Gregory Edgeworth

"Bansai Ichiyanagi"

- von Karma! It's not like you to make this kind of error... I never would have thought that Edgeworth would be the one to catch you.

Gregory Edgeworth was a well-known defense attorney and the father of Miles Edgeworth. He was the victim in the DL-6 Incident.

Father and son
"Phoenix Wright"

- That's when I heard his father was a defense attorney. I remember, his eyes would shine when he talked about his father.

Gregory Edgeworth was a very talented criminal defense attorney and his son Miles idolized him. Such was this adoration that Miles wanted someday to become a defense attorney just like his father, and even intervened in a class trial to defend an innocent boy accused of stealing his own lunch money. He objected to the accusation because there was no proof of who the culprit was. The boy was found innocent, and when asked why Miles had defended him, the aspiring defense attorney cited his father as his inspiration.

Confronting von Karma

 * Main article: The Inherited Turnabout



In December 2000, Gregory took on the case of Issei Tenkai, a famous television chef. He was aided in his investigation by Tateyuki Shigaraki, a young lawyer who idolized him. The case was later officially known as the IS-7 Incident.

During the investigation of the IS-7 Incident and the subsequent trial, Gregory faced Manfred von Karma, a legendary prosecutor with a perfect win record. Although Edgeworth lost the trial, he managed to prove that von Karma had been presenting falsified evidence to try and rig the court in his favor. The falsified evidence came in the form of an autopsy report of the victim Isaku Hyōdō, whose body actually disappeared from the crime scene before any analysis of the body could have been performed. This accusation resulted in the only penalty that von Karma had ever received in his career; and the prosecutor was enraged at this flaw in his perfect record.

Death

 * Main article: DL-6 Incident

"Manfred von Karma"

- You and your father are my curse! Your father shamed me with a penalty on my record! And you ...you left a scar on my shoulder that would never fade! I... I'll bury you! I'll bury you with my bare hands! Death! Death!

After the trial, Edgeworth and Miles proceeded to leave the courthouse, accompanied by Yanni Yogi, a bailiff. An earthquake struck the building and shut the power down, leaving the three stranded in an elevator for five hours. Eventually, the oxygen supply diminished, and Yogi started to panic. The two men fought, leaving Miles to try and stop them by throwing Yogi's pistol, which had been loosened from the man's belt. The gun went, hitting von Karma, who had wandered in front of the elevator door. Just then, the elevator door opened; already outraged by his penalty and in shock from his wound, von Karma picked up the gun and, finding all three of the elevator's occupants passed out, shot Gregory. Gregory Edgeworth died, never knowing who killed him. His spirit later spoke through a spirit medium named Misty Fey, blaming Yanni Yogi for the murder.

Yogi was able to escape conviction by following his lawyer's advice and pleading temporary insanity, but the incident ruined his life. The incident also caused Fey to appear to be a fraud. Gregory's murder had a drastic effect on his son Miles, too; he developed a hatred for defense attorneys and spirit mediums, and was adopted by von Karma, who raised him in Germany to be a prosecutor. Miles also began to have nightmares about his father's murder and to believe that he might have accidentally killed Gregory when he threw the pistol.

The real killer was not revealed until fifteen years later, when Miles' childhood friend Phoenix Wright defeated von Karma in court by proving the prosecutor to be the true culprit.

Personality
Gregory Edgeworth was the kind of defense attorney who was not afraid to stand up against corruption. This could be seen both in his in-court confrontation with von Karma and Miles' admiration of him. He used a calm, methodical, and logical approach to his investigations, preferring to use logic and confront witnesses directly at the scene rather than use the sorts of methods that Phoenix Wright or Apollo Justice would later use. He also had a rather serious, professional demeanor at all times, only smiling when he made a mistake and got a penalty, though it was more of a nervous grin. Miles inherited much of his father's methods, though he would come off as cold and ruthless due to his relative lack of tact.

Gregory didn't know much about what was popular with children because Miles was more into reading textbooks than watching TV or having friends. He thought of Miles once in awhile, sometimes looking at certain objects and thinking to himself: "Maybe my son would enjoy this."

He promised to give his trench coat to Shigaraki once he became an attorney. After Gregory's death, Shigaraki indeed inherited the coat, as well as Gregory Edgeworth's law firm and his hat. He took to wearing the hat, and was still doing so when he met Miles Edgeworth.

Name

 * "Gregory" possibly comes from Gregory Peck, the actor who played the defense lawyer and central character Atticus Finch in the 1962 film adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird. Gregory Edgeworth even bears a resemblance to Peck's portrayal of Atticus Finch.


 * "Edgeworth" may come from "edge of a sword", just like his Japanese surname "Mitsurugi" (御剣), which contains the kanji for sword. This may be a reference to both Gregory and Miles Edgeworth having sharp minds and being "worthy" opponents for Manfred von Karma and Phoenix Wright, respectively.


 * His Japanese name given name "shin" (信) means "trust", "faith", or "belief".


 * "Henri" is the French equivalent of "Henry", which means "home ruler".