When he finally went quiet, it wasn’t acceptance. It was shock. A kind of numbness that made his small frame look even smaller as officers guided him out, his feet dragging more than walking. The courtroom, once a place of rules and procedure, had become a place where everyone had just witnessed something they couldn’t unsee: a child realizing his life had effectively been taken away. No amount of legal language could make that moment feel orderly or justified.

People shifted in their seats, wiping tears they didn’t expect to shed. Some stared at the judge, others at the floor, as if eye contact might make them complicit. The question hung in the air, heavy and unspoken: not whether he was guilty, but whether this was the only way. Long after the boy disappeared through the side door, that question stayed, echoing louder than his screams ever did.