THE CASE OF THE SPELUNCEAN EXPLORERS

The murder case that has come before the Supreme Court of Newgarth presents problems that have not arisen within anyone's memory and for which the dustier volumes of the law reports offer few, if any, precedents. The four defendants have already been tried and convicted in the Court of General Instances of the County of Stowfield for the murder of their travelling companion oger !hetmore. In accordance with Newgarth's very succinct murder statute " #!hoever shall willfully ta$e the life of another shall be punished by death# " they had been sentenced to death by hanging. They have appealed to the Supreme Court where you now sit and it is up to you, indeed all of you as %udges of this Court, to affirm or reverse &udgment of the trial court. The four defendants and oger !hetmore were all members of the Speluncean Society, a

group of amateur cave e'plorers and archaeologists. In (ay the five set out to e'plore the interior of a limestone cavern located in the Central )lateau. !hile the five of them *three men and two women+ were probing the remote inner reaches of the cave, a powerful landslide shoo$ the area. , barrage of massive boulders rained down in front of the cave and bloc$ed its only e'it. ,lthough physically unscathed, the five e'plorers found themselves hopelessly immured in the rubble, with little more than a meager supply of water, wine, and dates to last them through the indefinite future. The absence of the five e'plorers was soon noticed. Their families grew alarmed and called on the secretary of the society to underta$e a search. It turned out that the e'plorers had left at the society's head-uarters fairly e'act indications of their whereabouts, and a rescue party was immediately sent out for them. .ut freeing them proved far from easy. The society's rescue party was no match for the primordial boulders. /eavy machinery had to be moved in from far away. , whole army of wor$men, engineers, geologists, and other e'perts had to be assembled. 0resh landslides repeatedly intervened to ma$e wor$ing conditions ha1ardous and progress slow. Ten wor$men ultimately died in the rescue effort. ,s the days wore on, the rescuers grew increasingly an'ious that starvation might $ill the e'plorers long before a passageway could be cut through the debris. Though considered hardy souls, the e'plorers were $nown to have ta$en only scant provisions along, and limestone caverns rarely, if ever, contain any nourishing vegetation. 2n the twentieth day, however, the rescuers learned by accident that the e'plorers had with them a portable wireless machine capable of sending and receiving messages. , similar machine was

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installed in the rescue camp and communication established with the imprisoned members of the e'ploring party. The prisoners turned out to be une'pectedly alert and remar$ably rational and detached about their predicament. oger !hetmore, the most e'perienced among them, did most of the tal$ing. /e as$ed how long it would ta$e to liberate them. The engineers estimated it would ta$e at least ten more days, provided no new landslides occurred. !hetmore then as$ed whether any physicians were present and was immediately put in touch with a committee of medical e'perts. /e described to them with precision what was left of the spare rations they had ta$en with them into the cave. Ta$ing turns, each of the prisoners then described his or her physical condition. 0inally, !hetmore as$ed for a medical opinion whether they were li$ely to survive the ne't ten days. 3espite some initial reluctance to answer, the committee chairman admitted that there was little li$elihood of that. The wireless machine then remained silent for eight hours. 0inally, !hetmore's voice reappeared4 he as$ed to spea$ once more to the physicians. /is voice unnaturally loud and -uavering ever so slightly, he in-uired of the chairman whether they would be able to survive if they ate the flesh of one of their number. The chairman refused to answer. !hen !hetmore pressed him, he finally agreed that they probably would. !hetmore then as$ed if it would be advisable for them to cast lots to determine who among them should be sacrificed. The chairman again refused to answer4 this time he remained adamant. None of the other physicians were willing to respond either. !hetmore as$ed if there were among the party a &udge or other governmental official who could answer his -uestion. No one responded, not even the secretary of the society who was in fact a &ustice of peace. !hetmore as$ed if there were a rabbi or priest who would answer his -uestion but no one stepped forward, although a priest had only recently performed the last rites on a dying wor$man. The wireless machine then went dead, and it was assumed " erroneously as it turned out " that the batteries had been e'hausted. Conscious that time was running out, the rescuers speeded up their efforts. They too$ ris$s they would ordinarily have avoided4 as a result si' more wor$men were $illed by another une'pected landslide. 5ight days after the e'change with !hetmore, they finally laid bare the cave's e'it. 0our of the e'ploring party *two men and two women+ were still alive, although close to e'piration. The fifth, oger !hetmore, was dead. /is s$eletal remains told most of the story, but the survivors made no secret of what had happened. 2n the twenty" third day of their captivity the defendants had $illed and eaten their companion.

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Ironically,

oger !hetmore had been the first to propose such a sacrifice. Not only would

this ensure that at least some of them survived, he said, but even the victim had reason to be grateful for being spared the agony of a slow death by starvation. /e for one, should the lot fall on him, would prefer it that way. ,lthough at first repelled by the idea, his colleagues ac-uiesced in !hetmore's proposal when they heard the dire predictions of the medical e'perts. !hetmore happened to have a pair of dice with him, hence that was the method adopted for choosing the victim. The roll went against !hetmore. The defendants were treated at length for malnutrition and shoc$ and finally were put on trial. The trial was one of the least contentious in Newgarth's history, since there was little disagreement on the facts. Still, the &ury deliberated for a long time. ,t one point the foreman " as it happened, a lawyer " as$ed the court whether the &ury might be allowed simply to issue a special verdict finding all the facts and leaving it to the trial &udge whether under those facts the defendants were guilty. .oth sides agreed to this proposal4 and the court ac-uiesced. Then, having e'amined the &ury's rather unsurprising findings, he held the defendants guilty of murder and, as re-uired, sentenced them to death. This done, the defendants' attorneys immediately filed an appeal and the case has now come before the Supreme Court and before all of you. Are the defendants guilty of murder !hat do you thin" to 'e e($used !hat is your )erdi$t and *ro*er reasoning+ ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, #o you thin" their a$tion %as in some sense &ustified or ought

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