Blockchain Fiction: Warner to be Executed

(CNN) -- On Friday December 19th, 2081, the Mesa Blockchain confirmed its first execution order, issued by judge Ethan Curlond naming convicted murderer Bernie S. Warner as the condemned.  This has been the first known actionable execution order ever recorded by any blockchain.

Warner has been tried and convicted under rules pursuant to The Blockchain of Ethos Judicial Consortium.  The execution block, which is required to contain only one transaction, pay no transaction fee, and be cryptographically padded to double the length of a regular block, was initially verified by Metascape Mining, Ltd.  MesaCoin still yields 476 µMSC as a mining reward and Metascape directed the reward to an address of the victim's families.

The blockchain rules also require a minimum of 23 additional (unrewarded) confirmations for these types of blocks.  Confirmation is still pending at the time of this article, but it is expected to become fully confirmed within 48 hours of the first confirmation.  No fork conditions were predicted prior to or during the entire confirmation.

At least three confirmed, separate appeal motions have already been seen in the blockchain, as well as one motion for mistrial.  During the conviction phase in this case, as well as in other types of cases, these kinds of motions are typically ignored because no other venue has been defined for them as of yet.  The motions relating to the execution order are also expected to be similarly ignored.

Ignored motions are common in blockchain jurisprudence when no other judicial consortiums have been established to challenge the deciding consortium.  It is up to the consortiums to accept motions that challenge decisions by other consortiums.  By ignoring a motion, all consortiums are functionally in agreement with the deciding consortium, which means the decision is currently being upheld.

Warner was convicted of First Degree murder in 2079 for the killing of his business partner, Bryan Gushgrurn.  Gushgrurn was murdered on January 5th, 2075.

Due to jurisdictional disputes leading up to the actual murder trial, Warner's dual citizenship became the primary focus of preliminary court proceedings.  In 2075, Warner's US Citizenship was revoked by the State Department due to Warner's own Motion of Litmus resubmitted by the Expatriation Envoy of the Mesa Blockchain.  This left Warner with sole Mesa Blockchain citizenship.  The envoy immediately placed Warner in custody and transported him to Beadthall Detention Facility, a private jail in the City of Albuquerque, New Mexico.  The facility has a population of only 22 other inmates.  Warner later posted bail of 20,000 µMSC (approximately $11 million USD).

A Motion of Litmus was a document used around the time of the 2045 rush that stated a particular person with existing citizenship had intent to become a citizen of a blockchain.  Although Warner cryptographically signed the Motion of Litmus, it was not used as evidence in the murder trial because the original document predated the tragic events by decades.

Warner was recorded as a stateless citizen in the Mesa Blockchain during the 2045 MesaCoin rush, two years after the final collapse of the now antiquated BitCoin Blockchain.

Warner had declined dropping the motion even though it was originally submitted in 2045 and not processed by the US State Department when it was received with the roughly 120,000 other motions, a practice common during the rush.  Warner's original motion was marked as "sent" and a transaction marked it as confirmed in the Blockchain, which was enough to satisfy the definition of citizenship in the Mesa Blockchain.  Though his motion was left unanswered, like most of the motions at the time, it became fast-tracked due to the pending murder trial in order to establish jurisdiction by the various consortiums of the Mesa Blockchain.

“[The US State Department] still likes to cherry-pick which of those old motions to answer, even to this day," Mark Bentslend, an advocate of blockchain jurisprudence, commented after the State Department accepted the motion.  He continued, "This practice helps maintain their diminishing legitimacy, even though roughly one in four babies born in the US are recorded only by a blockchain and are effectively stateless."

Warner's situation was unique in that it represented the first complete and verifiable murder proceedings of any person by a blockchain.  This is due to Warner's statelessness and cooperation with the interested consortiums.

After the motion was accepted and Warner successfully expatriated, he made a statement, "I feel like I can only get a fair trial recorded within my blockchain.  I'm still fighting this because I'm innocent, but I have no faith in the old ways.  I never did consent to United States jurisprudence.  It's none of their business.  They don't have an incentive to give me a fair trial.  The consortiums do."

Even after the murder conviction, Warner stated that he still had faith in the appeal process.  "I maintain my innocence and I'll start my own consortium if I have to," Warner said.

Warner made no further public statements after the execution order went into the confirmation phase.

CNN and The Associated Press contributed to this report.