And so, Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury,
I seek to prove that the TRUE criminal, the most corrupt force in the Phoenix Wright series is...
...Phoenix Wright himself!
"OBJECTION!"
Huh. Probably should've seen that coming.
*Game Theory Intro*
Hello, internet, welcome to
GAME THEORY
The show that's gotcha covered if you're taking a class on
genetics, physics, or robotics.
Especially haunted robotics.
But one potential college major we've yet to touch on is law.
And what better franchise to cover when tackling this new topic than the game
that no ones ever played but everyone knows the meme to,
Phoenix Wright.
And even though the Ace Attorney series might not be filling in the court room
gallery with rabid fans here in the states,
Our finger-pointing paralegal is popular enough in Asia to warrant his own
manga, anime, and musical.
You heard that right, MUSICAL
Suck on that, Law & Order.
Ooo you gonna cry? You gonna cry? Ooooh
Your tears of jealousy are sooo delicious.
Mmmm salty.
So, knowing that I wanted an episode covering Capcom's captain of the courtroom,
I picked up a copy of Ace Attorney and HOLY POOP was I shocked by what I saw!
PHOENIX is the villain of his own game!
The "legal eagle" Phoenix Wright is more like
uh.. I don't know.. an illegal albatross Phoenix Wrong
or something. WHATEVER. THE GUY'S A CRIMINAL. Pure and simple.
So today I'm putting gaming's most famous defense attorney on trial.
To show you how he's been lying to gamers, anime fans, and musical theater audiences
for years.
So put on your blue suits and warm up your pointer finger
It's time for the defense to go on the defense.
Who knows?
Maybe they'll make a musical about this episode one day
Someday.....someday.
So real quick, for those of you who haven't played Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney.
You play as Phoenix, a defense attorney tasked with digging up
clues, sifting through evidence, and finding inconsistencies in witness testimony
in order to save your clients from
crooked, manipulative prosecutors.
He'll stop at nothing to put them behind bars
While it's not so much a fast paced game,
it is pretty darn addicting.
And now that I finished it I practically qualify as an attorney.
*phone ringing*
Sorry, I got to get this.
*indistinct talking* Hey what's up?
*more talking* Yeah. Yeah. Alright, thanks...I guess.
Uh, so that was my lawyer apparently, he'd like you to know that I can't
make a joke about being a trained professional of the law.
Jeez, you'd think these guys would be able to take a joke.
Anyway, the game makes it pretty clear that
Phoenix is the morally correct one who plays by the rules
and that the prosecutors are the ones who don't
care about the law and instead just care about getting a conviction.
But when you actually stop to look at the way
that Pheonix conducts his investigations
and trials, it becomes clear
that the one criminal in the Ace Attorney who gets away with everything.
Is Phoenix Wright himself.
Now, fully recognizing that I'm not exactly a legal expert.
In researching this episode I consulted with an appellate prosecutor.
Basically, a fancy lawyer for the state attorney general,
who helped me to make my case against Phoenix
And, just so we're clear,
SPOILER ALERT for the first Ace Attorney game.
Don't like it?
SUE ME!
*phone ringing*
*sigh* Sorry
*talking* Yeah. Okay... okay. Sure
*clears throat*
Uhh... that was my lawyer again,
he just called and asked that I not encourage you to sue me...
So, uh, don't... I-I would much appreciate that thank you. *Clears throat*
Let's start off with the way Phoenix presents his evidence and witnesses in court
Phoenix: TAKE THAT!!
He has a flare for the dramatic,
often entering evidence or calling a witness at the very last second.
In episode three when Phoenix is pressed to give an explanation of
how Jack Hammer might have stolen a steel samurai costume
He surprises everyone by presenting an empty sleeping pill bottle
he found in the defendant's trailer
This gives his defendant Will Powers an alibi
That Phoenix conveniently hadn't mentionned until that moment
And Phoenix's surprises aren't just limited to physical evidence:
In episode two, after a long period of questionning April May
Phoenix calls a surprise witness to testify: the hotel's bellboy
And while both these surprises make for interesting drama,
they're not allowed in US courts. Like AT ALL.
Basically what Phoenix is doing violates the concept of discovery
Discovery is a legal privilege that both sides, defense and prosecution, have
so they can do research on relevant details before the trial begins
to avoid surpises that could negatively impact their case
I mean think about it: when Wright pulls out that pill bottle
Edgeworth, the case's prosecutor, has no idea that that thing exists
This gives Edgeworth zero time to think about the evidence
and how it affects his case before he's expected to respond.
In the case of the bellboy, when other lawyers don't know that a certain witness exists
they have no ability to prepare a cross examination.
Discovery applies to a lot of things:
physical evidence, like objects or documents, electronic evidence, like cellphone data and e-mails
and personal testimony collected in depositions.
When Phoenix fails to turn over evidence or tell the prosecution about possible witnesses
he's not complying with this basic court room rule
As a result he would be punished, getting, at best, all of his surpise evidence thrown out of the case,
and at worst, sent to prison and held for contempt of court, costing him both time and money.
It's unlikely Phoenix would get such harsh punishment the first time he pulled one of these moves
but given how frequently he likes to introduce evidence without subjecting it to discovery
It wouldn't be too shocking for these omissions to land him in hot water with the judge
Speaking of surprise witnesses, my personal favourite has to be Polly the parrot, from episode four.
This is RIDICULOUS, right? This has gotta be a huuuge stretch
Calling animals as witnesses has got to be another way that Phoenix is breaking the rules.
Surprisingly, no. While animals witnesses are far from common,
there are instances of dogs, cats and yeah, even parrots, being called as witnesses in case
In one famous case a New Orleans crime boss had his pet parrot Echo testify against him;
getting him arrested for child abuse and murder.
And sure laugh all you can it's all funny until you learn Echo had to go into witness protection
Seriously, that is not a joke
Witness protection for birds!
That bird was a dirty rat.
Except it was a dirty bird. Dirty birdy!
Anyway back to Phoenix Wright.
As this point you might be saying to yourself "Ok MatPat, but you're using US court rules
And Ace Attoreney is clearly not happening in an american court"
To which I say OBJECTION!
Ha ha ha, that was awsome, no wonder it's become a meme
According to Janeth Hsu, capcom localiser for Ace Attorney, canonically, the series takes place in Los Angeles,
an alternate universe verion of Los Angeles in fact where Japanese and American culture intermingled
to create a sweet love baby of a court system.
By the way I totally ship Ja-merica, OTP for life.
But seriously.
In addition to allowing seances for dead lawyers and animal witnesses,
this legal love child shares more of its genes with the Japan side of the relationship.
Allowing trials to take place at the same time as the investigations,
And a judge to be in complete control of the proceedings.
In Japan the practice of trial by jury was suspended back in 1943
and exchanged for the inquisitory system of criminal process;
which means that the judge oversees the trial by himself, issues the verdict and determines sentencing.
Trials in Japan are also discontinuous, so, like we see in the game, there are hearings in court
followed by recesses for investigation, followed by more time in court, followed by more investigation
until the judge has heard enough to make a ruling but most importantly of all
the Japanese system actually allows Phoenix to pull the dramatic surpises we talked about earlier.
Because the judge runs everything and is seen to be smart enough to make court room decisions on his own
Japanese law doesn't have the same discovery phase that american law does.
And as a result, all the stunts that Phoenix pulls in court are perfectly legal
based on this weird Jamerica legal system
That's right, for this episode, I became an expert in both American law, and Japanese law
And sure, it may excuse his surprise witnesses and evidence in the court room,
but neither Japan's nor America's legal system would excuse the shady way he handles evidence.
There ain't no loopholes here, Phoenix!
I mean, there is a time where he bribes a kid with a trading card in exchange for his testimony
but that's technically not illegal
just...pure sketch
It's practically the equivalent of Phoenix hanging out the window of an unmarked candy van
We don't want you coming around this block no more, Phoenix!
You get on, get outta here!
Get, GET!
That's the power of the neighbourhood watch!
But bribing small children is just the tip of the legal iceberg
In episode two, he gets the bellboy to let him into the suspect's hotel room, to steal a wire tap to use as evidence
*Dramatic sound effect*
There are two big problems here
Problem number one is that the wiretap that Phoenix steals is illegal
Under federal law, wiretaps are inadmissible in court unless they're placed under the order of a court
So whatever he finds on this thing couldn't be used in his case!
But there's an even bigger issue at play
which is problem two, Phoenix obtaining the evidence illegally
When Phoenix goes to the Gatewater hotel, April May, the suspect, isn't in her room
and the bellboy lets him in, at which point Phoenix discovers the wiretap
This is a big no-no, since hotel rooms are protected like private residences
The bellboy doesn't have the right to let anybody into that room without near certainty that a crime is being committed in that very instant.
Phoenix would need a warrant issued by the court to get in
And as a working lawyer, he should know this
Without the warrant, everything that he finds is thrown out of the case
In the US, this is what's called the "exclusionary rule"
It's an extension of the US constitution's fourth amendment, which protects people against unreasonable search and seizure
In short, it says that nothing obtained through illegal means can be used as evidence in a criminal case
Well of course Phoenix Wright isn't ethical! What'd you expect, he's a lawyer!
*Matpat chuckles*
*Phone ringing*
Oh, come on!
*Indistinct talking* Yeah
*More talking* No! No!
My lawyer's asking me to strike that joke from the record
HA! Motion denied!
So thus far, we've been talking about how Phoenix bends the rules to try to win
but he's not doing anything that could get him thrown in jail, right?
Not so fast
At the beginning of episode two, Phoenix arrives at the Fey and Company Law Offices, after Hottie McLegal here has been murdered
Instead of calling the police immediately, he collects evidence for himself, like the note the victim appeared to be writing as she died
and a glass that was broken in the struggle
And, the fact that he knows that 'she's still warm' implies that he touched her body
Not in a creepy way... I hope
There is no indication that Phoenix tells the police about this evidence when they arrive, and it's at this moment that Phoenix Wright goes from being a lawyer who bends the rules to a full-fledged criminal
The alteration, destruction, or concealment of physical evidence falls under the crime of obstruction of justice
And when he touches evidence, especially when he chooses to hide a receipt with the victim's sister's name on it
An object which directly implicates her in the murder
*scratchy static* Ooh murder, there's been murder done! *beep*
An object which directly implicates her in the murder, he's tampering with evidence
Both obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence can carry jail time and fines
And since this is a first-degree murder case, we can be pretty sure that Phoenix would be punished severely.
Sentences vary, but felony obstruction charges can come with sentences of up to ten years in jail, and tampering with evidence on the federal level can get you as many as twenty
Not only that, but once Phoenix is convicted of obstruction, he's also committed what's known as 'malfeasance'
which is likely to get him disbarred from practicing law
You heard that right, in the second case we play through with Phoenix Wright and his first ever game,
Mr. Wright's wrongdoing would get his lawyer license revoked
And in spite of all that, he gets away with it
Time and time again, Phoenix snoops around crime scenes, picking up things that suit his fancy, withholding evidence and information from investigatiors
This isn't just a lawyer who wants to win! It's a criminal who tries to bend the trial to fit his needs
CASE CLOSED
*phone ringing*
*indistinct talking* Yeah, what's up
*more talking* Heh, yeah, I'll tell 'em
He says that I can't offer any of this as statement of fact, but should instead let people know that it's a theory
For once, I think we agree
But hey, that's just a theory.
A GAME THEORY!
Thanks for watching!
But before I sign off for the day, do you wanna win cash for solving brain puzzles?
Well of course you do, you're a theorist! You'd solve brain puzzles without cash!
But, getting cash is pretty sweet too...
Well the reason I asked is 'cuz I was selected to host a new reality competition series called 'The Runner' for the month of July.
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