Chapter 12 And There Was No Murder Either

Fetyukovitch opens by warning the jury of their responsibility and rejects premeditation. He calls the “pestle” a chance sight, not a planned weapon, and reframes Dmitri’s drunken threats and letter as blustering, not intent. He argues Dmitri ran to find Grushenka; had she been there, he would have stayed and not committed a crime.

He challenges the inference that Dmitri’s presence equals guilt, suggesting Dmitri could have entered, confirmed Grushenka wasn’t there, pushed Fyodor Pavlovich, then fled, later compassionately aiding Grigory after knocking him down. He disputes the prosecution’s psychology at Mokroe, insisting a truly guilty Dmitri would have killed himself; instead Dmitri worried over Grigory, consistent with innocence.

Turning the key question—if not Dmitri, who?—he proposes Smerdyakov. He portrays Smerdyakov as intelligent, envious, ambitious, ashamed of his birth, and impressed by the sight of the money, with reasons to resent the Karamazovs. He notes the fit could have been genuine yet followed by partial recovery, giving Smerdyakov opportunity after Grigory’s cry of “Parricide!”

Fetyukovitch outlines a scenario: roused, Smerdyakov learns details from Fyodor Pavlovich, seizes a sudden impulse for the money, uses a stone, and leaves the torn envelope—an idea Smerdyakov himself had slyly suggested as how an “inexperienced” thief like Dmitri would behave. He discounts Marfa’s “all night” moans as unreliable and interprets Smerdyakov’s suicide as despair, not penitence—hence no confession.

He warns against convicting by accumulated impressions rather than certainties and insists none of the prosecution’s facts are irrefutable. Even hypothetically granting guilt, he appeals to the jury’s conscience. Applause interrupts; the President threatens to clear the court, silence falls, and Fetyukovitch resumes in a more heartfelt tone.