I Became a Law School Genius

Chapter 16
『 Translator – Divinity 』

“Solicitation of perjury, robbery and injury, and… attempted ‘nighttime residential burglary’.”

“W-what?!”

Yoo Tae-woon let out a surprised yelp, and Jang Yong-hwan’s eyes widened.

“Article 330 of the Criminal Act. Nighttime Residential Burglary. ‘Whoever, at nighttime, enters the dwelling of another, a building, vessel, or aircraft under the control of another, or a room occupied by another, and steals the property of another, shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than 10 years.'”

I continued, unfazed,

“Although there is no explicit provision in the Criminal Act regarding the definition of ‘nighttime’, the general view is that it refers to the period from sunset to sunrise.”

“W-what are you talking about?”

“This case,”

I cut off Yoo Tae-woon’s question.

“It happened at 2 AM, not 2 PM. So… it was ‘nighttime’.”

That’s right.

This was the real trap Jang Yong-hwan had hidden in this problem.

“I thought it was unnatural from the beginning.”

The sense of incongruity that lingered in my mind while reading the case record.

It was the fact that the ‘time of the crime’ was not recorded anywhere.

— 2023.3.12. Kim Gab-dong visited the apartment where A lives…

The date itself was clearly stated.

But there was no description of the specific time each crime occurred.

Information about the time was only indirectly included in the evidence.

The analog clock pointing to 2 o’clock in the hard-to-distinguish black and white video, and the time of the conversation around 1:30 PM left in the KakaoTalk capture file were all there was.

It was strange.

I had no experience with actual court proceedings.

But thinking about it logically, it seemed unlikely that the exact time of the incident would be omitted from the investigation and trial records.

Among the cases that turn into legal battles, there are many where the outcome changes depending on the minute and second.

For example, the order of arrival of documents might be reversed by a hair’s breadth, changing who can claim the right.

“Especially in criminal cases, there are many instances where the treatment changes completely depending on whether the time of the incident was day or night.”

“For example?”

Jang Yong-hwan asked.

“Self-defense is one example.”

Self-defense requires proportionality as one of its elements.

It means you can only defend yourself to the extent necessary to remove the immediate danger you face.

Excessive self-defense beyond that is usually not recognized as justifiable.

However, if that excessive self-defense is carried out ‘at night’ or in other unsettling situations, such as fear, terror, excitement, or confusion, it is not punishable.

This is because it is considered excessively harsh to demand someone to judge and act within ‘reasonable’ limits in such situations.

“It’s often said that there’s no expectation of possibility.”

Anyway, it means that recording the exact time is essential.

Despite that, if all mentions of time were omitted from the record, it was inevitable to think that there was some intention hidden there.

“The time shown in the materials is 1:30 PM, and the time the clock hands point to is 2 o’clock. With no other information about the time, we naturally assumed it was 2 PM… but it wasn’t.”

“What’s your basis?”

“First, please watch the video again.”

I brought the laptop over and played the CCTV footage so that Jang Yong-hwan and Yoo Tae-woon could see.

The poor quality black and white video was still difficult to make out.

Come to think of it, that was strange too.

“Why is it in black and white?”

“Isn’t that… because that’s the type of camera it is?”

“No. Even residential CCTVs these days are all in color. …During the daytime, that is.”

“Oh!”

“Recording video in black and white happens when ‘night mode’ is activated and it switches to an infrared camera.”

It was from my past life, when I was constantly working overtime.

I repeated the dreadful routine of leaving work at dawn and arriving at work in the morning.

Because of that, I became acquainted with the company’s night security guard.

It was knowledge I gained from talking to him about this and that.

“If you think of it as an infrared camera, the black and white video makes sense. It’s a bit hard to see, but look at the floor. You can’t see Kim Gab-dong’s shadow, right?”

If the incident happened in broad daylight, there would have been a shadow cast by the sunlight coming through the window.

But if it was originally the dark early morning, it’s natural that there wouldn’t be a noticeable shadow.

It also explains why Kim Gab-dong entered hesitantly and awkwardly.

Since it was dark and he couldn’t see properly, he had no choice but to move cautiously.

“The conversation time recorded on KakaoTalk is also strange.”

“Conversation time…?”

“The conspiracy between Kim Gab-dong and Lee Eul-nam took place from 13:34 to 13:36.

If the time of the crime was 2 PM, that’s less than 30 minutes before.”

As if answering Yoo Tae-woon’s question, I displayed the KakaoTalk capture on the screen once again.

[13:34] Kim Gab-dong: Let’s do a job together.
[13:35] Lee Eul-nam: What kind of job?
[13:35] Kim Gab-dong: I’m going to rob A’s house. When I bring out the goods, you take them and exchange them for cash.
[13:36] Lee Eul-nam: Ah, man, I was having a nice sleep at home. What’s the pay?
[13:36] Kim Gab-dong: 7 to 3. You get 3.
…(omitted)…

“But at this point, Lee Eul-nam says he was ‘sleeping at home’. Then where is Lee Eul-nam’s house? I looked it up in the records, and lo and behold, it says it’s in Asan City, Chungcheongnam-do.”

“…!”

“A’s apartment is in Seoul. It’s physically impossible for Lee Eul-nam, who was at home in Asan City until 13:36, to arrive near A’s apartment around 14:00.”

Yoo Tae-woon stared at me with his mouth agape.

“If the time of the crime is nighttime, and therefore the charge to be examined changes to nighttime residential burglary, then the issue of attempted crime needs to be reconsidered.”

I paused for a beat.

“While the start of execution for theft is recognized when the ‘search for property’ begins, for nighttime residential burglary, the precedent’s stance is that the start of execution is when the trespass begins. The point of completion is when possession of the property is obtained.”

It was time to conclude this long story.

“As we’ve already examined, Kim Gab-dong trespassed into A’s apartment, but he failed to steal the targeted valuables. There was a start of execution, but it didn’t reach completion. In other words, it’s an attempted crime.”

When the charge was theft, we couldn’t recognize the start of execution, so we couldn’t punish him.

But with nighttime residential burglary, it becomes an attempted crime because the execution of the criminal act has already begun.

If I hadn’t grasped the trickery in the record, the conclusion would have been completely different.

It was a question that required not just taking what was given, but carefully examining the relationship between the evidence and interpreting the hidden intention.

In the midst of all that, adding the issue of attempted crime was truly wicked.

‘In this case, the trespassing charge is absorbed into nighttime residential burglary and cannot be punished separately… but still, this has a heavier penalty.’

As initially requested, the conclusion that results in the heaviest charges for the defendant.

“That concludes my argument.”

I subtly raised my head and checked Professor Jang Yong-hwan’s reaction.

He seemed to be pondering my argument in silence for a while, then finally uttered a single sentence.

“Can you prove it?”

‘Huh, what’s gotten into him?’

“That was a persuasive argument. However, it’s all just speculation. The CCTV could be an old model that only records in black and white, and the lack of shadows could be due to the poor image quality making it difficult to discern.”

Jang Yong-hwan continued with a sharper gaze,

“In the case of KakaoTalk, Lee Eul-nam might have lied about being at home because he didn’t want to be involved in the crime. Nothing has been clearly proven.”

“Then I’ll request the investigation and submission of additional evidence.”

I shrugged.

“If this were a real trial record, the time of the incident wouldn’t be missing. It must have been erased by the professor while creating the problem. Although the lack of evidence is originally the prosecutor’s responsibility… didn’t you promise not to ask about the distribution of responsibility under procedural law?”

This wasn’t the original version of a real trial record, and I wasn’t the actual prosecutor who investigated this case.

The distinction between prosecutor and defense attorney was merely a label to determine the direction of the argument.

It was self-contradictory to say that procedural law wouldn’t be asked, and then blame me for the missing records that the examiner himself had erased.

‘How dare you try to find fault with me.’

As I retorted shamelessly, Jang Yong-hwan’s lips finally curled upwards.

“Interesting.”

And he asked Yoo Tae-woon,

“Defense. Do you agree with the prosecution’s argument?”

“I-I agree!”

Yoo Tae-woon, who had been standing there blankly, hurriedly came to his senses and answered.

His face was like someone who had been struggling in the water and suddenly found a lifeboat.

“Then… I’ll announce the results.”

It was the moment I had been waiting for.

“Park Yoo-seung, 10 points. Yoo Tae-woon, 5 points. Good work.”

It was, without a doubt, an acknowledgment of my answer.