Monday, December 26, 2011

How could you write an epilogue to The Cask of Amontillado in which a case against Montresor comes to trial, including the prosecuting attorney’s closing argument reminding the jury of any evidence that proves Montresor’s guilt, the defense attorney’s closing argument, and the jury’s final verdict?

There are two kinds of evidence that could be used to prosecute the narrator. One is his confession, which he has provided. The other is the body of Fortunato, which remains walled up in the catacombs. There are several complications, however, which might hinder such a case from getting past a grand jury, much less going to trial.
The narrator may be delivering this confession to a priest or an attorney, in which case the other party would be compelled to keep its contents secret. It could be a deathbed confession, and the narrator might since have died. If neither of those applies and the prosecutor is able to try the case, the narrator could invoke their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
The other evidence would be the victim’s body. The narrator would need to provide the exact location of the body. If this does occur and it is exhumed, after fifty years there may be little or no physical evidence by which to identify the victim. As the story takes places in the 19th century, there would have been no DNA evidence and most likely no dental evidence.
A third possible line of evidence would not have been known then: there might be fingerprints on the outside of the tomb, but their use for identification did not begin until the end of the 19th century.
In sum, a confession and a body would be possible evidence but might not be adequate for trying the case.
https://poestories.com/read/amontillado

https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/law/crime-and-law-enforcement/fingerprint

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