Ah, the good bit.

"I told her that the policy she proposed was a greater evil than the one she meant to drive out, and that she ought look to the history of Galt, for examples of how it would actually be implemented in practice."

"Were you the only person on that committee to strongly advise Valia Wain that her proposals, if heeded, were likely to lead to the deaths of many innocent people?"

(A courtesy message to the judge between questions, informing him that Archduke Blanxart is also a witness for the defense; it would be more rhetorically convenient to be able to take this apart immediately, but at least she can get it into the judge's mind.)

"Delegate Ibarra also advised her that her proposals would lead to the deaths of many people and would be evil. I don't think he used the word 'innocent'."

"Thank you. How did Valia Wain respond to these warnings from you and from Delegate Ibarra?"

Is this prosecutor seriously trying to argue that Valia should have listened to a Thrune and a man who burned down houses filled with innocent children about whether to give her speech???

Delegate "Ibarra" will successfully not laugh and instead just smile evilly behind his evil-looking mask.

...Delegate Ibarra. That's him, in the galleries, looking ridiculous as ever.

Surely they don't plan to sink their own case further by calling him.

"My warning was ignored, as far as I could tell, at which point I decided not to attempt further personal confrontation and instead petition her church to reprimand her. Delegate Ibarra's—well, his statement was given in protest of his expulsion from the committee, which occurred anyway."

"Thank you, Archduke. 

Your Honor, incitement to murder is a crime with an element of intent, and Wain's conduct in the committee demonstrates it. To find Wain guilty of inciting the people of Westcrown to violence against Evildoers this court must find that Wain understood that such violence was a plausible consequence of her speech. But she knew. In the space of a single day multiple people had warned her of it.

Almost never does the prosecution have the privilege, when trying to demonstrate someone knew something, of having multiple different people who said it to them directly in plain language in front of a room full of witnesses mere hours before the crime.

 Valia Wain has been operating as a successful politician in Pezzack for nearly two years, and as a rebel leader for the months before that. She is not mentally incompetent in any way. If she was ignorant, it was invincible ignorance that persisted in the face of repeated, very clear warnings from one of the most senior and respected men of Cheliax, the Archduke, and from another delegate, and it did not occur to her to - in curiosity about why these men had thus advised her - seek out a legal opinion from someone qualified to give one. 

Does the court have any questions for this witness?"

"The advocate for the accused has also registered the Archduke as a witness. In the name of expediency, I will permit the advocate to ask her questions of the Archduke now, if she wills, and will reserve my questions for when she is done."

!

Well, that's good.

"Archduke Blanxart. You said now that Select Wain made a proposal you took to be 'under the Law, not outside of it'. Was it then a Proposed Law in the ordinary course of the Work of the Convention, not any sort of Call to Imminent Action?"

"Her statements in the committee about which I cautioned her were such, yes. I did not have any expectation at that time that she would incite the city to lawless violence, as none of this was taking place before the public. I understood her to be proposing a new law, as the assembly was indeed commanded to do. It would have been an evil law, if enacted, but determining which laws would serve good and which evil was, as I understood it, the better part of the business of the Convention."

"When you cautioned Select Wain, did you foresee and warn her of any specific outcome?"

"The outcome I feared was the execution—by the government formed under the new Constitution—of many people who did not deserve to die, merely on charges of possessing an Evil aura. In the words of holy Aroden, 'The judgements of the Judge are not the judgements of man; civilization must tolerate many things She calls Evil, and forbid some that She names Good.'"

"As for my warning, I warned her only to become familiar with the history of Galt, which suffered many different evils of excessive zeal in the course of its revolution."

"That man seated in the Galleries; he is Delegate Ibarra?" She points.

"Indeed."

The man making an ironic half-bow? Yes.

Excuse me, the Mask of the Cursed Eye makes anyone who tries to scry me immediately be struck blind, and, more importantly, gives me a mental image of them so I know if it's Chelish assassins or not.

"He confessed before the committee that he did worship Norgorber; I know not what vows he may have taken. I have never seen him without the mask."

Wait isn't that....a crime?

(She can barely see him from where she's standing, but she feels a flash of anger that he gets to just be here and free and taunting them after everything he's done, when Valia is stuck being put on trial even though she didn't do anything wrong.)

"Would you consider it Unreasonable to be Skeptical of Advice on Prudent Lawmaking from an avowed Worshipper of Norgorber?"