"Look," one says, "our legal system doesn't use the concept of 'personhood' the same way I imagine Amentans do, having only one species. We use it to mean anything that is intelligent enough to communicate preferences and that reads to a subtle artist as having internal experiences. Reds are intelligent enough to communicate preferences and they read to a subtle artist as having internal experiences, therefore killing reds is prosecuted as murder. If you want, you could call the thing our courts care about 'consciousness' and the thing you care about 'personhood'. I believe you that reds do not possess personhood as you understand it, but they possess the traits which make it illegal to kill them, and therefore it is illegal to kill them."

"It's not illegal in Rivik. We didn't even hold a vote, let alone join your thing."

"Our law allows prosecuting the killing of beings that relevantly register if it occurs in connection with our activities, anywhere in the multiverse."

"Are you even going to try to get me let off, like it says you're supposed to -"

"My job is to give you the best legal defense possible. When we represent someone who is unambiguously guilty of the crime they are accused of, that involves filing procedural complaints and trying to affect sentencing. It's very common in my line of work to be in a position where trying to get the defendant off doesn't make any sense but there's a lot that can be done to reduce their sentence."

She tries more lawyers.

All of them explain to her that typically when you stab somebody to death with a sword your lawyer does not try to get you off, but tries to make sure all your rights are respected and negotiate for a shorter sentence.

"Doesn't it matter at all that it's not illegal in Rivik? Everybody's heard 'you have to read up on the law' but nobody has heard 'you have to read up on alien law when interacting with non-aliens in case they care if you overwater your herbs or something'."

"Rape, murder, and torture."

"Do you arrest soldiers and executioners and tell them they commited murder? People used to spank children, when you land on those people do you kidnap every parent around - of course you do, you don't care if the kids have anyone looking after them at all -"

"If a war starts as a consequence of our arrival, we do arrest the responsible parties. The consensus is that empirically the best way to reduce child abuse is media campaigns and that arrests cause more harm than good, but if the evidence shook out the other way I imagine that policymakers would give it serious consideration."

"Are you saying you think you will somehow reduce incidence of people 'murdering' reds by abducting me? That's insane. Everyone's going to blame the red."

"...for being murdered?"

"For not showing up and doing its job like it was supposed to."

"I do not think I can ethically represent you."

She moves on to the next one.

"...look, you seem to be imagining that 'the law is not fair' is a legal defense. It's a reason to change the law, maybe, but it's not at all a legal defense. You will not win if we try a legal defense of 'yes, we broke the law, but it's an unfair law'."

"My point is it wasn't advertised. You can't make things up and expect people to read your minds."

"I understand why you'd feel strongly that the law should be changed."

...sigh. "So given that the law is currently this stupid thing what can I do."

"...there are a couple options. I want to discuss one of them with you but I'm concerned it might damage rapport, it relates to the question of whether it was wrong to kill the victim."

"I'm clearly going to have to settle for rapport that doesn't revolve around my lawyer not being an alien."

"Is there any observable thing, including magic things like mindreading, that would, if you observed it, cause you to consider it likely that reds are - in a category where killing them is a bad thing to do?"

"I mean, you can't kill a lot of them, they're still necessary..."

"I mean in its own right."