Gentlemen of the Jury by Tim Lieder

Gentlemen of the Jury, we are here to decide not only the fate of the defendant but the entire judicial system. The question we put in front of you is simple. Will we allow the architect of a heinous crime liberty? My esteemed colleague will tell you that the defendant is not responsible for the actions of his creation. My esteemed colleague will argue that Victor Von Frankenstein is merely the victim of circumstance. According to honorable Herr Rosenblatt, Victor Von Frankenstein deserves pity not consecutive life sentences.

That Herr Frankenstein is a man of above average intelligence, I do not dispute. As many of you know, this very court convicted his creation and accomplice Lucifer Adam Frankenstein only months before. Herr L.A. Frankenstein's story matches Herr Von Frankenstein's account to the letter. The sheer amount of tenacity that Herr Frankenstein mustered to create such a being taxes the imagination; however, these attributes only serve to make him a remarkably accomplished murderer.

The most important part of the state's case will be Exhibit J, the so-called confessions of Victor Von Frankenstein. My esteemed colleague will use these confessions as a basis for an acquittal. Herr L.A. Frankenstein confessed to the murders. His confession conforms to the physical evidence. We do not dispute Herr L.A. Frankenstein's role; merely Herr L.A. Frankenstein's spurious claim of sole responsibility.

The state will contend that Victor Von Frankenstein conspired with Henry Clerval in order to craft a being capable of the deed that he was too cowardly to undertake alone - namely the murder of Frau Elizabeth Frankenstein, a woman whose only sin was to desire marriage to Victor, a man who preferred the company of his companion, the late Henry Clerval, to any woman. It is true that he agreed to the marriage, but his consent derived from family pressure; nothing more.

Note how his confession beatifies his dying mother: "On her death-bed the fortitude and benignity of this admirable woman did not desert her" indeed. After she orders Herr Victor to marry his victim, Elizabeth, she dies "calmly" with her countenance expressing "affection even in death." And what does Herr Frankenstein do when faced with an impending wedding? He flees to Ingoldstadt where he can't wait to desecrate the morgue. Amidst a carnage that would repulse you or I, he claims that "a light broke in upon him." According to Herr Von Frankenstein, only here did he conceive the creation of Herr L.A. Frankenstein.

Naturally, our ghoulish Victor who happily spent his idle hours among the dead becomes a blushing violet when confronted with a nauseating L.A. Frankenstein, the same L.A. Frankenstein that he painstakingly put together in his room. He adheres to the claim that he abandoned his creation from fear and disgust. He goes to great lengths to horrify the listener with cant about "yellow skin that barely covers muscles and arteries" and hair that's "lustrous black and flowing." He even condemns his golem for having "watery eyes…shrivelled complexion and straight black lips." Now gentlemen of the jury, if you have yet to see Mr. L.A. Frankenstein, you will ascertain his countenance when he sits at the witness stand. Until then, let me assure you that he's a handsome fellow. He exercises regularly. His skin is dry but he's certainly not the deformed consumptive that would cause fear in anyone, much less a man who enjoys charnel houses.

Yet, for the sake of argument, let's pretend that Victor Frankenstein is telling the truth. Upon the creation of Herr L.A. Frankenstein, the defendant fled from the room, fell asleep in an adjoining bed and after discovering that he gifted his golem with the ability to walk, fled to the courtyard. Then shortly thereafter, his "friend" Henry Clerval arrives to note that he's "thin and pale", and "trembling" excessively. Henry Clerval has no medical training or nursing background—yet nurses Herr Frankenstein through a "nervous fever".

After two years of "nervous fever", Herr Frankenstein claims to learn that his brother William is dead. Several witnesses can place Herr Frankenstein in Ingolstadt at the time of William's demise. The courts convicted one Justine Moritz, because she stole a necklace belonging to Elizabeth. Nota bene, gentlemen; this necklace will become important. Herr Frankenstein, in the very document written to extricate himself from the murders, immediately fingers his golem as the culprit.

During this case we will call witnesses stating that they witnessed Herr Victor during the alleged nervous fever. According to their affidavits, he was in relative good health strolling about botanical gardens and sipping Turkish coffee with the unfortunate Henry Clerval.

Mayhaps our witnesses are mistaken. Perhaps Herr Frankenstein had a functional nervous fever. How does our guilt-ridden defendant react to his brother William's funeral and a trusted servant's execution? He takes up mountain climbing. I'm sure that Mont Blanc is lovely. I would place it on a short list of desirable vacations—not so soon after a beloved brother's funeral, but I am not a Frankenstein.

Our sickly defendant hiked and climbed these mountains with nary a care in the world until Herr L.A. Frankenstein not only noticed him, recognized him from the alleged five minutes he spent in Herr Frankenstein's presence and ran to him. Why? For the sake of a confession?

Gentlemen of the jury, rest assured that you will have time to read the golem's confessions. However, allow me to relate the highlights. According to Herr L.A. Frankenstein, he not only learned perfect German watching a French nobility in exile, but he managed to read Paradise Lost, Plutarch's Lives and The Sorrows of Young Werther. Only after this alleged family drove Mr. L.A. Frankenstein away, did he happen upon the defendant's little brother and strangle him.

That is one version of the events. The state will advance and prove a far more believable story. Victor Von Frankenstein did not flee from his creation; rather he and Henry Clerval spent two years training the unfortunate creature. Dr. Frankenstein inadvertently tells us all we need to know when he relates, I quote: "languages were Henry's principal study." When Herr L.A. Frankenstein takes the stand you will hear an articulate, naïve individual who benefits from a University education, certainly not the brutal autodidact of the defense's fantasy.

Furthermore we will contend that William's death rendered Henry Clerval a liability. If Henry willingly agreed to murder the lady Elizabeth, he most assuredly balked at the dispatch of the two innocents. In fact there is strong evidence that Herr Clerval was ready to confess everything.

Still enjoying the convenient nervous fever, Victor Von Frankenstein and poor Henry Clerval toured England and Scotland in order to avoid Dr. Frankenstein's impending nuptials. In his own words, the defendant states that even after two years the very idea of a marriage to a woman filled him with "horror and dismay". Instead of planning a wedding, he joined Henry to watch the sunsets in—I quote "Fairy Land". Only when Victor and Henry arrived in Scotland, did the defendant abandoned his companion.

When Herr Victor returned to seek Clerval, he states that Irish magistrates greeted him with the news of Henry Clerval's death. Herr Kirwin sympathized with him as he raved in his grief. We will call Herr Kirwin to testify regarding his alleged sympathy. We will also call medical experts specializing in opium addiction to discuss this new outbreak of Victor Frankenstein's beloved "nervous fever."

Having dispensed with his co-conspirator, he focused on his intended victim. We will establish that Herr Frankenstein fetishized his mother's death, would Herr Clerval as a lover and reacted to intimations of marriage with horror and dismay. Elizabeth was always the object of Herr Frankenstein's murder schemes.

I submit to you now that when Victor Frankenstein and Herr Clerval conspired to eliminate Elizabeth from their lives, the necklace became Herr L.A. Frankenstein's only means of identifying his victim. Victor Von Frankenstein possessed no pictures of Elizabeth. When Herr L.A. Frankenstein realized that he had eliminated the wrong victim, he proceeded with the contingency plan of planting the necklace on the first woman he saw. He had no reason to believe that he had framed the wrong woman until he met the defendant on Mont Blanc.

We will establish that Victor and L.A. Frankenstein conspired together after dispatching the one witness that could condemn them, Herr Frankenstein proceeded to marry the unfortunate trusting Elizabeth. I have no doubt that Mr. L.A. Frankenstein said "I shall be with you on your wedding night." State's evidence will clearly show that rather than threatening the defendant, Herr L.A. Frankenstein was promising to fulfill his obligation.

This is the only way to explain how Victor Frankenstein's strange behavior on the night of Elizabeth's death. His confession describes everything including the carpet, yet he does not record performing his spousal duties. He stays fully clothed and paces around the room until he exits. By his own admission he "continued some time walking up and down the passages" inspecting every corner in order. Once he heard Frau Frankenstein screaming, he rushed back to her bedchambers and fainted just long enough for the other guests to see that he had not placed his own hands upon his bride's neck.

However, Herr Victor's convenient alibi proved too suspicious even for the easily deceived provincials. Supposedly wracked with sorrow and fainting spells, he had enough energy to flee to the farthest north as soon as the questions discomforted him.

Undoubtedly you heard the tale of Herr Frankenstein trapped on an ice-locked ship, writing the confession. Afterwards he conveyed its contents to his golem and took enough laudanum to induce a death-like state. Had the crew not attempted to set him on fire, he would have escaped to America, beyond the reach of our authority.

Gentleman of the Jury, I trust that you will not allow yourselves to be swayed by the Defense's spurious fantasies. By the end of the trial, we will prove that the defendant that sits in this court room is a remorseless killer; the innovative method of creating an assassin should not distract us from administering justice for poor Elizabeth and his other victims.

Thank you.