turn this into a challenge to the DA!

We don't know if it's coming or not. Do we think it's a joke?

But these are the reasons why, if they let you get into that.

If he brings it in, we'll talk about it then,

then when it doesn't come in, you look like a hero.

You look like you're real smart.

For a change.

THEY LAUGH

Be nice!

Moral support here is very important!

This is going to be a long and arduous trial.

He's only got one kidney. I'm sick. I'm sick.

I just want you to understand that he makes these comments

but you're the one that's going to prison.

THEY LAUGH

If it's coming in, that's a given... It's coming in. It's coming in.

If that's the given, then I agree, you've got to go forward with it.

My presumption right now

is that I'm going to take on the Ratliff thing in some way.

I'm going to, in some way,

present to the jury that it's not fair to try this stuff in the media.

It's not fair.

It's not our way to dig up bodies two weeks before trial

so that there's a whole bunch of publicity.

That doesn't satisfy anybody's burden of proof.

The only way you satisfy a burden of proof is by bringing in the witness.

You have that presumption of innocence and a reasonable doubt.

They've got to overcome that.

The bar of reasonable doubt has been raised significantly now

in the light of the Ratliff.

So it's, instead of being there, which could play it safe,

"Oh, well, they didn't prove this or these alternative things",

with this "coincidence" it's now up to here.

Anyway, all right, I think were done.

You know, this was important for you all to be a part of. Yeah, I agree.

So that you know what my thinking is, all right?

I think this is what our thinking was all along. OK. All right.

In terms of look and dress and that tomorrow... Right.

..your eyebrows need to be trimmed. OK. You need to be shaved. Right.

You need to look neat, you need to look rested. All right?

If you need to take a Valium...

Sure. ..take a Valium, because you know what?

You're not going to be needing to do anything other than sort of zone in.

I know that. That's what I was... I don't have any Valium.

You don't need to fall asleep. No, no, no.

And also, the other thing is, you know, you're going to probably

hear some things that are going to be hard to hear,

and if somebody says, "Well, we think he's absolutely guilty

"and why aren't they seeking the death penalty?"

"Why don't we just lynch him right here?" Right.

Yeah, you're not going to send them daggers,

which you don't seem like the kind of person who would do that anyway.

Yeah, and you know, the truth is, if somebody says that,

the subliminal message, the body language message, needs to be

"Thank you for being that honest."

The other thing is, because of the Ratliff thing,

it's very important for Martha and Margaret...

They've got to be here the whole trial.

..to be here for the whole trial. Yeah, that worked out really nice.

Because people have said in the open-ended question,

one of the reasons they think you might not be guilty

or that you have doubts, is that he has proclaimed his innocence,

his lawyer is fighting, saying he's innocent

and his family is sticking by him.

Yeah, we were doing one of these corporate exercises

with the executive staff where

you're supposed to tell something personal about yourself.

It's team-building, is what it is.

Right. So one guy got up, actually a very good friend of mine,

since left the company, but he said, "You know, I always wanted to...

"I always wanted to be a lawyer. That was really what I wanted to do,

"but then I found Jesus and I realised that

"being a Christian and being a lawyer are completely incompatible."

THEY LAUGH

It's true. True.

Yeah.

Oh, God.

So you mean I have really got to shut my mind off now,

basically for two months.

You can't read a book. You can't bring a book up to the...

HE LAUGHS

Video game?

I mean, you're just supposed to sit there and look...

And don't stare at the jury.

Don't stare at the jury? Yeah.

Because it looks like you're soliciting them.

HE SIGHS

They'll be looking at you a lot.

That's one thing you have to remember,

they are assessing your behaviour and conduct. They form opinions...

Dear God. ..about how you behave.. Could I get a double?

LAUGHS: Just to stand there!

Saddam Hussein double for me!

Oh, God!

Mm.

I could sit in a dark, quiet room for two months, you know,

Goethe used to say that was the test of a man.

That if you could go, you could lock a man up in a dark room...

With nothing... With nothing to read, nothing to do,

nothing, just his own thoughts.

That was Goethe's test of a man

and I'd think, "Well, hell, anybody can do that."

I think, no, he needs to rethink that. The real test of a man is

to be able to sit there and listen to Jim Hardin and Orlando Hudson.

THEY LAUGH

The range is going to go from 39 to... 51. ..51.

71, 72...

61 to 72? Right.

That's these. They're in order. OK, those are in order.

And then I'm going to go through a whole long thing

about the relationship and I'm going to take them back to 1988

and 1989 and 1992 and 1997,

and then I'm going to say,

"And together, they built a family

"out of the various strands of their prior families."

Wait, wait. Hold on.

I don't want to have that bar up there, because it's going to

distract them from what I'm saying.

Can you just keep it black screen until I go to your cue,

and then pop up with the picture?

Right, you want the picture first?

I want the picture. Yeah. OK, let's go back to the black screen.

What is that thing in the middle there?

That's just a default bar that doesn't have to show at all.

I don't want it showing. OK.

I can't get rid of it right now but I... OK, yeah,

let's get rid of the bar. Yeah. OK?

And what I'd do like to do is, um...

When I...

PHONE VIBRATES

It's just my telephone. Sorry.

When I say...

.."Together, they built a family

"out of the various strands of their prior families. Caitlin..."

No, wait till I... Yeah, but I want to get a black screen.

That's right, I want to go black screen.

OK, can you turn it on before I even get up to speak?

And then go to black screen so we don't have to see that thing again.

Blacker... Do you mean, you mean this...

You want that without this?

Can you lose that? Yes, I can lose it.

I can't lose it right now but I can lose a...

OK, but what I'm saying is... Could you just go...

Can you lose the whole thing so it's just a black screen

and then it goes to the picture?

Yes, and it looks like that. Yeah, that's all I want. OK.

And then the next picture comes up.

When I say, "Together they built a family out of the various

"strands of their prior families..." Yeah.

I'm leaving. Do you all need anything?

No, we're great, thank you very much. Goodnight.

"Out of the prior strands...

"Out of the various strands of their prior families" - put it up.

OK, so they have something to look it. Exactly. Yeah.

"We can see that the laceration on the left, the V-shaped one,

"is consistent with that corner. The last..."

PHONE VIBRATES

My telephone. OK.

"The last impact that you saw on that..."

Um, we've got a little situation going on.

We've got smoke in the building downstairs. OK.

So we're unable to...

If you can wrap it up today,

how much longer do you think you're going to be?

We're going to have to do an evacuation.

We don't know yet, we haven't found it yet. We're looking for it.

OK, well, if we have to evacuate, we're just going to have to...

We'll do our best, but just let us know. All right. Just wanted to...

I appreciate it. If you see people running... OK, thank you.

"The bottoms of her feet were covered in blood

"and how do we know that? There's a photo of it."

Do you want it right now? Yes. Do you want to prepare them for it?

No, no, no.

Well, that doesn't work.

That doesn't work at all. We've got this one. Whoops.

No.

If one is off, they're all going to be off.

And then I can put them in proper order... This is how it needs to be.

It's... I do understand that. It's right there. I know that.

I know what I did wrong while I was doing it on the fly

before we started this. I know what I did wrong.

I made an error when I loaded them in.

Right now, right now... This system sucks

because I've done it with presentation group

and I had none of these problems.

None.

None, none.

And I am fucking pissed

because it's 7:20 the night before my opening

and you're fucking around with this.

One of these documents is apparently out of order. I just don't know...

I cannot give you the documents in the order that you want them.

All I can do right now is go through. I guarantee you...

No, I don't want a guarantee. ..they will be there.

I want to see it on the screen,

so I don't give a shit if we're here all fucking night.

Well, I'm not sure that they will be either. I think so but I don't know.

HE SIGHS

This case is no more and no longer about Kathleen.

The DA has to win. That's it.

He doesn't care how, and basically, by the same token,

my lawyer, they want to win.

Truth is lost in all of this now.

Truth is of no meaning whatsoever.

This has become a show and it has got its own momentum

and we're just going along.

I don't think the DA cares about the truth any more.

All he wants to do is win, and I understand that. I mean, sure.

In the same way with David, he wants to win.

Well, I want to win too, but I'm still very concerned about

the reality of what happened that night.

Hey, guys.

Where's Mike?

What's that? They just hit a stop light. OK, I'll wait.

I'll wait, I'll wait.

Be nice. Be calm.

You all right? Yeah, yeah.

Pretty good. How you doing? Yeah.

It's OK. You want me to get that, Dad? What's that?

You want me to get that?

INDISTINCT

All right, Chris, we're going to see if you can beat us upstairs now.

We got a crew on that. Ah...

Hey.

Thanks. OK, all right.

All right, that's fine, that's fine.

All right, Hart.

See you up there, buddy. Run up now.

Want to see you as I get out of the elevator.

Come on, come on, come on, come on.

Start with the 911 and then... After the... After the...

..last headshot, then get the movie ready. Right.

After the third laceration shot. Right.

Yo, buddy.

THEY TALK QUIETLY

SHUTTERS CLICK

Good morning to each of you.

The core issues are simple

but everything else about this case isn't.

In a very real sense, this case is about pretence and appearances.

The defendant says that Kathleen Peterson's death was caused by

a tragic accidental fall downstairs in their home

and we say, on the other hand, that she died a horrible, painful death

at the hands of her husband, Michael Peterson.

I've selected a couple of pictures for you that really in my mind

show this diametric opposition.

The first photograph I'm going to show you is of Kathleen.

This would have been taken, this is how she would have looked

prior to December 9th of 2001,

had you seen her in her home or possibly at work.

You can see from this photograph, you can feel from this photograph,

that she's a very genteel, warm person.

Now, on December 9th of 2001,

at 2:48,

when EMS personnel first arrive,

they see Kathleen Peterson in a completely different way.

They see her lying at the bottom of her steps...

..just as you see in this photograph.

Now, later that day, after her body has been removed from the home,

she's taken to the medical examiner's office.

This is one of the first photographs taken of her

as she's lying on a steel gurney in the medical examiner's office

after they've shaved her head

so that they can determine where the wounds are.

This is where the rubber meets the road, ladies and gentlemen.

They say it's an accident

that was caused by a couple of falls in that stairway

and we say it's not.

We say it's murder.

You heard Mr Rudolf talk with you

about the fact that we didn't have a weapon.

That's true.

We don't have the actual implement

that Mike Peterson used to cause this injury.

Wounding, lacerations to the back of Kathleen's head.

But we have an identical replica.

Where did we get it?

Kathleen's sister Candace gave several family members

a blow poker just like this one.

Kathleen had had this in her home

for years and years and years and years,

but mysteriously, on December 9th, it's gone.

It's hollow, it's light,

it's easily used and we will contend to you this, or something like this,

is the article that was used to inflict these wounds.

The blow poker that had been given to Kathleen

15 years before, apparently, and is now mysteriously missing -

we'll hear about whether it's mysterious or not.

They didn't find any murder weapon.

Nothing was found.

Where did it go? Where did this blow poker go?

They searched his cars. There wasn't any blood in the cars.

They went all around the house, there wasn't any blood upstairs,

he didn't change his clothes, he didn't...

Where did he get rid of it?

And when?

That's left mysterious,

but we don't convict people based on mysterious here.

I mean, can you imagine somebody beating somebody over the head...

..whacking them as hard as they can?

Because you don't whack someone,

you don't whack somebody like this when you're trying to kill them.

Imagine that there's no skull fracture,

there's no brain contusions,

there's no swelling of the brain,

there's none of the internal haemorrhages, subdurals,

things like that, that you would see from that kind of injury.

No. None of them.

We intend to show you during this trial, to the best of our ability,

what happened in that stairway on December 9th was a tragic accident,

an accident that left Michael Peterson...

..not a wealthy man but a very poor man,

in the thing that was most important to him.

It left him without his soul mate.

Kathleen and Michael connected in a way that...

that a few people who are really, really lucky in life

have a chance to connect.

And they built a family, the two of them...

..built a family out of the strands of their prior families.

Todd on the left,

Kathleen and Michael, Margaret sort of peeking out from the back there,

Caitlin in the front, Clayton and Martha.

What kept them together, what caused them to build that,

was a love that absolutely everyone who saw them or knew them...

..understood and recognised and envied.

Listen to how Caitlin Atwater,

who unfortunately now sits on opposite sides -

and that's one of the real tragedies of this case -

listen to how she described

what Michael Peterson meant to her mother.

This is from 1999. "Michael Peterson stopped my mother's tears.

"I used to sit at the top of the stairs leaning through the banister

"and listen to my mother sob every night

"for a year after my father left.

"My father had torn her apart,

"crushing her shell and the illusion in which she lived,

"destroying her dignity and pride,

"but Mike was able to restore her strength and confidence

"and to show her that she could find true love.

"From the beginning, I was in debt to Mike in my heart and mind

"for bringing back my mother's happiness."

You know, if the prosecution is correct,

how do we go from soul mate and lover

to cold-blooded murderer?

How does that happen?

Well, the answer is very simple. You don't.

The truth is that Kathleen Peterson,

after drinking some wine and some champagne

and taking some Valium,

tried to walk up a narrow, poorly lit stairway in flip-flops

and she fell and she bled to death.

What Michael Peterson brought to Kathleen Peterson

was true happiness over 13 years.

That's the picture.

That's not posed.

That's Kathleen sitting on Michael's lap.

Now, what you see there is the happiness that she felt with him

and that he felt with her.

Everyone who really knew that relationship,

everyone who knew them, knew that they loved each other.

Everyone who knew them

knows that Michael Peterson had nothing to do with

the death of Kathleen Peterson.

And at the end of all the evidence...

..I'm going to ask the 12 of you to come back and return a verdict

that will in fact speak the truth in this case -

a verdict of not guilty.

Thank you.

All right, members of the jury,

we're going to take our lunch break at this point.

Mr Deputy, 1:30. All stand.

Oyez, oyez, oyez.

The Court of the County of Durham is in recess until 1:30 this afternoon.

God save the state and this honourable court.