The Wrong Verdict
They called me a murderer, and my fiancé,
the man I thought I’d spend my life with, was
the one who’d put me in jail.
Today was the day of the live–streamed
public trial – the day they were going to
execute me.
He was there, of course. My former love,
pushing for the harshest sentence. He’d even
called for a Memory Extraction – a brand
new tech that.can literally read your thoughts,
pulling your memories out and displaying
them. He wanted to ensure I’d pay for what
I’d done.
But what they didn’t know was that in my memories, was the proof that his “perfect” ex
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- 1.
Today was the day they were going to kill me.
I was shackled and cuffed, being led by
guards through the courthouse towards the
courtroom.
Suddenly, my ex–fiancé, Andrew Hamilton,
surged forward. He grabbed my neck, his
fingers digging in as he screamed, “Murderer!
Why did you pull the plug on my mother!”
“You killed my mother, and then you hurt
Dani! You broke her legs!”
I stared at him, my eyes vacant. “I swear, I
didn’t do it. Do you believe me?”
“You’re a liar! My mother loved you! Why
would you do this?”
“You took my mother’s life!”
The cops hauled a furious Andrew away,
dragging me to the judgment stand. I let
them. What else could I do?
A year ago, Andrew himself had accused me
of murder. The motive was jealousy
jealousy of Dani, the perfect ex, and anger
that his mother didn’t approve of me joining
the family.
But I was innocent. It wasn’t me.
“Order! Order in the court!” The judge’s gavel
echoed through the chamber. “The court is
prepared to pass sentence. Today, the death
penalty will be carried out against the
く
“Wait!” Andrew interrupted, his face hard.
“Your Honor, I demand a Memory Extraction!
That’s the only way we can be sure!”
“Just executing her is letting her off too
easy!”
The judge conferred with his aides for a
moment, then nodded. “At the request of the
plaintiff, this court will proceed with a
Memory Extraction.
I stayed silent. I let them lead me towards the
memory extraction platform.
Memory Extraction was the latest piece of
tech in the justice system – a brutal, but
‘foolproof‘ method to catch out criminals.
who’d lie or change their stories. The process
involved iniecting a needle directly into the
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brain, extracting memories like blood. It was
said to be so painful that many inmates.
passed out before the process was
completed.
As they prepped the extraction device, I
turned to Andrew. “Andrew, I just have one
question for you.”
He looked at me, cold and full of hatred. “Ask
it.”
“If they find out the truth, if my memories
prove I’m innocent, will you regret what
you’ve done to me?”
Andrew just laughed, a harsh, bitter sound.
“Never.”
I looked away, my heart numb.
“Commencing Memory Extraction! The
defendant’s death penalty procedure is now
underway.”
The needle plunged into my brain, and a
white–hot agony exploded in my head. I
screamed, but there was a weird sense of
relief mixed in.
A year of this… it was almost over.
The memories that were being sucked out of
my mind started to appear on the big screen
for everyone to see.
