Atlasia v. Giovanni

[President Mitt]

Don't suppose you could get a jury who is more perceptible to bribes? Just Kidding obviously. I know this Jury will vote their conscience, and based on the facts that Franzl and I present to the Court.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Thank your jurors. All six have sworn in and the trial officially begins now. Franzl has stated that Giovanni has pled not guilty.

Therefore, I call upon the prosecution to present their case. (PMing Bgwah now.)

[bgwah]

At 4:07 PM EST on December 15th 2009, Giovanni, under the account "Farmer-Labour," registered a second account in Atlasia--a crime under Section 1, Clause 3 of the Consolidated Criminal Justice Act. Within an hour he was exposed and only then did he admit to being Giovanni later that day:

As many of you have suspected, I am the poster known as Giovanni from.... a month ago....but please listen to this first. I feel like I will be able to redeem myself, much like BenConstine, and Xahar.

A month ago, I attempted to switch Giovanni account's email to an email address that actually did not work. I attempted to switch it back, and I got the message saying "Your email has been changed, you will receive an email shorty." and it never came. And I had just been elected Mideast Assemblyman (which I still have not been sworn in for) so, I was justifiably pissed in my opinion.

So I created a new account, and for a second I though "Hey! Why don't I try playing the game from the other side of the fence!" Obviously, a very bad idea, and I recognize and apologize for committing this deed. Any posts that Farmer-Labour has created, please ignore them, I don't really mean any of them. You have to admit though, I played a pretty good Socialist.

I apologize to anybody who was affected negatively by the fake Farmer-Labour acct. From now on, I shall continue to participate on Atlas as my true self, Giovanni. I hope all who now have a lesser opinion of me, I will be able to win back over in the future. Any Gio-thrashing is wholeheartedly deserved by myself.

The defense will likely claim that Giovanni only did this because he could not access his original account.

But if that were the case, why did Giovanni not just say who he truly was with his second account? Why did he pretend to be a different person? A person who was new to Atlasia, as shown here?  Why didn't he simply explain what happened and retain his original identity?

Instead, Giovanni created a new identity--Farmer-Labour. Giovanni deleted his post registering this second account after being exposed. This is the behavior of someone who knew they were breaking the law and were attempting to delete the evidence. However, the evidence survives in this quote. In the first quote posted, he even admits it was a "very bad idea." He mentions reverting to his "true self," further evidence that he knowingly created and registered multiple identities.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Considering that the defense as witnesses, do you, Bgwah, have witnesses of your own you'd like to call before I turn to the defense?

[bgwah]

Considering that the defense as witnesses, do you, Bgwah, have witnesses of your own you'd like to call before I turn to the defense?

Yes, I would like to call Inks.LWC to the stand.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Very well. I don't know of any set procedure for calling witnesses, etc, so I'll just ask that Inks repeat the following:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I, Inks.LWC, swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me Dave.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Excellent. The court recognizes Inks.LWC as a witness for the prosecution. Please explain your relation to the case as well as any statement you may have, if I have any questions I reserve the right ask them at any given point, and then I'll turn you over to the prosecution.

[Purple State]

Excellent. The court recognizes Inks.LWC as a witness for the prosecution. Please explain your relation to the case as well as any statement you may have, if I have any questions I reserve the right ask them at any given point, and then I'll turn you over to the prosecution.

May the jury ask questions?

[Marokai Backbeat]

Excellent. The court recognizes Inks.LWC as a witness for the prosecution. Please explain your relation to the case as well as any statement you may have, if I have any questions I reserve the right ask them at any given point, and then I'll turn you over to the prosecution.

May the jury ask questions?

We're sort of setting precedent here with rules witness questioning and so on, and I'd prefer to maintain the impartiality of the jury and avoid the possibility of any members of the jury arguing with witnesses.

However, it's entirely possible that members of the jury may have legitimate questions, therefore, if you or any other members of the jury have questions please PM them to me and I shall ask them at my discretion.

[Purple State]

Excellent. The court recognizes Inks.LWC as a witness for the prosecution. Please explain your relation to the case as well as any statement you may have, if I have any questions I reserve the right ask them at any given point, and then I'll turn you over to the prosecution.

May the jury ask questions?

We're sort of setting precedent here with rules witness questioning and so on, and I'd prefer to maintain the impartiality of the jury and avoid the possibility of any members of the jury arguing with witnesses.

However, it's entirely possible that members of the jury may have legitimate questions, therefore, if you or any other members of the jury have questions please PM them to me and I shall ask them at my discretion.

Fair enough. Look at the new AJ setting precedent.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Thank you, your Honor.

My relation to the case is that as Governor of the Mideast, I was working with Dave Leip to restore the defendant's access to the forum, since he had lost it due to mistyping his e-mail address when trying to change his e-mail.  Mr. Leip informed me that he believed that the defendant had created another account, Farmer-Labour, and told me that if this was the case, he would prefer that the defendant use his original account.

I then, in an effort to help the defendant restore his access to his account, sent a PM to Farmer-Labour; however, I received no response, so I sent a second PM, but received no response.  After that, Farmer-Labour was exposed as Giovanni's second account.  That concludes my statement, your Honor.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Question, Governor:

Do you believe he was hiding his identity by not responding to you?

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I cannot know for sure the reason behind the defendant's unresponsiveness; however, I feel that if he had truely wanted his account access restored in a timely manner so that he could serve in the Mideast Assembly, he would have contacted me.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Thank you.

Your witness, Bgwah. (I continue to reserve the right to interject at any time, and if you have no questions, please simply say so and I will turn the witness over to questioning by the defense.)

[bgwah]

I have no questions.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Inks is now the defense's witness. After Franzl has asked his questions (or has announced he has no questions) and Inks is released as a witness, Franzl may formally present his case and witness(es).

[Franzl]

Witness Inks, are you aware of my client's attempts outside of the forum to find a way to get back on through his old account? Such as on the LNF forum?

Would it not be fair to assume in this context that my client desired to participate in Atlasia using his old account, but was simply unable to?

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I was aware of your client's attempts to gain access to his old account.  This was the reason that I was in contact with Mr. Leip.

I agree that your client was unable to access his old account; however, I contacted your client 2 times (via PM on his new account) trying to straighten out the situation and never received a reply back.  During the time period that I PMed your client, the user Farmer-Labour was active and logged into the forum.

[Franzl]

I was aware of your client's attempts to gain access to his old account.  This was the reason that I was in contact with Mr. Leip.

I agree that your client was unable to access his old account; however, I contacted your client 2 times (via PM on his new account) trying to straighten out the situation and never received a reply back.  During the time period that I PMed your client, the user Farmer-Labour was active and logged into the forum.

Yes, I understand, sir.

I have no further questions for this witness, your honor.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Thank you for your time, Inks. You're free to go.

Defense, please present your case and lay out any witnesses you may wish to call.

[Franzl]

I have already stated my intent to call Al as a witness, but I also wish to call the defendent, Giovanni as well.

I will have my case posted in a few minutes.

[Franzl]

Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury,

Voter fraud. It's a charge that has been brought against several people in recent times, dating back to the infamous Keystone Phil case, but that's another matter entirely.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Most people probably are aware of the definition in Atlasia, but for those that are not, it is important to read the law in question.


In all Atlasian history, no defendent has ever been found "not guilty" of voter fraud. Charges have been thrown out because of the circumstances surrounding evidence, but that's not the same thing.

You may ask: Why is this case any different from the times others have been convicted? The concept of "primary identity" has always been the main point of discussion in voter fraud trials. Back in Atlasia v. Devilman88, as you will remember, I argued that Devilman88 was not guilty of voter fraud becase his old account could no longer be considered his primary identity, seeing as he hadn't done anything with it in Atlasia for a long period of time. That claim was rejected by Justice Opebo.

In this case, however, one might say that Giovanni was clearly still the primary identity of my client because he had just recently been elected to the Mideast Assembly and had been active in other parts of Atlasian life.

The problem, here, however, is that my client had no access to his primary account (he does now...but not at that time). I believe this is a big difference, because I don't think anyone can argue that a primary identity exists that one could use alternatively to creating a second account if one has no way of accessing and using that account. Giovanni may still have been a registered voter, and indeed, there is no way of deleting someone from the voter roll, as I can confirm in my role as SoFA. But "primary identity" should be more open to interpretation than simply saying it is under all circumstances the account registered to vote originally, regardless of any other circumstances.

Assuming that Giovanni indeed had no way of using his primary account (and I intend to establish that beyond reasonable doubt through the testimony of both Al and my client), there was absolutely no potential for harm. The primary identity was not legitimately a "primary identity" any longer because there was zero chance that my client could ever use that account again under normal circumstances (Dave, of course, was able to merge the accounts...but without that intervention, the account would have been gone forever.)

The fact that there was no chance whatsoever to use both accounts, or to vote with both accounts, is the main difference between this case and the ones that have been argued in the past.

Primary identity, in my opinion, implies that a certain potential for harm exists. In other words, it implies that one could return to that identity if so desired. The fact that that was impossible leads me to claim that no primary identity existed at the time my client registered a new account in Atlasia.

Although not specifically mentioned in the Constitution, I believe a general right to vote can be established. I would argue that not having access to one's original account and not being allowed to register a new account until that original account is removed from the voter roll unfairly deprives my client of his franchise.

It is only logical, in my opinion, to declare that no primary identity existed anymore, and that therefore no crime was committed by my client.


Thank you very much.

[Franzl]

Your Honor, I would like to call Al as my first witness at this time.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Your Honor, I would like to call Al as my first witness at this time.

Very well. Al is recognized as the first witness from the defense.

Al, when you see this, please repeat the following oath:

You must be logged in to read this quote.