[ WP ] Prison terms of `` life plus '' take on new meaning after transfer of consciousness to computer databanks leads to functional immortality . A moral and ethical outcry erupts after the first case in which an individual is sentenced to prison for one hundred thousand years .


 There was a crowd of people blocking the courtroom stairs. Protesters raised signs and media shoved cameras at the protesters, inciting them further. Michael ran his hands through his hair and began trying to push his through the chaos. His legal aid followed him as close as she could. 
 “ It ’ s been difficult to continue this case, with all the press and everything going on. ” Jess was struggling to be heard over screaming protesters. 
 “ We still need to try. It has to be a fair trial. It ’ s the justice system after all. ” I would do everything I could to maintain this case. It was going to be my largest after all, even though it was a fairly controversial one. “ It ’ s okay Jess; we ’ ve had public cases before this! ” 
 “ Never this public. ” 
 I ignored her- we ’ d reached the entrance to the court house and here the crowd thinned, held back by the police line. I saw the police follow our advance to the front entrance: Surely they did n't blame me as well? I sighed and ran my hands through my hair again. It was a rough job I had, but thankfully the ruling would be given out today and this nightmare case would be over. As much false bravado as I gave Jess, the press and constant attention were really beginning to eat away at my sanity. 
 Continuing to advance to the small courtroom, Jess did n't let up her stream of thoughts, “ Michael, it ’ s important to remember what we reviewed the other day, the jury might have more questions and we need to- “ I blocked her out. There was no more to the case; I ’ d been doing this for years and I could tell when a case had reached its tipping point. There was no more evidence to be released or sprung in court. The facts were clear- 
 
 On March 18th, at around 8am, a man was seen setting up some kind of device on the sidewalk. Passerby innocently assumed he was setting up some kind of musical equipment as a sideshow act. 
 At noon on that day a large blast went off. The entire city shook with the blast and the school yard, full of children at recess right across the street from the set up was destroyed. A 16 block radius was affected by the device with very few injuries, instead hundreds of casualties from the school and offices destroyed. 
 At 3pm of the same day, Mr Costella ( identified by passerby's as the man from the attack that morning ) was pulled over speeding on the interstate. All indications posting to Boston being his next target. Numerous explosive devices were found in his car matching the description of the set up from the earlier attack. 
 At 8pm Mr. Costella was in custody and had already confessed to creating, setting up, and using the bomb. His goal was “ To see what I was capable of. Of what humanity could handle. ” He has no history of mental illness and is an intelligent engineer. He worked in an industrial chemical lab which is where he obtained access to the chemicals used in the weapon. 
 
 Now after a year and some months after this attack the case had was almost over. No one had expected it to drag out this long- After all the wealthy defendant had declined to choose representation, instead relying on the state to supply him with an attorney. But the case had once again sparked national interest when just a year after the blast, people began showing signs of radiation poisoning. 
 And now it was almost over. Michael raised a hand and cutting off Jess ’ s continued spiel, looked at the girl 
 “ No matter the chaos that has been following us in the form of media these past few weeks, always remember we did our best to represent the US justice system. We tried to make sure that it was a fair trial. People have said that the computer system will revolutionize prison, radically affecting human behavior, changing how people view crime and punishment forever. In Mr Costello ’ s case they believe that there is no limit to his evil. Many, like those protestors believe that no time is long enough- not even a million years. They believe that he should be held here for the end of human time- and I do n't know how I feel about that. Because we fight to keep fair trials and that includes fair sentencing. And as Mr. Costello's defendants- nothing about this trial has been fair. And while I know from the bottom of my heart that Mr. Costello is truly an evil man and that he truly did kill all those people; I am willing to be hated by the people on those steps. Because justice should be fair… and this just is n't fair. ” 
 And with his speech done, Michael straightened his back and pushed open one of the courtroom ’ s doors, ready to hear the sentencing. 
 
 Sorry if its terrible! I know I don ’ t have great grammar or spelling but when I see a really intriguing prompt, I can ’ t help but write something down, if just to get the story out of my head! CC welcome! 

