Fetyukovitch's defense begins as the legal effort around Dmitri before the trial opens. Grushenka begs Alyosha to speak to the famous counsel, and Alyosha reports that Fetyukovitch has listened but already formed his view. At this point it is a hope placed in Petersburg skill against a frightening accumulation of evidence.
XII-X. The Speech For The Defense. An Argument That Cuts Both Ways
The formal speech opens by promising to break the prosecution's chain fact by fact, especially its use of psychology to turn Dmitri's actions into a single guilty pattern.
XII-XI. There Was No Money. There Was No Robbery
The defense argues that the three thousand roubles and the robbery have never been proved, pressing the torn envelope, the missing money, and Dmitri's own hidden fifteen hundred into a different story.
XII-XII. And There Was No Murder Either
It then proposes that Smerdyakov, not Dmitri, may fit the facts, while insisting that the case against Dmitri rests on the leap from his presence in the garden to murder.
XII-XIII. A Corrupter Of Thought
The speech turns from evidence to fatherhood, mercy, and Russian justice, arguing that even the idea of parricide changes when the father has failed in his duty.
XII-XIV. The Peasants Stand Firm
The courtroom erupts as if acquittal were certain, but the jury returns guilty on every question, leaving the defense's apparent triumph powerless.
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