The Lin family murder trials have stretched out over a long period with retrials from fresh evidence, a hung jury and a judge retiring following illness. We have been following them because we knew one of the victims Min Lin through his newsagency. We were deeply shocked by the brutality of the mass murder of 5 members of his family.
We had attended many court sessions and when the jury of the latest trial retired after Christmas, we were keen to know the verdict. Kay called in at the Kings Street Court a few times hoping to be fortuitously present when a verdict was reached; we feared there would yet be another hung jury when the deliberations dragged on for more than a week.
After lunch with the Cheshers at a city restaurant today, we decided to call in at the Courts again out of curiosity and were surprised that the court room was open and the judge was addressing the jury. We eventually figured out that the jury had told the judge that no unanimous decision could be reached, and the judge in turn advised the jury that they could try to reach a majority decision of 11-1. We waited in the court with the rest of the entourage of lawyers, reporters, family members and general public, and were surprised when the jury returned within minutes to announce a guilty verdict on all counts.
The emotions in the court spilled over; Mr Lin's parents and his surviving daughter were in tears, and so were the accused's wife who despite being a sister of Min Lin, had supported her husband all along.
We felt the emotions too; the relief of the closure of such a shocking event almost brought us to tears as well.
Outside, we watched the media scrum as they jostled for camera angles when Mr and Mrs Lin senior left, holding photos of the victims and loudly and tearfully claiming that justice had finally been done. There were no real winners in this tragedy, except justice, perhaps.
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| Media scrum were not interested in us. |
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| Senior Lins addressing the media. |
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| Photo from "The Guardian" (Find Kay in the background). |
