Commonwealth V. Captain America ---Law Day 2018

Commonwealth v. Captain America ---- Law Day 2018 Charges: 1. Hindering Apprehension or prosecution (18 Pa. C.S.A. 5105) 2. Conspiracy - Flight to Avoid Apprehension (18 Pa.C.S.A. 5126) Commonwealth Witnesses: 1. Iron Man 2. Spiderman 3. Vision

Defendant’s Witnesses: 1. Captain America 2. Hawkeye 3. Black Widow

Plot: The Commonwealth is prosecuting Captain America for his involvement in helping the Winter Soldier avoid being arrested by the police. The Winter Soldier was wanted by the police for his alleged involvement in the murder of Iron Man’s (aka Tony Stark) parents and for the attack at the Sokovia Accords, which led to the death of Black Panther’s father, the King of Wakanda. Right before the bombing Captain America and Iron Man had disagreed on what type of, if any, restrictions should be applied to them in their roles as superheroes. Captain America did not want any oversight and felt that the public should trust them to use their judgment as to when and where they should intervene. Iron Man, however, still upset over what happened in Sokovia and even more recently Wakanda, felt that oversight was needed to protect their image to the public. After the attack occurred at the Sokovia Accords the police had information that the Winter Soldier might have been involved as there was surveillance footage that implicated him. Captain America, who was not originally meant to be attending the Accords, found out about the incident and that Winter Soldier, his former friend from World War II, was a prime suspect, and he decided to investigate the matter himself. Captain managed to obtain a copy of the surveillance footage (presumably from a mole inside the task force…) and knew that the perp could not have been the Winter Soldier since the Winter Soldier had a very specific mark on his neck that very few people knew about. The photo itself is grainy and it is questionable whether anyone would be able to see any mark whatsoever even if there was a mark that existed which is why he didn’t bother taking it to the police as evidence of W.S.’s innocence. Convinced that Winter Soldier could not have been involved he tried to protect him from being arrested. Winter Soldier is ultimately arrested, however, but somehow manages to escape confinement during a power outage. Captain is in the building where Winter Soldier is being held when he escapes and when the power is restored Captain is gone. Captain is not responsible for Winter Soldier’s escape but is able to find him and convince him to accept his help. Winter Soldier tells Captain that he fell victim to a brainwashing experiment after WWII was over and that he was responsible for killing Iron Man’s parents. He tells him that he was brainwashed, instructed to find the Starks, kill them, and obtain secret technology that they were carrying with them. Because of his friendship with Winter Soldier, Captain knew that WS did not willingly kill the Starks and promised he would not turn him in to the authorities. Captain knew that he needed proof that WS was not to blame so needed time to help him figure out why WS was being framed for the death of the King of Wakanda since he had been inactive for so long. To do this Captain needed help and enlisted the assistance of Hawkeye and eventually Black Widow. Hawkeye, who was in retirement at the time agreed to help because he did not agree with the restrictions being placed on the Avengers at the Accords and felt that the framing was a conspiracy against the Avengers. Hawkeye is really just testifying regarding Captain America’s reputation for truthfulness; he would not have come out of retirement and leave his family to help Captain if he didn’t think what he was doing was right. Black Widow was reluctant to help Captain because she agreed with Iron Man that something had to be done to protect their image with the general public. However, she still wanted to be able to help Captain especially since she had also fallen prey to brainwash/mind control in the past and understood how powerful it was. She trusted Captain’s judgment that WS was innocent and decided to help him get away by preventing Iron Man from capturing WS at the airport. Iron Man will be the lead Commonwealth witness. He will try to implicate Captain in WS’s initial escape from law enforcement and base it off of Captain’s relationship with WS and say that friendship blinded Captain. Iron Man will also testify that he had a stand-off with Captain and that he saw WS with Captain 20 minutes after WS escaped from detention. Iron Man argued with Captain over turning WS in to the police but Captain refused saying there was more to the story and that he believed WS was innocent. Iron Man told Captain to let police question WS so they could determine WS was innocent but Captain refused saying he needed more time. Spiderman: Specifically recruited by Iron Man to help him capture WS. New the Avengers and fairly gullible. Really wants to prove himself and please Iron Man so listens to whatever he says. Is present at the airport when Captain is with Winter Soldier and sees Captain helping him get away. Also there to hear Iron Man try talking to Captain about bringing in WS for questioning Vision: Knew all about the Accords but wasn’t there; was keeping Scarlet Witch “safe” (aka preventing her from going outside and potentially causing any more damage until after the Accords had been signed. While he was trying to keep her busy Captain came to the Avengers compound in an attempt to get Scarlet to help him. Vision only overheard some of Captain’s conversation with Scarlet but he did hear him say something about the Winter Soldier and needing help. Vision thought he heard Captain say he wanted to help Winter Soldier explain what happened to the authorities but before he could hear anymore, Captain ran out of the house with Scarlet.

Exhibits: Commonwealth 1. Fake warrant for Winter Soldier’s arrest – will have some type of error on it that makes it questionable that the warrant was actually for the Winter Soldier so Captain can try to testify that he saw the warrant but didn’t think it was actually for Winter Soldier 2. Surveillance photo of Winter Soldier near the building when the bomb went off during the Sokovia Accords 3. Letter written by Captain America which indicates he knew what he did when he was trying to protect Winter Soldier from being captured

Defense: 1. Captain America’s Shield – Iron Man allegedly stole the shield and gave it to the government. Can be used to try to impeach Iron Man’s credibility; calls into question his motive and his ability to tell the truth 2. Copy of the Sokovia Accords – the real reason Captain is being put on trial is because he did not want to sign the agreement 3. Still shot from the Wakanda bombing, which occurred two weeks prior to the Sokovia bombing – try to show that the same person who was responsible for Wakanda was who committed the Sokovia bombing.