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Speaker 1: In a few short days, Aaron Patterson will learn her

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Speaker 1: fate when Justice Christopher Bill hands down the sentence for

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Speaker 1: the triple murder and attempted murder she committed at the

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Speaker 1: infamous Beef Wellington Lunch. But while we wait on Aaron's future,

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Speaker 1: we thought we would take a look at her past.

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Speaker 1: I'm Brook Greebert Craig and this is the Mushroom Cook.

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Speaker 1: I'm here with court reporter Laura Plassella, and as promised,

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Speaker 1: we're back with another episode before Aaron's sentencing on Monday.

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Speaker 2: Yes, and I'm really keen to dive into this one.

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Speaker 1: So we know a little bit more about Aaron's life

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Speaker 1: in high school. Is that right?

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Speaker 2: Yes, that's right. A colleague and I have been looking

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Speaker 2: into Aaron's early life early years and we managed to

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Speaker 2: figure out what high school she went to and from

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Speaker 2: there it really was a treasure trove. So before she

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Speaker 2: was married, Aaron Patterson was Aaron Scutter and Brooke. You

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Speaker 2: touched a little bit upon her life when she was

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Speaker 2: a young woman in season one. She lived in the

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Speaker 2: eastern suburbs of Melbourne, but the high school she attended

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Speaker 2: was in Parkville, and for our listeners, who don't know

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Speaker 2: Melbourne very well. That's a very inner city suburb. And

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Speaker 2: this was a very good school. This was a school

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Speaker 2: parents wanted to send their children to.

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Speaker 1: And what was that school called.

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Speaker 2: So the school is University High School and it was

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Speaker 2: colloquially known as Uni High. And the main reason why

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Speaker 2: parents really wanted to send their kids there was because

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Speaker 2: they had an acceleration program, a place that really gifted

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Speaker 2: and talented students could flourish if they were lucky enough

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Speaker 2: to pass the entry exam and get in.

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Speaker 1: So you spoke to some of her classmates, what do

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Speaker 1: they say about her?

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Speaker 2: So the colleague I mentioned earlier, Darren Chapman, and I

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Speaker 2: between us, we spoke to about a dozen of her classmates,

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Speaker 2: and I will say there were some who didn't really

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Speaker 2: remember her, but those who did, what they did say

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Speaker 2: was that she was in this acceleration program. She was

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Speaker 2: one of those students. One of the former classmates I

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Speaker 2: spoke to said she remembered Aaron Scudder, but she actually

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Speaker 2: didn't connect the dots when Aaron Patterson hit the headlines

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Speaker 2: back in twenty twenty three. It wasn't until she spoke

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Speaker 2: with her sister, who said to her. The woman at

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Speaker 2: the center of this lunch is Aaron Scudder from high school,

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Speaker 2: and she told me some of her recollections of Erin.

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Speaker 2: She said she was quiet, reserved and didn't really get

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Speaker 2: involved in the wider cohort at Uni High and this

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Speaker 2: was because she was in that much smaller acceleration program.

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Speaker 1: She said.

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Speaker 2: All of the students in that program were super bright

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Speaker 2: and spent the first several years of high school whipping

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Speaker 2: through the curriculum. And the students in this program actually

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Speaker 2: had a name. She said that everyone else called them

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Speaker 2: the task Force. She said she didn't really know how

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Speaker 2: this nickname came about, but the mainstream students called the

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Speaker 2: students in the acceleration program the task Force.

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Speaker 1: That's very interesting. And now you also found photos of

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Speaker 1: Erin when she was younger. Can you kind of describe

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Speaker 1: what she looked like at the time.

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Speaker 2: Yes, And if our listeners want to look at these photos,

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Speaker 2: they can find them on our website at haroldsun dot

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Speaker 2: com dot au. And the photos were actually quite hard

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Speaker 2: to dig up. But in one of the photos, Erin

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Speaker 2: can be seen standing next to another young girl. They've

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Speaker 2: got their arms around each other. Erin is quite slim

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Speaker 2: in the face. She's got a very angular jaw, her

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Speaker 2: hair is a dark brown, and she's got a big

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Speaker 2: smile on her face. She's in an orange knitted jumper

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Speaker 2: as well. Another photo that was sent to us was

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Speaker 2: of the Uni High class of ninety one, and that

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Speaker 2: was the year Aaron graduated. In the photo, there's dozens

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Speaker 2: of students and she can be seen in the second row.

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Speaker 2: She's quite small compared to her classmates. But again we

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Speaker 2: were told that she was speeding through the curriculum faster

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Speaker 2: than others in the cohort, so she was likely to

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Speaker 2: have been a little bit younger.

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Speaker 1: And I think a fun fact about this story in

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Speaker 1: particular is some well known Melbournians actually went to the

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Speaker 1: same school as her.

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Speaker 2: That's right. This school was known for really nurturing artistic,

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Speaker 2: academic and even political types, and I'd say the most

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Speaker 2: famous alumni that they have is Olivia Newton John But

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Speaker 2: as I said, there were political types and former Victorian

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Speaker 2: Premier Joan Kerner also graduated from the school, although neither

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Speaker 2: of those women were in eron y level.

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Speaker 1: And was there anything else that these students said about her?

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Speaker 2: One thing that quite a few of them said was

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Speaker 2: that they remembered she was really passionate about math and science.

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Speaker 2: These days, we'd say that she was really interested in stem.

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Speaker 2: They called her a stem girl, and that kind of

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Speaker 2: checks out with what we heard throughout the trial that

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Speaker 2: she was very academic and as we've come to know,

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Speaker 2: was very interested in mushrooms and nature. We didn't have

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Speaker 2: the opportunity to speak to anyone in the acceleration program

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Speaker 2: who was good friends with Erin, but we have it

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Speaker 2: on good authority that she did have a group of

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Speaker 2: people around her throughout her high school years. I spoke

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Speaker 2: to the sister of one of her former friends, and

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Speaker 2: this woman told me that through conversations she's had, her

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Speaker 2: sister had actually described Erin as brilliant but unhinged.

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Speaker 1: And that's very similar to what I've been told about

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Speaker 1: Aaron's time at Air Services Australia. Our listeners have heard

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Speaker 1: a bit about her career there in season one. But

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Speaker 1: further to that, I've found out that Aaron was called

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Speaker 1: Scudder the nutter. She was also called crazy. Erin and

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Speaker 1: her course mates at the time said that she was

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Speaker 1: a bit strange and she would say some weird off

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Speaker 1: the cuff, things, and apparently she was also super secretive.

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Speaker 2: How soon after leaving high school did Aaron end up

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Speaker 2: at Air Services Australia.

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Speaker 1: Yes, so she was in the traffic Control Course number

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Speaker 1: four and she was there between February and November two

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Speaker 1: thousand and one.

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Speaker 2: So about ten years later.

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Speaker 1: Yes. And we also found out that she left Air

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Speaker 1: Services Australia under a bit of a cloud. So a

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Speaker 1: former colleague told me that management became skeptical that she

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Speaker 1: was leaving work early but claiming the time. After management

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Speaker 1: checked CCTV footage from the car park, they were able

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Speaker 1: to confirm their suspicions. They then approached her and confronted

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Speaker 1: her with their suspicions and she replied, Ah, you've got

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Speaker 1: me there. So we can kind of see Aaron being

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Speaker 1: quite a manipulative person from her younger days.

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Speaker 2: And is it right, Brook that you actually came across

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Speaker 2: this information quite a while ago, but we couldn't report

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Speaker 2: on it because the trial was on foot.

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Speaker 1: Yes, that's right. So I found out about the Scud

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Speaker 1: of the Night comments back when season one was really released,

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Speaker 1: but our lawyers gave us the legal advice to not

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Speaker 1: include that, like you mentioned, because the trial was approaching.

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Speaker 1: If you want to hear more about Aaron's time at

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Speaker 1: Air Services Australia, you can go back to season one

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Speaker 1: where I talked to reporter Mandy Squires who did the

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Speaker 1: early reporting on that.

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Speaker 2: So it's fair to say Aaron really did have a

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Speaker 2: colorful past.

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Speaker 1: Yes, that's correct, but looking forward to her future, she

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Speaker 1: will be sentenced on Monday.

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Speaker 2: Yes, and I feel like Monday is going to be

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Speaker 2: a very momentous day. So when a court first here

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Speaker 2: in Victoria, there will be a live stream in court,

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Speaker 2: so members of the public can actually watch Aaron's sentencing

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Speaker 2: for themselves. And I will say this is pretty huge.

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Speaker 2: Unlike America, it's very rare that court proceedings are broadcast

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Speaker 2: to the masses, and that's particularly the case when it

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Speaker 2: comes to criminal cases because there's a lot of sensitivities.

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Speaker 2: But just as Christopher Beale, the judge in this case,

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Speaker 2: it appears he has decided that the public interest in

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Speaker 2: this case is so large that people should be given

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Speaker 2: this opportunity to hear directly from himself in his own words.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So it's safe to say that all eyes will

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Speaker 1: be on the television screens on Monday.

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Speaker 2: I was actually speaking to a colleague yes today about this,

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Speaker 2: and I don't think it will be as big as

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Speaker 2: the murder trial of OJ Simpson in America, but I

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Speaker 2: do feel like on Monday there will be this moment

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Speaker 2: at least across Australia where people will be glued to

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Speaker 2: television screens watching this sentence, and I really do think

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Speaker 2: people will be transfixed on what Justice Biel has to say.

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Speaker 2: The TV camera will be set up right in the

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Speaker 2: courtroom and Justice Spier will almost be looking down the barrel,

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Speaker 2: so people will really feel like they're there in the

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Speaker 2: courtroom hearing what he's saying to Erin as she ultimately

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Speaker 2: learns her fate.

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Speaker 1: Yes, and the camera, as you said, will just be

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Speaker 1: on Justice Bill and will not be on Erin or

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Speaker 1: any members in the courtroom.

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Speaker 2: No, it will just be on him, and it's really

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Speaker 2: his words that are the most important. On Monday, there

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Speaker 2: won't be many arguments between the lawyers. It's all about

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Speaker 2: the decision he has ultimately come to. We had the

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Speaker 2: plea hearing last week and since then he's been taking

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Speaker 2: into consideration what the prosecution and the defense have both

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Speaker 2: put before him. To remind our listeners, the prosecutioner pushing

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Speaker 2: for life without parole, meaning that Aaron will die behind bars.

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Speaker 2: But on the other hand, while the defense concede that

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Speaker 2: she should be sentenced to life imprisonment, they're saying she

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Speaker 2: should be given a non parole period so one day

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Speaker 2: she can hopefully apply for release to live out the

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Speaker 2: rest of her days.

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Speaker 1: And we will bring our listeners the audio of justice Bills,

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Speaker 1: sentencing and our analysis on Monday. See you then,