Let's play lawyer

[Lorcan]

Here are a list of questions I would have liked to ask. Please chime in with your own.

1. Lizzie, you hadn't been in the barn for 3 months, why didn't you ask your father if there were sinkers there or where to find the lead within the barn?

2. Lizzie, your father was a carpenter, among many other professions. When you asked him about the mail, why didn't you ask him for help fixing your screen before you went out into the barn to look for a piece of tin to fix it yourself?

3. Lizzie, you said you were in the kitchen eating a pear when your father came home. You had been in the kitchen and dining room reading magazines with full access to food all morning. How were you hungry enough to eat pears number 2, 3, and 4 all within about 10 to 15 minutes because as you said, you ate the first one in the kitchen and only spent 20 minutes or so in the barn, half of which was spent looking through the box and moving scrap wood aside. After eating 3 juicy, messy pears, did you wash your hands before digging through the wood pile and box of hardware? Did you wash the pears on the first floor of the barn or wash your hands there? If so, why didn't you look in the box right next to the door and staircase on the first floor of the barn where there was lead in the other box? Where did you put the 3 pear cores from the loft?

4. Lizzie, your 64 year old step-mother was busy dusting and making the bed. Then she had to go shopping for meat. She also had to go out to visit a sick friend. You knew all of this, yet you sat there reading a magazine. Why didn't you offer to get the meat or to put the pillowcases on the bed? It was well after 9AM and the meat would have to be brought home by 11:30 for Bridget to cook. You knew Bridget felt bad enough to throw up in the back yard and now she was doing hard work outside in the sun. You knew your stepmother was pressed for time. How did you feel comfortable sitting there reading a magazine knowing all of this?

5. Lizzie, you found lead in the barn, why did you bring none back?

6. Emma, you said it was your idea to burn the dress because it had paint on it. When you saw Lizzie burning it why did you ask her what she was doing and why did she reply to you stating she was burning it because it had paint on it? It was your idea and your reasoning, so why would that conversation have been worded like that? Why did you say the dress was old and faded when it was only 3 months old and wasn't being worn?

7. Officer Fleet, this is potentially a matter of life of death. How sure are you that Lizzie said the last place she saw her mother was in the guest room making the bed?

8. Lizzie, you are 32 years old and have used the stove for decades. Why did you not properly stoke the fire? You had an abundance of old newspaper, very dry wood, and coal at your disposal.

9. Lizzie, you said you were not home on Wednesday when Uncle John arrived. Then when pressed about buying prussic acid, you said you were home sick all day until you went to Alice Russell's house in the evening. Which of these two statements is true - that you were out when Uncle John arrived or that you were in the house all day until you left for Alice's house?

10. Members of the jury, the defense team, and our honorable judges. I have a basket full of pears for all of us to enjoy during a 15 minute recess. Let's see how many of us can eat 4 of them within the 15 minutes. Bon appetit!