Oct. 29, 2024

Jane Laut Case: Domestic Violence, Self-Defense, and the Quest for Truth I Ep. 44

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What really happened between Jane and Dave Laut? In this gripping episode of the 1 in 3 Podcast, Ingrid untangles the complex web of allegations, hidden evidence, and conflicting testimonies surrounding Jane Laut’s explosive case.

Was it a desperate act of self-defense after years of abuse, as Jane claims, or something more sinister? We explore:

  • The legal and psychological dimensions of domestic violence allegations
  • How financial motives and public perception can shape a case
  • The ambiguity survivors face when their actions are questioned
  • The ripple effects of conflicting narratives on families and communities
  • Lessons in recognizing abuse while navigating legal complexities

🎧 Key Takeaways:

  • Understanding self-defense in domestic violence cases
  • The impact of perception and bias on survivors
  • How evidence and testimony influence legal outcomes
  • Navigating the gray areas of abuse and accountability
  • Strategies for advocacy and support in complex cases

This episode challenges assumptions and highlights the delicate balance between justice, victimhood, and the law. It’s an essential listen for those seeking insight into the nuances of domestic abuse cases.


Sources:
https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/what-led-jane-laut-to-fatally-shoot-her-husband-olympian-dave-laut/25/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dave-laut-jane-laut-death-of-an-olympian-self-defense-or-cold-blooded-murder/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lingering-questions-in-olympian-dave-lauts-shooting-death/
https://www.momsandmysteries.com/episodes/the-murder-of-dave-laut
https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/local/communities/oxnard/2019/08/09/jane-lauts-murder-conviction-attorneys-argue-reversal/1950270001/
https://www.app.com/embed/video/33124967/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUKZzDNX1e8
https://keyt.com/news/ventura-county/2022/09/04/team-jane-laut-hopes-to-help-olympians-wife-win-clemency/
https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=2393930083108202932&q=jane+laut&hl=en&as_sdt=2006
https://xyonli

1 in 3 is intended for mature audiences. Episodes contain explicit content and may be triggering to some.

Support the show

If you are in the United States and need help right now, call the national domestic violence hotline at 800-799-7233 or text the word “start” to 88788.

Contact 1 in 3:

Thank you for listening!

Cover art by Laura Swift Dahlke
Music by Tim Crowe

00:00 - Domestic Violence

13:06 - Podcast Support and Resources

WEBVTT

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Hi Warriors, welcome to 1 in 3,.

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I'm your host, ingrid.

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Sometimes claims of domestic violence aren't clear, even unbelievable.

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So how does one differentiate between the truth and the lies?

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I don't have that answer.

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A prime example of this is the story of Jane and Dave Lout.

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Dave and Jane Lout met when they both attended Santa Clara High School in Oxford, california.

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Jane played volleyball and was homecoming queen.

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Dave was an athletic star who participated in football, basketball and track.

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Following graduation, dave attended UCLA where he broke records for shot put.

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He even scored a bronze medal in the Olympics.

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The couple didn't begin dating until after high school.

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They married in December of 1980.

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A picture-perfect couple.

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The two soon realized they were unable to conceive.

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That wasn't an issue for them, as they happily adopted their son, michael, from South Korea in 1999.

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According to Jane, dave's abuse began shortly after Michael was five years old.

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She had noticed his temper before when they were dating.

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She recalled the first time he hit her was when he was preparing for Olympic training.

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Out of town, jane was in charge of packing.

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She had forgotten to purchase some items toilet maybe.

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Dave was stressed and angry and hit her in the face.

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She suffered a split lip and a black eye.

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He brushed it off, telling her to say some N-word, did it?

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Jane complied.

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She constructed a story of how a black man mugged her, jane mentioned.

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The majority of the abuse was mostly verbal, however.

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She suffered from mental and emotional repercussions from being called fat bitch, stupid, idiot and a variety of racially inappropriate names.

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As Michael aged, he was also included in the abuse.

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Dave began to acquire guns and would often taunt his wife and son with a collection.

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He wanted Jane to play Russian roulette.

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If you're unfamiliar with Russian roulette, it involves placing one bullet into a revolver, the cylinder of the revolver is spun and the muzzle of the gun is typically placed on the temple of a person.

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The trigger is then pulled, with a one in six chance of a resultant fatal gunshot.

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Jane detailed how Dave's abuse escalated as the years went on.

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For the last two years leading to his death, dave was notably abusive nearly every day.

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Previously he was known to get angry, but then it would taper off.

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During those last few years, jane lamented as Dave drank.

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He would rage at absolutely everything.

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It became a terrifying enough experience for Michael that he asked Jane to sleep in his room each night for those two years.

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Jane and Michael spent August 27, 2009 at the beach.

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Jane and Michael spent August 27, 2009 at the beach.

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Dave's foul mood was quickly made apparent as he again began to rage.

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No-transcript.

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That night Dave had also been drinking.

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Jane positioned herself outside of Michael's room in attempts to assess the situation and intervene if necessary, expecting Dave to eventually calm down.

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She was surprised when he began heading to Michael's room.

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While holding his .22 caliber single action revolver, jane overheard Dave muttering something about killing Michael.

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Her goal then shifted to getting Dave to a place far away from their son.

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The couple headed out the door to the backyard.

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At some point.

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Jane believed they struggled for the gun.

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She denied recollection of shooting the weapon but admitted to feeling it discharge.

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She remembered sitting over Dave at one point but did not know how.

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Five more shots were fired.

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Jane made her way back inside to call 911.

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She explained how there was a possible prowler outside which her husband had gone to investigate.

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She then told the operator she heard shots fired.

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When Jane was taken in for questioning, she stuck to the original story but eventually changed it to something paralleling

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self-defense.

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At some point police questioned Jane's sister-in-law, rebecca Laut, who verified Jane, confided in her the details of verbal, psychological and emotional abuse.

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Well, if that was all to the story, it would be a fairly open and shut case in a super short episode.

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But that wasn't everything.

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Early in the investigation, things didn't seem to line up with Jane's story Either of Jane's stories.

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The gun was found hidden at the bottom of a grandfather clock.

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Jane had also clearly washed up and changed her clothes.

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Both things were thought to be something a person acting in self-defense would not do.

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Jane was arrested for the murder of Dave six months after he was killed.

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She was released on bond and remained free for the next six years while awaiting trial, and remained free for the next six years while awaiting trial.

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Finally, jane's court date arrived on January 11,

00:06:10.259 --> 00:06:11.439
2016.

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Dave's friends and families were interviewed and denied any knowledge of abuse Any kind of abuse.

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In fact, jane's apparent meek and quiet character quickly became tarnished.

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Remember Rebecca?

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She initially told police about Dave's verbal abuse.

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Well, she recanted, stating she no longer believed Dave had abused Jane.

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Instead, she felt Jane was somewhat of a pathological liar.

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She gave examples of how Jane had fabricated stories of being attacked by a stalker, twice being held at knife point during a robbery and other tales Rebecca described as outlandish.

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Dave's mother revealed Jane had borrowed upwards of $60,000.

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The couple had apparently failed to pay for taxes for the last few years and were behind in a few months of mortgage payments.

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There was also question regarding the PTA funds for Michael's school, which Jane was the treasurer.

00:07:12.225 --> 00:07:18.245
Conveniently, dave had a $300,000 life insurance policy.

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Interestingly, dave had been researching divorce attorneys the night he was

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killed.

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The prosecution presented a solid case of Jane fabricating a story of domestic abuse in order to cover up first-degree murder.

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After all, dave suffered two shots to the back of his head, one in his back, two to his face and one in his arm.

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Some of the shots were found to be at close proximity.

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Jane clearly decided to murder her husband to collect the life insurance payout and out of fear of losing her son in a custody battle if Dave did file for divorce.

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Huh, so now this case seems pretty evident.

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Jane murdered

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Dave.

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Well, jane's legal team maintained self-defense.

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She had been offered at least five plea deals, including one in which she would serve a maximum sentence of six years.

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She turned them all down because she wanted people to learn the truth of what happened.

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She had suffered years of verbal, emotional, psychological as well as physical and sexual abuse at the hand of her husband.

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Jane had friends, family and colleagues who also testified.

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They mentioned black eyes, strange bruises and the fact that Jane would often wear long-sleeved clothing even in hot

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weather.

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One of the witnesses was a now 17-year-old, michael.

00:08:47.966 --> 00:08:53.366
He backed his mother's claims of verbal, emotional and psychological abuse.

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He spoke of his father's temper but did not recall any physical abuse.

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Jane answered the question of why she didn't leave earlier in the relationship with a belief that things would get better.

00:09:05.355 --> 00:09:10.667
She opposed the financial accusations, saying Dave was the primary offender.

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Jane couldn't place where the borrowed money went beyond the $20,000 she claimed Dave threw into a fire during a fit of rage.

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She also maintained her inability to recall the events of the night Dave was killed.

00:09:24.644 --> 00:09:27.068
That sounds kind of fishy, doesn't

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it?

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Psychologist Catherine Emmerich also testified.

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She presented the verbal, psychological, emotional, physical and sexual abuse examples that were told to her by Jane.

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She diagnosed Jane with battered wife syndrome.

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So what exactly is battered wife syndrome?

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Battered wife syndrome, also referred to today as battered person syndrome, is a type of PTSD.

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It is determined to be a psychological effect of intimate partner violence.

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Symptoms include anxiety with triggers, flashbacks, nightmares, avoidance, depression, amnesia and disassociation, headaches, joint pain, chronic pain and autoimmune-related issues are some physical effects.

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Okay then, that was the gist of the

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trial.

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The jury had options of first-degree murder, manslaughter or justifiable homicide, which would result in an acquittal.

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They took four days to deliberate on the 59-year-old woman's fate.

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Returning to the courtroom, the jury found Jane Lout guilty of first-degree murder.

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Her sentence 50 years to life.

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She received 25 years for murder and 25 years for use of a gun in the murder.

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In 2019, the appellate court upheld her

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conviction.

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So did Jane drag the family into debt?

00:10:59.309 --> 00:11:10.076
Did Dave try to do the responsible thing and look into divorce, fearful of divorce and losing her son while counting the dollar signs of a large life insurance payout?

00:11:10.076 --> 00:11:12.260
Did Jane resort to murder?

00:11:12.260 --> 00:11:17.615
The jury believed so, but did the jury get it wrong?

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Was Jane, like so many domestic violence victims, ashamed of the abuse?

00:11:23.586 --> 00:11:27.062
Did she hide it to keep the perfect life facade?

00:11:27.062 --> 00:11:39.158
Was she afraid of the repercussions if she did tell, if she had not killed her abusive husband, would she and her son indeed be dead themselves, like she

00:11:39.197 --> 00:11:39.698
believed?

00:11:39.698 --> 00:11:50.458
I mentioned at the beginning of this episode how it can sometimes be difficult to differentiate if someone is telling the truth about abuse or if they are fabricating their story.

00:11:50.458 --> 00:12:09.667
Another fact I found among different sources is that the rate of false abuse claims is quite low, ranging from just 2 to 15% of all reported cases, and, to be honest, that 15% was high amongst most of the sources I found.

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I'll leave it up to you to come to your own conclusion on this one.

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What I would like to impart is the importance of speaking up.

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Jane had witnesses testify to what they believed was abuse, but they testified at her trial for murdering her

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husband.

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When it comes to domestic violence, I have found that people prefer to stay out of it.

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I mean, really can you blame them?

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It's a pretty big accusation.

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What if they're wrong?

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What if the victim doesn't want help?

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What if the abuser finds out and comes for them?

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What if saying something would ruin their personal or professional relationship with either the victim or the abuser?

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There are plenty of reasons to hesitate or ignore, but the one reason to say something, do something, is that you could help save a

00:13:05.780 --> 00:13:06.020
life.

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Thank you for listening.

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Sources for today can be found in the show notes.

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I will be back next week with another episode for you.

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Until then, stay strong and wherever you are in your journey, always remember you are not alone.

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