so my character is in jail because she tried to kill her grandfather, who was possessed by a dark entity at the time, so she's been in prison for months. As the months pass, inmates have been found dead and a strange symbol has appeared on their wrists, their throats were slashed too. Florence has been accused for this, her prints were found on a dagger and the inmate's arms. Yet she never left her cell, is it possible that she can be tried for this in court?
This will totally depend on the government you have (which, evidently, is why it's in this forum rn). You can choose bc it's your gov. But I think it also depends on the era? Like are they totally sure she stayed in her cell? Like are there cameras that recorded her? Is it super heavy duty?
Or is it medieval and tunnels are dug between cells?
IS SHE POSSESSED TOO???? (prob lol)
so yeah think about your gov (an important part of worldbuilding) and the security of the prison
oh ok thx, the world is similar to how it is now, same technology
If it’s similar to how it is now, there’s no way they’d accuse her of it
Chronicle is totally right, actually
If you still want her to be accused
maybe have the camera system short out (like a power outage??) and then they have no record of it, so maybe you have multiple suspects, not just her, and they're all in the same wing of the prison as her and the guy who got killed?
To add to this:
If it’s extremely similar to today’s world, then you’re going to have A LOT of people doubting paranormal stuff.
“She was locked in a god damn cell. Even if our camera systems malfunctioned, there’s no way she got out of the cell. It’s not physically possible.” < Stuff like that would happen.
Cue the FBI and some extralegal organization that investigates paranormal things coming in, perhaps?
It also depends on how big of a deal the government wants to be made out of it. She's locked in jail for murder, her prints are on the dead people and the murder weapon so that's a fairly convincing case even if they aren't sure how she got out of her cell. If people are becoming disquieted over the murders, calling out at the government to find the responsible parties it is likely she will be tried and found guilty so that the people can be reassured that their government is capable of protecting them. If it's a fairly modern world, and people in the jail knew that she was claiming a dark entity was possessing her grandfather, even if her perspective was right some of them would think she was crazy. So her denials of guilt might not hold a lot of weight.
It really depends on the corruptibility of the justice system and how much pressure (in what areas) the government is getting.