Already, it is a spectacle. The Commonwealth of Virginia v. George Huguely will begin today, attracting media and loved ones, who park or exit trolleys, or walk to attend the jury selection for a case summoning all the speculation and pageantry a showcase trial still carries in the South. Not a person is excited to go to the Charlottesville Circuit Court; but they go anyway, to conclude what began two years ago, although it will never end, not for the students who were here then and not for those no longer with us.
Wilson 402 fills only for finals, but it was standing-room only last week for Law Prof. Anne Coughlin, a surprising turnout for a Thursday night lecture on legal terminology. Yet no one, the lecturer included, wanted to be there. "It's very difficult to say that I'm happy or pleased to be here," Coughlin said. "The mood is a somber one," she added, "... [but] I come to you in my role as teacher."
A trial, in the everyday sense of the word, is where something is tested, often knowledge. This case brings up questions of causality and Huguely's mental state, Coughlin explained. Hence, academic questions of philosophy and psychology, often ignored or gone without funding, suddenly become so necessary when applied toward what we call justice. But a trial gives no time for further theorizing - it demands evidence; it demands answers from all relevant parties, including, in this case, from the University's student newspaper.
It seems like opportunism to treat a murder trial as a learning experience. It seems, moreover, juvenile to frame The Cavalier Daily's coverage of the case as a strengthening exercise for student self-governance. Some might ask why, if not to fulfill young fantasies of serious journalism, we feel required to be involved. The events will be interpreted by experts, and the verdict will have relevance in the courtroom alone.
The Huguely case continues to affect the University community. Some of its ramifications can be seen in attitude or policy; some are metaphorical. But it undoubtedly happened, and The Cavalier Daily will follow this trial to its conclusion to show fellow students and whoever else in the community that an accusation of the murder of one student at the hands of another is something that matters, to all of us, or nothing does.
The opposite, moreover, is certainly true: The community will definitely affect the outcome of the Huguely trial. The jury selection process which opens today is where unknown, distant events and community morals intersect, or ought to. But it will be hard for a typically fact-based judicial process to adjudicate where motivations are not secondary, but central. Meanwhile, this newspaper will continue its primary role for students and others in the community by presenting information as it is released.
Which is not to say we will avoid making judgments. It is our editorial responsibility to take a stand in a case no one ever initially wanted, but has nevertheless come, as what began in Wilson was the beginning of an examination which none of us can skip.
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