Remembering Justice went to jail for killing his dad reminded me of something about the trial that always bothered me.
Quick history for folks who weren't New Warriors readers back in the 90s. Vance's father is a mutantphobic ass who also likes to beat his wife and kid. Which I believe caused Vance to leave home at one point*, but by the time of New Warriors, he's back at home. In a relatively short amount of time, the Warriors fought Terrax and Gideon, and Vance got pretty beaten up**. When his father (who'd been away on business) saw the injuries, and punched Vance in the face. I think he was just looking for an excuse, because he complains that he'll have to pay the medical bills, then when Vance explains the Warriors covered them, he gets pissed about that. Before he can hit Vance again, Vance lashes out with his powers and puts his dad through the wall, turning over 70% of his father's bones to dust. Anyway, abusive asshole dies of his injuries, and Vance gets arrested.
The prosecutor's whole case seems to be it was possible for Vance to stop his father from hitting him without resorting to that amount of force. To illustrate her point, she draws a gun during her closing statement, aims at Vance, and pulls the trigger. It turns out to be a toy gun, the kind that extend a little flag with "BANG!" on it, but she claims that anyone who can telekinetically catch even the smoke from the gun, could stop someone from hitting him more gently. Vance winds up cleared of 2nd degree murder, but found guilty of negligent homicide.
OK, first I find it crazy the judge says that kind of showboating during a trial doesn't constitute grounds for a mistrial. She does allow it's grounds for an appeal, but seriously, that's prejudicial as hell, and honestly, contrary to what the judge says, I don't think it truly demonstrates the points that were made throughout the trial. Which brings me to the second issue, it isn't the same thing.
What Vance can do in a courtroom, when he's reasonably calm, and he's had more time to recover from several injuries, is not the same as what he can do when he's reeling from having been punched in the face. It's like trying to take a test while someone blows an air horn in year ear. It might be a good test of your ability to operate under stress, but it probably wouldn't represent your true grasp of the knowledge you were being tested on. The prosecutor's treating things as an either/or, that if Vance has excellent control of his powers sometimes, he always has excellent control. And sure, that's because she has to make her case, and she's a lawyer, and thus has no empathy or any recognizable positive human personality traits, but it's still a load of crap.
Fortunately, this is the Marvel Universe we're talking about, where the average person has an apparent IQ of about 32, so it actually worked as an argument.
* Which is when he was the Thing's trainer during Ben's days as a pro wrestler.
** One eye is swollen shut, his nose is bandaged, there are various other bruises on his face, and one arm is in a cast.
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