Proudmoore Academy, Monday evening. The Proudmoore Admiralty has continued to support the conviction and life sentence of Brother Tristan Anchorage despite acknowledging that a member of the jury had an association with people involved in the prosecution.
Anchorage was found guilty of gross negligence resulting in five deaths and the cursing of three survivors following an expedition to Northrend. The jury was divided on a separate charge of desertion, upon which Justice Edith Wynflade found him not guilty. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in Tol Dagor.
In a statement issued after the hearing, the Admiralty Justice Department attributed the juror’s inclusion to a clerical error. It said the circumstances were under full investigation and that measures would be taken to prevent a recurrence.
“Despite this procedural error, the Proudmoore Admiralty maintains that justice was fairly served under the direction of Justice Edith Wynflade and fully supports the ruling delivered by the Court.”
The statement did not identify the juror or explain when the association was discovered. A member of the Freeblade Company sat on the four-person jury, while the company’s played a large part in accusing Anchorarge and its members saw their fair share of loss and grief.
That arrangement was questioned during deliberations, according to another juror speaking anonymously to The Lion’s Roar. The court record shows the issue was also raised directly with Justice Wynflade before the jury began its discussion. She agreed that it was not normal for a person with strong ties to a case to serve on its jury.
Anchorage conducted his own defence. In an unusual arrangement, the court treated the speaking witnesses as the prosecution: Tideguard Caleb Tidestemper, Captain James Reynolds and Seabearer, further deepening the connection between the accusing part and the juror.
A mission into the frozen north
The expedition brought Tidesages, Tideguards and sailors to the coast of Northrend in search of an elemental core whose properties were considered worthy of study. Anchorage organised the venture after his father, a senior Tidesage, judged him capable of leading it.
All sides agreed that the party was attacked by feral worgen. They disagreed sharply over what Anchorage did once the attack began.
Anchorage told the court that he ordered a retreat three times after the first deaths, but that members of the expedition refused to obey him. He said he attempted to form a defensive perimeter, then took the core and withdrew when he saw more worgen moving to cut the party off from the ice fields where the Skipping Sail lay anchored.
According to Anchorage, remaining with the group would have risked the lives of the ship’s crew as well as his own. He said the vessel took less than an hour to cast off.
Caleb Tidestemper, a Tideguard assigned to the expedition, gave a substantially different account. He said Tideguard Meridia had ordered the party to hold its ground while Anchorage remained in his tent securing the core. Tidestemper told the court that the party called for Anchorage’s help, then lost sight of him and initially believed he had been taken by the worgen.
Tidestemper said the remaining fighters eventually broke clear, carrying wounded and afflicted companions towards the shore. By the time they reached the ice flats, the ship was sailing away and no boat had been left behind.
Captain James Reynolds, representing the captain of the Skipping Sail, said Anchorage arrived at the vessel in a panic and insisted that everyone ashore was dead. Reynolds quoted him as saying, “On my honour and by the Tidemother’s grace, they’re all dead. We have to get out of here lest this expedition be for nothing.”
Reynolds further alleged that Anchorage invoked his rank and threatened the crew with execution for treason if they refused to depart. During the return voyage, Reynolds said, Anchorage repeatedly maintained that he had seen the others die.
The trial established that this was untrue. Five members of the expedition died, while survivors were later found by rescuers. Seabearer described reaching a field scattered with bodies, pieces of armour and surcoats. He said five survivors had been found, three of whom could be soothed through a druid’s rituals, while two were too far gone. The charge and sentence referred to three people left living with the curse.
Anchorage said he would have sent a rescue party had he thought anyone remained alive. In his final statement, he maintained that he had made the correct decision and preserved the purpose of the mission by returning the core.
The core itself did little to strengthen that defence. Reynolds described it as fractured and wrapped in cloth. When questioned, Anchorage admitted that he had dropped it. Justice Wynflade rebuked him for leaving that detail out of his initial account and warned that the omission amounted to contempt of court, although contempt was not among the charges placed before the jury.
Doubt inside the jury room
The anonymous juror told The Lion’s Roar that he considered Anchorage inexperienced, panicked and unfit to command, but did not believe those failings proved the charges as presented.
“I don’t like the man, and there are plenty of reasons to criticise his actions,” he said. “But I don’t think you can blame him for the result of people not following his orders.”
His view was that, if Anchorage had indeed ordered a retreat, the refusal of others to obey was central to the deaths which followed. He also considered the conflicting testimony insufficient to remove reasonable doubt.
“I don’t know which side tells the true story, but I believe in the benefit of the doubt, and I have doubt.”
The juror voted not guilty on both charges. Two jurors voted to convict on both, while the fourth supported conviction for gross negligence but not desertion. The resulting split led to the acquittal on desertion and a majority verdict on gross negligence.
He was particularly critical of the composition of the jury and the presence of numerous Freeblade members in the public gallery. “It is not easy being the only person with your side of the story when the courtroom, and a jury member, are friends with the accusing party,” he said. “That alone is bonkers.”
The Admiralty’s statement does not say whether its investigation will consider the verdict again, nor does it announce an appeal, retrial or review of Anchorage’s sentence. Instead, it maintains that the procedural error did not prevent justice from being fairly served.
There is a sturdy confidence in declaring a vessel sound while announcing an inquiry into how water reached the hold. For now, Anchorage remains bound for Tol Dagor, the conviction stands, and the Justice Department has yet to explain why the conflict was not caught before four jurors were asked to decide whether a man might die.