Lana Skye

"Miles Edgeworth"

- Lana Skye is the Chief Prosecutor... the top prosecutor in the district.

Lana Skye was the defendant in the Bruce Goodman murder case. She was the Chief Prosecutor of Los Angeles at the time, but the case exposed her involvement in forging evidence during the SL-9 Incident, which resulted in severe penalties for her.

Early life
When Lana Skye was a teenager, her parents died in a car accident and she took care of her younger sister, Ema Skye. Lana attended the same law school that Mia Fey attended. By her third year, Lana was at the top of her class. Mia audited Lana's class at that time and she and Lana shared an "intellectual attraction" and a speaking relationship. The first book she ever bought was called "Scientific Investigation".

Detective career
Lana joined the Criminal Affairs Department as a detective where she worked alongside and shared an office with Damon Gant. The pair was famous for some time; the two were known as the "Legendary Duo." Lana was admired by her fellow detectives and a number of them looked up to her (including Angel Starr). However, things drastically changed when the SL-9 incident occurred.

SL-9

 * Main article: SL-9 Incident

When Lana came across the crime scene, she panicked for the first time in her life. The evidence before her seemed to indicate that Ema had killed Neil Marshall. With Gant's help, she rearranged the scene to shift the blame away from Ema and onto Darke by moving the body (but not before taking a photo of the body as she found it) and planting part of Darke's knife in the corpse. However, this meant that Gant could now control Lana by threatening to reveal to the world Ema's supposed crime. He arranged to have her transferred to the Prosecutor's Office and promoted to the position of Chief Prosecutor so he could have unhindered power over all investigations. Lana withdrew into herself, becoming cold so as to help deal with all the things Gant would have her do over the next two years.

Murder of Bruce Goodman

 * Main article: Rise from the Ashes

The events of SL-9 came to a head with the murder of Bruce Goodman. Gant had murdered Goodman in a panic and ordered Lana to dispose of the corpse. She transported the body through an oblivious Miles Edgeworth in his car boot to the underground parking lot of the prosecutor's office. She immediately recognized the knife in Goodman as belonging to Darke. She wrapped it in the muffler she normally wore around her neck and placed it in the muffler of the car. She then took a knife she found in Edgeworth's car and stabbed the body with it to make it seem as if that was the murder weapon. She was shaking as she plunged the knife in and ended up cutting her right hand. She attempted to phone her sister on a wall-mounted telephone in the parking lot to tell her to dispose of Darke's knife, but it was out of order. She then attempted the call again on her mobile phone but the signal was poor and before she could properly talk to her little sister, Angel Starr appeared. Seeing what she thought was the Chief Prosecutor committing murder, Starr arrested Lana, but not before Lana kicked over an oil drum filled with water to wash away any blood stains on the ground.

Trial and aftermath
Lana then took the blame for the murder to protect Gant. Ema, however, did not believe that her sister was responsible and employed Phoenix Wright to defend her. With the help of Edgeworth, Wright revealed that Gant was responsible for the murders of both Neil Marshall and Bruce Goodman. With the knowledge that Ema was innocent, Lana began to smile for the first time in two years.

However, by aiding in the forging of evidence, Lana faced severe penalties. It is unlikely she is still holds the position of Chief Prosecutor. She held out hopes that she would be able to return to her field at some point and investigate crimes with Ema.

She arranged for Ema to move to Europe to be raised by a coroner friend of hers.

Personality
Before the SL-9 incident, Lana was described as a cheerful and happy person. She was widely liked by her peers and she in turn felt responsible for them. She seems to have been especially close to Jake Marshall, and it has been alluded that they were lovers.

After SL-9, however, she became withdrawn and cold to the point that all who knew her thought she had become a different person. Upon the conclusion of her trial, she reverted back to her pre-SL-9 self.

Despite the changes in her personality over the years, there has been one constant: her love for her sister. This love was so great that she covered up Ema's supposed crime and was willing to face the death penalty rather than reveal what she believed was the truth. Although Ema thought they were growing apart, the truth was that all that Lana did, all the pain she went through, was to protect her little sister. The rift between the two was repaired when the truth was revealed.

Lana Skye bears many similarities to her fellow law school alumnus Mia Fey. Both have younger sisters who have helped Phoenix Wright in his cases, wear scarfs tied round their necks in a similar fashion and have had relationships with colleagues (Diego Armando in Mia Fey's case and allegedly, Jake Marshall in Lana Skye's case).

Victim of blackmail?
In Turnabout Sisters, Redd White calls the "Chief Prosecutor" to have Phoenix Wright arrested. This has led to the belief that Lana Skye is this individual. However, this is a mistranslation, and the position mentioned in Turnabout Sisters is in fact different from the one that Lana Skye held. The "Chief Prosecutor" in question is also referred to as a man during the call, and acts far more emotionally than Lana would at that point in time.

Medals
Lana Skye's medals are absent from many of the flashback scenes and photos of her.

Development

 * Apparently her military uniform-like clothing was to symbolize her strict discipline of her feelings and secrets.


 * Her three medals are for winning the Prosecutor of the Year Award three times. However, this should not be possible, as she was only a prosecutor for two years when Wright met her.