Stavros Ramelkovic strode into the courtroom like a king taking the throne and Terry read the positive reaction of the jury members, specifically the women toward her client. He was a slight man of medium to slender build. He had colorless blond hair worn a little long.  His eyes looked as if they had been blue or gray at one time, but now faded to nondescript.  Wearing the standard jail-house blue coveralls, the sort worn by those in the maximum security section,  Stavros took a seat next to Terry.

            "All rise for the Honorable Frank Baffle," the bailiff said in a no-nonsense voice. "People versus Stavros Ramelkovic, case number 76230." 

            The Judge sat down and opened the manila folder on his desk and looked around the crowded courtroom.  "Counsel?"

            "Teresa Stevens appearing for the Defendant Your Honor." 

            "Michael Watson appearing for the People."

            Judge Baffle turned to the jury panel. "Thank you for being able to serve justice despite the lateness of the hour. Before we start this trial, I want to be sure that you all understand the need to conduct this trial at night. The defendant has the right to an attorney and the right to confront witnesses who would testify against him. Since his admission of being a vampire is supported by medical evidence, the Court has accepted his claim.

            "Ms. Stevens has asked that the Court recognize that Mr. Ramelkovic's condition must be accommodated under the Americans With Disabilities Act. The Appellate Court has ruled that death is sufficiently disabling to be covered under the ADA.  Since Mr. Ramelkovic spends from sunrise to sunset in a state of death, his trial must be held at night.  Otherwise, he cannot participate in his defense." 

            The Bailiff read the charges.  Count one, Assault against the person of Victim Jane Doe.  Count Two, battery against the person of Victim Jane Doe.  Count three was the biggie, attempted murder of Dr. Andrew Clegg.

            Michael Watson gave a brief synopsis of what he hoped to prove; Stavros terrorized a homeless woman and brutally attacked a County Morgue doctor. Just as the deputy district attorney finished his opening statement, Terry noticed Stavros trembling slightly. His eyes were bloodshot and teary.  "Your Honor, I respectfully request a recess before the first witness is sworn.  I must confer with my client.  I believe he is not feeling well."

            "Do we need any medical personnel?"  Judge Baffle asked.

            "I don't know yet.  I will advise the Court after I confer with Mr. Ramelkovic."           

            Judge Baffle hammered down his gavel.  "This court will recess for five minutes."  He got up off the bench and disappeared through the back door.  Terry helped Stavros to his feet and Terry caught the look of concern from at least two of the jurors. They went through a side door into a small holding cell.  "What's wrong with you?  Are you sick?" Little canines began to poke down from beneath his upper lip.  "Put those things back in your face right now!  We're going to be back in front of the jury in five minutes. "

            "I can't help it dear lady.  I have been alone and unfed since I've been here. I cannot control myself much longer.  Soon the rage will be upon me and I will feed."  He reached out a slender hand and touched her blonde hair. 

            She could feel his need. "What do you want me to do?  I'll get you something but I don't know what would satisfy you and still be legal.  Would an animal do?"  He nodded.  "How about a transfusion bag?"  Again he nodded.

            Terry hurried back to the Judge's chambers.  When she got to his office, she stepped in without waiting to be asked.  "We have an emergency in the holding cell."  She quickly outlined the situation, omitting the details of Stavros' change in appearance.  "I cannot believe that you would deny anyone basic sustenance.  I demand that you feed him immediately!"

            "The jail gave him food," Michael said. "He got the same as everyone else.  Is it our fault he's refused every thing put in front of him?"

            Terry forced he air out from between her teeth. "You know very well that he cannot eat like that.  You know his requirements.  If this is not a violation of his 8th Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment, I don't know what would be! "

            Watson grinned. "What would you suggest we do?  If given a cell-mate your client would be drinking his blood. What about that man's 8th Amendment rights.  Housing inmates with a vampire must be cruel, not to mention unusual.  Bring in an animal and the animal rights' activists would be raging. They are already demonstrating against Mr. Ramelkovic, certain that in the past 400 or so years, he must have sucked off a dog or two."

            "Ms. Stevens, human blood is given only to those who would otherwise die," Judge Baffle interjected.  "It would be a waste to give it to a vampire when there are human beings that need it."

            "Hogwash and you know it!  There are no distinctions about who gets blood.  No one denies the homeless because some Beverly Hills socialite needs it.  What we're talking about is the use only.  One person gets it intravenously, another drinks it.  I demand that you feed Mr. Ramelkovic."

            Judge Baffle let out a sigh and Watson reached for the phone.  "A courier will bring a couple of bags over from the hospital right away."

            Terry quickly returned to the holding cell. "A messenger is bringing you something.  Can you hang on?"

            He raised his head, eyes agleam with red fire. He nodded and stood up, straight and taller, somehow. He looked directly into her eyes and Terry felt her mind begin to blank in little spots.  Stavros closed his eyes and concentration furrowed his brow.   "I don't want you to be afraid of me, but it is not wise for you to be here."

            Terry backed out of the cell and waited.

            The courier brought two bags of red blood chilled like champagne in an ice chest. Each bag carefully tagged, labeled and numbered.  Terry grabbed them, chest and all, and hurried to give Stavros his food.  When she entered the holding cell she saw him, marble faced, eyes dark red yet shining with an unearthly gleam.  She slammed the ice chest at him which clattered to the floor.

            Stavros reached down with a hand more like a claw and picked up a bag. His teeth easily punctured the plastic and he sucked out the contents noisily. Terry left her client to a peaceful meal and went back to Baffle's courtroom. A few minutes later the bailiff led Stavros back into the courtroom. He took his seat at the counsel tale next to Terry and whispered,        "Thank you my lady."

            Michael Watson called Victim Jane Doe to the Stand. Once seated, the bailiff swore her in asking that she state her name for the record.

            "Victim Jane Doe."

            "Is that your real name?"

            "It is now, I like it.  Got ID at the DMV. Wanna see?"

            "Do you remember the name you had before the night of in question?"

            "No.  Doesn't  matter, I gotta name now."  She sat up straighter in the witness chair.  "I'm somebody.  Got a name, got ID, hey, I'm happy."

            "Ms. Doe, did anything out of the ordinary happen to you that night?" said Watson sounding frustrated.

            "Can't say that it did, except that I woke up all sudden and there was this man next to me biting my neck.  It didn't hurt or anything."

            Watson asked her how she felt after the alleged biting attack and she answered that she felt a little dizzy, but her neck didn't hurt.  She went on to explain, under questioning, how she followed him until almost daylight when he ducked into a basement.  She waited and he didn't come out so she called the police and waited there until they came. At the end, Watson asked her to identify her assailant.

            "It was dark, you know, some of the streetlights were out. It was a blonde man. Not so big, like me, but taller."

            "Is that man in the courtroom today?"

            "It was really dark."

            "You identified him before, can you do so now?"

            "Got me a name now  thanks to him. I get food stamps now." Jane Doe said softly.

            Terry jumped up, "Objection!. Clearly she cannot identify the man who attacked her, only the man the police brought out of the basement."

             Baffle shrugged his shoulders and instructed the jury not to consider Jane Doe's testimony.

            The next series of witnesses were police and paramedics who were able to identify Stavros as the man they found dead in the basement.  One of the officers testified that he personally searched the basement and found no other person hiding in there.  They stated that they transported him to the County Morgue zipped in a canvas body bag and left him there.

            When Terry noticed several jurors dozing, she raised a weary hand.  "Your honor, I believe two of the jurors have slept through Officer Dong Tran's entire testimony."

            "The jury has a point."  Judge Baffle said stifling a yawn.  "It's almost dawn anyway. I will call a recess until tonight at 6:30."  The jury filed out and a bailiff came to take Stavros away.

            By the time Terry left the courthouse, it was full daylight and a crowd was forming on the courthouse steps. Sidewalk hawkers were selling signs, badges and bumper sticker supporting a variety of causes.  The speakers began blaring simultaneously, working the crowd into a state of agitation. An African-American minister prepared to speak with the crowd began chanting "No Justice, No Peace." 

            On the left African Americans were protesting what they felt to be Stavros' unfairly claiming minority status.   They also demanded his trial, conviction and imposition of the death penalty for crimes committed as a slave holder.   "After all" the minister screamed "this white man is hundreds of years old.  Without question he was a slaveholder and must pay for his crimes against all black people.  He was probably trapping innocent Africans for transport and sale. HANG HIM!"

            On the right side of the building Jews gathered convinced that Stavros Ramelkovic came from somewhere in the world where Nazis once rampaged.  He could have been an SS guard sucking the blood out of innocent Jews until they died and the bodies burned.  They were demanding his immediate identification as a war criminal. 

            The two factions began arguing and tried to out shout each other.

            "We have been oppressed since the time of the Egyptians," the Jew shouted.

            "We were slaves and innocents were murdered by the Klan."

            "We were rounded up in concentration camps by the Nazis."

            "The Klan was meaner than the Nazis," said an unwashed man in a torn baseball cap.

            "Fat chance, you're dreaming," said a young teen in baggy pants. "The Nazis were so mean, they had their own walk."

            "Klansmen can beat up Nazis any day," said another teen.

            "No they can't."

            "Can too!"

            Terry walked away shaking her head.

            She returned to the courthouse just as the sun started to set. It seem so odd to starting work at this hour instead of going home, then again, everything about this trial was strange. Sitting in the courtroom next to Stavros, Terry leaned over and asked him how he felt.  "I am well," he whispered. "I received again this morning.  It will be a day or two before I will have a need."

            The corner on duty the night of the incident, Dr. Andrew Clegg was sworn in and Watson questioned him about the details in the autopsy room.  Dr. Clegg scanned the police and paramedic reports and since no cause of death was indicated, he thought it might have been disease of some kind.  He scrubbed and gloved, then opened the drawer to #173.  The drawer contained the nude body of a white male, appearing about 35 years of age.  Suddenly, the man climbed out of the drawer, grabbed Dr. Clegg, and after forcing him down on the examining table, bit him on the neck.  The doctor testified that he was too shocked to fight back and felt no pain even when he knew the fangs penetrated his flesh. 

            Terry did not question Dr. Clegg. She asked that her cross-examination be deferred until all the witnesses had been heard knowing that eye witnesses were the worst witnesses to overcome.  You had to destroy their perception.

            Dr. Pettibone, the assistant who walked in and saw the attack, took the stand. He seemed a little nervous and kept trying not to look at the jury. 

            " Dr. Pettibone,' Watson said. ""Please tell the jury what happened the night in question."

            Dr. Pettibone stated that he saw Dr. Clegg lying on an autopsy table.  A naked man bent over him.  Ugly noises were coming from the pair; slurping, drinking noises. The naked man's mouth was at Dr. Clegg's neck.  Dr. Pettibone said that as he turned to leave, the naked man to look up with inhuman eyes reddened and wild.

            "I object to the term wild and inhuman, it's vague." Terry said.

            "Sustained," Baffle said flatly. "Witness will restate."

            "His eyes just did not look human."

            "Objection as unfair characterization, your Honor."

            Dr. Clegg let out a big sigh. "His eyes were red."

            "Can you identify the man you saw in the autopsy room that night?"

            "Yes, I can.  It is the defendant."

            "Thank you, no further questions."

            "Dr. Pettibone," Terry said approaching the lectern. "You stated that you saw what appeared to be a naked man bent over Dr. Clegg who was then lying on an autopsy table."

            "Yes.  That's what I saw."

            "You also said that you turned to leave. Why?  Why did you leave when before your own eyes, you said that you witnessed your co-worker being attacked?"

            Dr. Pettibone crossed and uncrossed his legs. He cleared his throat and blushed.

            "Are you uncomfortable Doctor?"

            "Well, I wanted to leave."

            "Yes, you did.  We all heard you say that, but why?"

            "I thought, ahem.  I didn't think it was an attack."

            "What did you think?"  Terry said tapping her shoes loudly on the hardwood floor.

            "Okay, I thought ....  I thought the guy was kissing Andy on the neck."  His voice was exasperated and defensive.  "So I made a mistake. The man was naked, bending over Andy and I heard these wet kissing sounds. I just wanted to leave."

            Terry suppressed a smile.  "Do you think that Dr. Clegg is the kind of man who would rather have been bitten by a vampire than be kissed by another man?"

            "I object!  Your Honor, this is an unfair characterization of Dr. Clegg."

            Judge Baffle's lips twitched beneath the neat gray mustache.  "Objection sustained.  Dr. Clegg's sexual orientation is not at issue in this case."

            "We are not questioning Dr. Clegg's orientation, merely asking Dr. Pettibone his own opinion as to why he left the room when, in his own words, his co-worker was being attacked.  It was Dr. Pettibone who said that it looked like Dr. Clegg was being kissed.  I was doing nothing more than confirming the fact that Dr. Clegg would not kiss another man."

            Judge Baffle grimaced. "Very well, answer the question."

            "I never wondered about Andy, ahh, Dr. Clegg."

            Whether she made her point or simply tired of the game, Terry was finally done and allowed Watson to rest the prosecution's case.

            Judge Baffle stifled a yawn and called a recess.  The jurors retired to the jury room for some coffee to help them stay awake.  Terry met her assistant, Paul Murray, in the hallway.

            "I have news," Paul said. "The Gay And Lesbian Liberation called and left a message.  Seems they want to pay your fees. They figure the doctor is gay and got caught kissing his lover."

            The bailiff poked his head out of Department A's door.  "Ready Ms. Stevens."

            For her first witness, Terry recalled Dr. Clegg.  She began by going over how long the doctor had been able to observe his attacker.  He admitted that only seconds passed between the opening of the drawer and the disorientation that occurred with the bite.

            "Did you hear Dr. Pettibone's testimony?" 

            Dr. Clegg bit his lower lip.  "Some of it. It simply isn't true."

            "What's not true, Doctor?  That you were kissed, or that you would rather be attacked by a vampire than be found accepting the kisses of another man?

            "Objection."  Watson interjected "Compound question."

            Judge Baffle sustained, "One question at a time, Ms. Stevens."  Terry rephrased, asking only if the doctor would rather his colleague think he was attacked than be found being kissed by another man.   

            Dr. Clegg was in a no-win situation.  Terry had shifted the interests from the vampire to sexual orientation and in seconds, Dr. Clegg, the victim, was defending himself.  Dr. Clegg was clearly upset at her portrayal and incensed by the falseness of it.  Sadly, Terry realized that by taking this line of questioning, she could not accept the payment of her fees by GALL.  It would look like she was paid to cast doubt on the coroner's sexuality. 

            "No further questions," Terry said and glanced at Stavros. His face was as impassive as a gravestone.  Terry took a deep breath. "Defense calls Defendant Stavros Ramelkovic."

Stavros did not have to testify and the jury would be instructed not to draw any inference from his failure to take the stand.  But, Terry was gambling on his old world country gentleman persona to sway the jury.

            Stavros stepped into the witness box and the bailiff administered the oath.  Small tendrils of smoke rose when he rested his left hand on the Bible, raised his right hand, and promised to tell the truth.

            Terry took a deep breath. "Mr. Ramelkovic, when did your present condition manifest itself?"

            "I crossed over after seeing my thirty-fourth summer."

            "How old are you now?"

            There was silence in the room.  In a flat voice Stavros said "I was born in the year of our Lord 1382.  As a child I was taken by a number of traveling people who cruelly abused me before meeting my sire."

            Watson jumped to his feet. "I object your Honor.  Is it defense's contention that Defendant was kidnapped by gypsies and abused over 600 years ago?  I thought the defense was one of mistaken identity.  Now is it child abuse that made him commit crimes against citizens today! "

            The Judge seemed lost for the moment.  "Overruled. Mr. Ramelkovic is under oath. I see no reason to doubt his testimony.  "

            "Your Honor, I would like to answer that charge," Stavros interjected.

            Both lawyers looked stunned.  The Judge looked at them, seeing no sign of objection in their faces he said "If you wish to."

            "Yes, I have seen six centuries.  I was there with the French forces at the Battle of Agincourt when Henry invaded the country for profit.  The slaughter that took place was unimaginable.  I was there, at the Battle of Concord defending the land with farmers against a tyrannical king with his professional army.  I watched as the hungry women of France marched against their own armed countrymen for food.  I stood my ground against confederate soldiers at Bull Run.  The Kaiser's men gassed me along with the others huddled in the trenches.  I saw the great fertile plains of North America turned to dust and bankers forcing families with staving children flee, hoping to find a new life somewhere, any where.  I was there with the first forces to walk into the concentration camps.  I walk the streets  and see the hunger and the desperation this decade has to offer.  I see economic, religious and racial strife like none I have ever seen or even imagined. No person, country, race, or religion is exempt from the cruel acts I have witnessed.  For all that I have seen, it done by each and every individual for their survival.  " 

            Watson opened his mouth to say something, but Stavros cut him off with a glare.

            "Yes, I am a vampire, and despite preconceived perceptions of such, I am not an evil being.  You wish to know if I committed the crimes of which I stand accused.  Like everybody else, I am motivated by the need to survive. What matters is the choices we make in surviving and how those choices affect others."

            The silence that followed made Terry's ears ring. 

            "No further questions," Terry said.

            "Michael Watson rose slowly, cleared his throat and said, "I have nothing for this witness."

            Judge Baffle told Stavros to step down and asked if the attorneys were ready with their closing arguments.

            Terry spoke first. "Ladies and gentlemen of the Jury, you have heard the testimony of the witnesses.  You have heard Mr. Ramelkovic testify in his own defense.   I stand here wishing I could add something," she paused, "But I cannot. I cannot put this case before you as eloquently as the man who has just left the stand.  Thank you all for your time and patience."

            Michael Watson then stood to face the jury. "Thank you all so much for taking your nights to sit on this jury.

            "We must remember that Mr. Ramelkovic is on trial for the crimes of assault, battery and the attempted murder of Dr. Herbert Clegg.   As you consider your verdict, remember that he is on trial for these crimes and none other.  The question you must ask yourselves is does he have the right to fulfill his needs at another's expense? The answer must be no.  No more than the teenager who needs a ride home from the mall and steals a car."

            The jury was out for two hours.  By the time they had  a verdict, the sun was up and they all had to wait for the next moonrise to the defendant could be in Court.

            "We the jury of the Superior Court, find the Defendant, Stavros Ramelkovic not guilty of the crimes charged."

            Terry heard the words, but could not fathom their content.  A court of law had found a vampire innocent of drinking human blood.  She wondered what the Jury poll would show and could hardly wait to find out.

            Judge Baffle spoke, "So say you one, so say you all?"

            "Yes."

            The Judge thanked and dismissed them.  The verdict was unanimous.  Stavros turned and bowed deeply from the waist.  He took her hand and bestowed a cold kiss upon its  back.

            "My lady, I am grateful."

            The lawyers learned the jurors believed that both victims had been attacked by a vampire.  They just could not bring themselves to convict Stavros.

            "It was him, you know."  Watson told Terry, "He defies the evil that everyone thinks vampires are.  They liked him.  You're a lucky lawyer. You had a good client."