Behold A Pale Rider

Finally, finally, you have summoned me to appear before this High Tribunal.

I have been made to wait for more than a year while evidence, I was told, was being gathered. Evidence? Unfounded accusations by cowardly informants poisoned by resentment and ignorance. Having spent these anguished months contemplating the suffering and deaths that I have caused, not an hour going by that I do not remember all that loss and pain, I welcome the opportunity to offer now—without interruptions, if the Tribunal were to be so kind—an explanation of why I acted as I did.

It is customary in cases such as these to express regret and plead for mercy. You will hear no such words from me. It was my obligation to oversee and defend the well-being of the men, women, and children remitted to our care, and it is their ultimate good that guided me. The record will show that there was no other course available if we were to save them from universal death.

If I did not hesitate then, less will I hesitate now to accept full responsibility for executing my plan. Just as I did not flinch then, I do not flinch now from the exemplary punishment that I knew then and know now awaits me once a verdict has been delivered. All I ask is that others who served by my side on the Welfare and Vigilance Committee be exempted from the terrifying retribution you will undoubtedly decree for me. But first I have the right to tell my story.