Pushed

"Kathryn Henderson is being led into the courtroom as we speak. She is being tried for the murder of her husband, Steven Henderson. He was found dead in their apartment; stabbed fifteen times.. Did you get all that Ricky?" the reporter asked her cameraman. He nodded, his double chins jiggling in the process.
"Excellent." She smiled, "this story is going to make my career, I can feel it."
Ricky grimaced at the reporter. As if she needed a murder story to make her career, she already had the boss eating out of the palm of her hand and she would milk that for all it was worth.
"I'm staying in here to watch this, I can't miss a single word," she told Ricky. He nodded again and left the courtroom. He had no desire to see a woman be sentenced to life in jail even if she deserved it.
Katie's attorney, Mr. Graham made his opening statement and honestly, it could have been better. But he was doing his best. The only problem was, his best still wasn't very good. He was a short man with a head of hair that looked like he'd been using too much Rogaine.
The prosecutor was much smoother than Mr. Graham. It was clear that he was used to winning. For him, this would be a piece of cake.
The jury all looked serious and important. No doubt, they thought they were important. This was a huge story for a small town like this. These people would be famous for months after the verdict and they knew it.
The judge was a large, black man. He frowned every time Mr. Graham opened his mouth. It was already not looking too good for Katie.
Katie looked small and frail sitting behind the defense table. Her eyes kept darting from side to side nervously. She wore a dull gray jumpsuit and her sandy blond hair looked dull and stringy. Her hands were folded in her lap where she played with her wedding ring. She twisted it around and around her finger.
The prosecution called their strongest witness, Katie and Steven's twelve-year-old son, Henry. He sat on the witness stand looking at his fragile mother. There was no sign that he would break down in tears, although, that was what the prosecutor had asked him to do.
He told the jury and the rest of the courtroom what he had seen. He was fast asleep on a regular Monday night when he was suddenly awakened by a crash from his parent's room. Naturally, he got out of bed to see what was going on. In his parent's room he watched in horror as his mother stabbed his father right through the chest. Did he try to stop her Mr. Graham wanted to know. No, he said. He was too afraid she would hurt him too.
The jury already looked thoroughly convinced that Katie had done it. Why would a child make up a story like this? He had to be telling the truth.
The prosecution presented the rest of the evidence. The bloody knife with Katie's fingerprints; the blood stained sheets; Steven's autopsy along with the scientific evidence that a person of Katie's stature was capable of killing a person of Steven's.
She seemed to shrink smaller and smaller with every nail they pounding in her coffin. She knew she was as good as convicted. Nothing could save her now.
Mr. Graham put up a valiant fight, saying that of course Mrs. Henderson's fingerprints were on the knife, she lived there; saying there were many other people of her same build that could have committed the crime; saying that Henry must have been dreaming when he saw his mother kill his father, he was only a child after all.
The closing statements were strong but nevertheless Mr. Graham trudged back to the defense table in seeming defeat.
The jury deliberated for a couple hours; unusual for a case of this caliber, but they were ready when they were ready and everyone gathered in the courtroom to hear the verdict.
The reporter had dragged Ricky back in to record everyone's reaction. The judge looked ready to go home. He looked confident in the outcome of the trial. The prosecutor was proud of himself - another big win to add to the list.
A single juror stood up and read the verdict, "For the charge of second degree murder of Steven Henderson, we find Kathryn Henderson.. guilty."
The formalities were performed and Katie was taken away.
Mr. Graham and the prosecutor were hounded by the press all the way to their cars.
"We're very happy with the verdict," the prosecutor told the cameras. Mr. Graham understandably opted out of media attention.
Back in her jail cell, Katie hugged her son and kissed his forehead.
"I'll be fine Henry," she said, "I couldn't let you go to jail; we did the right thing."
Henry nodded and left his mother in jail. He would move to South Carolina to live with an aunt. His life wasn't over because of what he had done, but he had succeeded in ending both of his parent's lives in one single night.