Rule of Criminal Procedure 9

See Stormwind Rules of Criminal Procedure.

A. Trial Elements.
A trial shall consist of the following:
 * 1) The hearing of any outstanding motions;
 * 2) The reading of the complaint before the open court and (if applicable) jury;
 * 3) Opening statements by prosecution and defense counsel;
 * 4) The prosecution’s case, consisting of the questioning of witnesses and presentation of evidence, as well as the defense counsel’s cross-examination of witnesses;
 * 5) Upon the prosecution’s rest, motions made by the defense counsel;
 * 6) The presentation of all defenses and mitigating circumstances, consisting of the questioning of witnesses and presentation of evidence, as well as the prosecution’s cross-examination of witnesses;
 * 7) Upon the defense counsel’s rest, motions made by either counsel;
 * 8) Closing statements by prosecution and defense counsel;
 * 9) Jury instructions, if applicable;
 * 10) Deliberation by the finder of fact; and
 * 11) The delivery of verdict and sentence in open court.

B. Rules of Evidence.
All witness testimony and circumstantial evidence shall be presented in accordance with the Stormwind Rules of Evidence.

C. Taking Testimony.
In every trial, the testimony of witnesses must be taken in open court, unless otherwise provided by a statute or by rules.

D. Judgment of Acquittal.
After the prosecution closes its evidence, or after the close of all the evidence, the court on the defendant’s motion must enter a judgment of acquittal of any offense for which the evidence is insufficient to sustain a conviction. The court may on its own consider whether the evidence is insufficient to sustain a conviction.

Commentary
A. This is what it all comes down to.

We currently do not conduct jury trials, as it is difficult enough to get five people together at the same time! But hopefully, we'll be able in the future to find a willing group of jurors to volunteer to help you.

C. We do permit witness statements to be read directly into evidence, if they are read by the witness and were previously prepared and shared during discovery. This would be irregular in an IRL court, but because we're operating in a text-based world, and most people are fairly slow typists, testimony can take much longer in-game. Copy-pasting witness statements into chat is much more efficient, and still allows follow-up questions and cross-examination.

D. The dreaded Motion to Dismiss. If the prosecution does not prove every point of a statute, then the case fails. A defense barrister who doesn't attempt this when it is clearly applicable is not doing his job.