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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"There is no such thing as a plea of innocence in my court. A plea of innocence is guilty of wasting my time. Guilty!"''|'''Inquisitor Lord [[Shout
A
▲Typically presides over a [[Kangaroo Court]].
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Gankutsuou]]'': Villefort will send even a pickpocket to the guillotine for [[All Crimes Are Equal|undermining the fabric of society]].
== Comic Books ==
* [[Meaningful Name|Judge Gallows]] from ''[[The Sandman]]'' spin-off ''[[The Dreaming]]'' (and the earlier horror anthology ''[[Unexpected]]'').
* ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' is a protagonist example. He's ''not'' corrupt, the laws are just ''that'' ruthless. Anyone who willingly gives up, though, receives a (relatively light) prison sentence.
** The Dark Judges, however, are this. Judge Death's [[Catch Phrase]] is "The crime is life, the sentence is death!" after all.
** This trope is lampshaded when Dredd meets an actual
* [[Real Life]] Wild West lawman Roy Bean is portrayed like this in [[Don Rosa]]'s ''[[The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck]]: The Prisoner of White Agony Creek'' (you know, the one where [[Memetic Mutation|Scrooge has hatesex...]]). He apparently regards kidnapping, assault, [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|making a man waste good liquor]], and [[All Crimes Are Equal|pretty much all crimes]] as hanging offenses.
* Roy Bean also shows up in the [[Lucky Luke]] album ''The Judge''. He charges Lucky Luke with theft in order to confiscate the cattle herd Luke was in charge of, assigns a deaf-mute as the defense attorney, and packs the jury with cronies (including the town's undertaker and his own pet black bear). In the end he is revealed to be more of a [[Corrupt Hick]] [[Jerk
* Weird Pete when he is presiding over 'Gamer's Court' in ''[[Knights of the Dinner Table]]''. Quite frankly, any kind of power seems to go to Pete's head.
* Judge Claude Frollo in the [[Disney Animated Canon|Disney version]] of ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]''. (He was an archdeacon in the original novel.)▼
▲* Judge Claude Frollo in the [[Disney Animated Canon|Disney version]] of ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]''. (He was an archdeacon in the original novel.)
* Doc Hudson's first appearance in ''[[Cars]]'' implies he is one of these.
{{quote|
:: And that's ''before'' he recognizes Lightning as being [[Berserk Button|a race car]].
* In ''[[Transformers:
{{quote|
* In ''Used Cars'', Judge H. H. Harrison is portrayed as a hanging judge, complete with model guillotine and hangman's noose on his bench. The film's villains take a chance on using Harrison, an honest judge, simply because he's guaranteed to give the harshest sentence should he find the heroes guilty.
* Judge Alvin 'J.P' Valkenheiser in the movie ''[[Nothing but Trouble]]''.
* Judge Doom in ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]''. What makes him even more sinister than the other judges is the fact that Toontown is undisputedly under his power, and he certainly has enough influence around LA to say that [[Judge, Jury, and Executioner|he pretty much IS the law-enforcement of the city]]. The good police forces are nothing more than pawns [[Just Following Orders|just doing their work]].
** The worst part is that he can [[Killed Off for Real|kill toons]], who are practically [[Cartoon Physics|invincible]] otherwise.
* Judge Hangin' Harry Shoat in ''[[Primal Fear (
* The first Judge from John Grisham's ''[[The Rainmaker]]''.
* The Judge in ''[[Ghostbusters]] 2'', who would've had the Ghostbusters burned at the stake if he could... {{spoiler|until the ghosts of the Scoleri brothers, whom he had sent to the chair in the past, vengefully attacked the courtroom, proving the Ghostbusters weren't a fraud}}.
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* Judge E. Clarence 'Necktie' Jones from the 1932 [[John Wayne]] movie ''Ride Him, Cowboy''.
* Played for laughs in ''[[Caddyshack]]'':
{{quote|
* Judge Chamberlain Haller, of ''[[My Cousin Vinny]]'', is a notable aversion of this trope. He does allow his dislike for Vinny to color his judgment ''once'' and make a bad decision, but on the whole, he's a stickler for proper courtroom procedure and brooks absolutely no nonsense from Vinny or anybody else but is also very fair and ends up praising Vinny's skills as a litigator after he wins the case.
* Judge Turpin from ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (
== Literature ==
* Charles Harness novel ''The Venetian Court''. Judge Spyder abuses his authority in order to execute criminals. He's assisted by the fact that trademark infringement has been made a death penalty offence.
* The Queen of Hearts in ''[[
** Worth noting that in the book no one is actually beheaded. The Queen is just an overreactive battleaxe, and the King is mostly going through with the trial to humor her.
* The book ''[[Nuklear Age]]'', by the author of the 8-Bit Theater webcomic, features a courtroom segment presided over by the Honorable Judge Hangemall Letgodsortitout.
* Judge Wargrave from ''[[
* Lord Hate-good from ''[[The
* Justice Hathorne from ''[[The Devil and Daniel Webster]]''. This may also count as [[Truth in Television]] as Hathorne was the judge who presided over the Salem Witch Trials.
* [[
* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s [[
* J. S. Le Fanu's short story ''An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street'' features the ghost of a hanging judge. {{spoiler|Unfortunately for anyone who rents his house, the judge ''still'' likes to hang people.}}
** Le Fanu's ''Mr. Justice Harbottle'' features a particularly corrupt hanging judge who is punished supernaturally.
* Jaroslav Hašek's anti-war novel, ''The Good Soldier Švejk'' (set during [[World War I]]) features a general, who works as a judge under martial law. His favorite pastime is sentencing people to death; he makes the procedure so quick that he doesn't even say the required "In the name of His Majesty, the Emperor, I sentence you to death by hanging", just "I sentence you to death".
* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' - According to Harry, The Merlin tends to act as one over trials of lawbreakers of magic (with a strong implication that a good chunk of the offenders could be rehabilitated with a proper mentor). But again, Harry isn't exactly the most unbiased source when it comes to The Merlin's actions...
** In The Merlin's eyes, nobody ''can'' be rehabilitated. Considering most people on the Council view Harry as a walking Time Bomb, the Merlin's not the only one who thinks that, so there are very few people willing to take on a warlock and rehabilitate them. In Council trials, the accused is not allowed to speak, and the final verdict is usually based on a soul-gaze given by the Merlin himself. We know of three people to escape the death penalty after being found guilty of using black magic: {{spoiler|Harry's mother}}, Harry, and {{spoiler|Molly}}. The first two were taken in and trained by Ebenezer, and Harry claimed responsibility for {{spoiler|Molly}}. Harry's the only one to date for whom rehabilitation has worked. Only time will tell {{spoiler|for Molly, but she did relapse a bit in ''Turn Coat''.}}
* From ''[[Harry Potter (
* In ''[[
{{quote|
* ''[[Maximum Bob]]'' by [[Elmore Leonard]] was about such a
* [[Judge Knott]] was inspired to go into politics and displace a hangin' judge whose racism led him to destroy a man's livelihood for a minor infraction.
* Archie's father Adam Weir in [[
* The ''[[Knight and Rogue Series]]'' proudly presents Loves-the-Rope Thrope.
* In the ''[[
== Live-Action TV ==
* A less extreme example is Judge Roger 'The Mad Bull' Bullingham in ''[[Rumpole of the Bailey]]'' (although he would undoubtedly hang people if the death penalty still existed in the UK). As it is he despises defence barristers, assumes being on trial automatically indicates you are guilty, and issues biased instructions to the jury.
** A (relatively) poor replacement for Bullingham after the death of the actor who played him (Bill Fraiser) was Mr Justice Graves, often refered to as Mr Injustice Gravestone. He is less agressive than Bullingham but non the less tries to unfairly influence the jury, only with more subtle methods. There is also a real 'hanging judge', Mr Justice Vosper, a relic from the days of the noose who summed up dead against one of Rumpoles' old clients, leading to his execution. He was later proved innocent.
* Judge Judy from...''[[Judge Judy]]''. Though to be fair, she is always, ALWAYS right. Just ask her.
* The episode "Judge Dread" of ''[[Law
* An episode of ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'' featured a judge who imposed harsh penalties on juvenile defendants, citing a claim she was sending a message (most of the kids were sent to a facility for sex offenders for minor misdemeanors such as public urination. The case that brought it to their attention. A sixteen year old sent a racy photo by text message to her boyfriend, and was tried for distributing child pornography.) The detectives and a defense lawyer soon discovered the prison she was sending the kids to was run by her brother, who gave her a large kickback for every inmate she sent. She was caught accepting bribes in the end. Like many L&O plots, that was based on a true
* The judge [[Square One TV|George Frankly]] faced was supposedly a hanging judge.
* An episode of ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' (the one with the Spanish Inquisition) features a judge who plans to emigrate to South Africa because he is disgusted with the leniency of the British penal system and longs for manly punishments such as hanging and the cat-o-nine-tails.
* Judge Clark Brown from ''[[Boston Legal]]''. He's handed out cruel and unusual punishments for some [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?|very minor crimes.]]
* Judge Jefferson Dixon from the ''[[Cowboy G Men]]'' episode "Hang the Jury".
* Judge Alvarez in the ''[[
* Mr Justice Kent, the mark in the ''[[Hustle]]'' episode "Lest Ye Be Judged".
* Parodied in the ''[[Jeeves and Wooster (TV series)|Jeeves and Wooster]]'' episode "In Court After the Boat Race (or, Jeeves' Arrival)" which featured a magistrate who treated stealing a policeman's helmet as if it were mass murder and who handed down a five shilling fine as if he were pronouncing the death sentence.
* The judge who passes sentence over the eponymous trio in the sixth episode of ''[[Filthy Rich
* General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett becomes one in ''[[Blackadder Goes Forth]]'' in a military court. He's completely ready to have Blackadder shot for shooting '''his''' prize pigeon, though Blackadder is supposed on trial for disobeying orders Melchett barely mentions them. He fines the Defence £50 for turning up and refers to Blackadder as 'the Flanders Pigeon Murderer'.
* ''[[Wanted
* ''[[Justified (TV series)|Justified]]'' has Judge Reardon, (played by [[Stephen Root]].) The show somewhat both [[Reconstruction|reconstructs]] and [[Deconstruction|deconstructs]] the trope with him. He privately explains to Raylan that the reason he sends down such harsh sentences is because of a case early in his career where he gave a dangerous man a light sentence out of sympathy for the man's obvious abuse as a child. Said man proceeded to kill a six-year-old, an act that has haunted Reardon ever since. At the end of the episode it's revealed that the would-be assassin trying to kill him {{spoiler|is aiming to either kill Reardon or try to get killed ''by'' Reardon so his family can get the insurance money. Reardon's harsh sentence, ostensibly to 'straighten out' the man, only ruined his family's lives.}}
* The Pagan Deity Osiris is this in ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]''. Yes, that would be the Egyptian judge of the Dead, but he does not judge the souls of the dead, what he does (in modern times at least) is judge living people who have caused death, acting as judge, jury, and executioner. Unfortunately, while that does mean he prosecutes quite a few murderers, he finds his targets by their guilt, which he can detect through his divine abilities. This unfortunately means that many of his victims are the ones that show the most remorse.
** Anubis, on the other hand, subverts this, as he is known for his impeccable fairness while judging souls. So much, that after God left Heaven, Anubis was given the job of deciding who gets to go there. Although, Anubis insists that he personally does not decide, that the true judging is done by the enchanted abacus he carries, which weighs a soul's sins against their virtues.
== Music ==
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* In [[The Agonist]]'s song ''Thank You Pain'', the narrator personifies their conscience as one of these.
* [[Vocaloid|Kaito]] as [[Greed|Gallerian]] [[Every Man Has His Price|Marlon]] is one of these in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2SXc0dH4K8 "Judgement of Corruption."] It [[Bribe Backfire|doesn't]] [[Karmic Death|end well]].
== Newspaper Comics ==
* Judge Horatio Curmudgeon Frump from the ''[[Tumbleweeds]]'' comic strip, who hangs a noose from his bonsai tree.
== Tabletop Games ==
* As the page quote indicates, more than a few Inquisitors in [[Warhammer
* ''[[Deadlands]]'' Has a number:
** A number of NPCs, such as Roy Bean, Isaac Parker and, in ''Hell on Earth'', Richard Tolliver.
** A monster called the Hanging Judge, which repeats all the sins you've ever committed as it hunts you down. The worst sin? Being Texan - Texans killed them in life.
** The spin-off card came ''[[Collectible Card Game|Doomtown]]'' included "Hangin' Judge Gabriel", who could [[One-Hit Kill|instantly 'Ace']] any character marked as Wanted. As a bonus, his flavor text was a [[Shout
* The background for [[Magic:
{{quote|
== Theatre ==
* Both versions of Judge Turpin in ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (
▲== Theater ==
▲* Both versions of Judge Turpin in ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Theatre)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'', although the fact that the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Code Bloody Code] was still in force at the time may explain some of it. He's still [[Complete Monster|far from sympathetic]].
* Danforth in ''[[The Crucible]]''.
* Lord Angelo in [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare's]] ''[[
* In ''[[The Rise and Fall of
==
* The Right Honorable Judge Wallace P. Grindstump from ''[[Tales of Monkey Island]]'' once he catches the pox. Still, apart from his uncontrollable shouting, he's fairly reasonable for being a bloodthirsty voodoo-pox-stricken pirate judge presiding over a court filled with an equally bloodthirsty, pox-stricken audience of pirates.
** Even with the pox, he's quite a different character outside the courtroom, not the least bit concerned when you escape from jail during recess.
* ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' has hanging prosecutors, who basically rule the courtroom with an iron fist (or [[Whip It Good|whip]] or [[Caffeine Fiend|coffee cup]]). The judge technically passes the final verdict but is largely ineffectual and the prosecutors can do whatever they want.
* In ''[[Liberal Crime Squad]]'', judges with a Conservative bent are called Hangin' Judges. Aside from not wanting your liberals put on trial by these guys, they're actually pretty dangerous in direct combat as they can essentially [[Hannibal Lecture]] your members into submission.
* The Sheriff of Nottingham in ''[[The Adventures of Robin Hood (
* In the ''[[Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|Order of the Stick]],'' the judge for the [[I Don't Like the Sound of That Place|Empire of Blood]].▼
{{quote| '''Mr. Jones:''' Listen, here there are two types of accused. Those who plead guilty, and those who piss the judge off with a time-consuming trial before being ''found'' guilty.}}▼
* Naturally, [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|His Honorable Tyranny]] from ''[[Homestuck (Webcomic)|Homestuck]]'', and Terezi acting as a Dredd-esque arbitrator. These are [[Proud Warrior Race|trolls]]; there is no defense. "In a courtblock, the word 'defense' itself is offensive."▼
== Web Comics ==
▲* In the ''[[The Order of the Stick
▲{{quote|
▲* Naturally, [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|His Honorable Tyranny]] from ''[[
== Western Animation ==
* Judge Constance Harm from ''[[The Simpsons]]''.
* Judge Whitey from ''[[Futurama]]'', who treads the line between embracing and parodying an [[Acceptable Target]], filled up every mental asylum in New York when he declared being poor a mental illness.
{{quote|
** [[Truth in Television]]: Poverty really was once considered a mental illness.
* ''[[Harvey Birdman, Attorney
** He once declared a mistrial because exactly two weeks to the second happened to coincide with Peter Potamus asking the prosecution if he got that thing he sent them (that thing being important to the case, in this instance) and the prosecution had, up until now, failed to acknowledge that yes, they had gotten it. Since Harvey was the one on trial, that's okay then.
* The judge in the Invaded episode of ''[[
* The traffic court judge in ''[[The Jetsons]]'' is little more than an image on a bendable flatscreen which is unrolled at kerbside (so literally "hanging", like a portable film projection screen). He appears just long enough to find the operator of some random flying saucer guilty. What if they're not guilty? Apparently no one thought of that.
** He is in a much better mood and becomes far more lenient after he gets a sponsor.
* And there's also the judge in the ''[[Home Movies]]'' episode where Brendon's bike was destroyed in an accident. Brendon had been riding his bike on the wrong side of the road, and he was struck by a car, head-on. The judge showed ''no'' sympathy toward Brendon who was on trial over said accident, when ''Brendon was nearly killed''. Note that Brendon is eight years old.
* [[Punny Name|Judge Mental]] from [[Spin-Off|the animated version of]] ''[[Beetlejuice (
* In "Trial" on ''[[Batman:
* A feline version of the Devil serves as this to a courtroom of demonic cats in Hell in ''[[
* Playboy cartoonist Brian Savage did quite a few with a judge who would look at a clock showing it's 4:30 and sentence someone to "Oh, four and a half years. In another the judge is shown firing a full clip of bullets into the defendant while a baliff comments "He's never had a ruling overturned."
== Real Life ==
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** As a side note, [[Laser-Guided Karma|Freisler was killed by a collapsed beam when a bomb fell on his courthouse]].
* Vasiliy Ulrikh, the presiding judge of [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]]'s show trials.
* [
** Judge Jeffreys starred in [[Neal Stephenson]]'s ''[[The Baroque Cycle]]'' as one of the protagonists' nemeses.
** He was also a villain in [[
** He appears in [[Rafael Sabatini]]'s ''Captain Blood: His Odyssey'' and in the [[Captain Blood
** Jeffreys also appears in the background of M. R. James's [[Horror|ghost story]], "A Neighbour's Landmark," and in person in his "Martin's Close."
** [[Christopher Lee]] played Judge Jeffreys in [[Hammer Horror]]'s ''The Bloody Judge'' (released in the US under the title ''[[Gory Deadly Overkill Title of Fatal Death|Night of the Blood Monster]]'').
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** Judge Begbie earned the nickname well after his death, [[Fair for Its Day|despite being known during his own time for being fair and even merciful]]. He successfully argued for clemency in several cases that would have demanded the death penalty, and was one of only a few colonial judges without racial bias.
* John "Maximum John" Sirica, who presided over the Watergate scandal, might qualify. Lawyers who appeared before him gave him the nickname because he always applied the maximum penalty under the relevant sentencing guidelines.
* Judge Roy Bean, "The Law West of the Pecos," gained a reputation as a hanging judge, though he seems to have passed that sentence on only two
** It's worth noting too that he played fast and loose with the law, often exceeding his authority or making unauthorized "changes". Though in some cases he was actually ''less'' harsh-for instance, horse theft was a capital offense, but Judge Bean let people go so long as they returned the horses.
* [[Older Than Feudalism|Athenian]] lawgiver Draco is the [[Ur Example]], giving us the word "draconian" to describe excessively harsh punishment. It is said that when asked why minor offences get the same death sentence as the serious ones, he said that in his view these lesser crimes deserved them, and he couldn't think of any punishment harsher than death for more serious ones (good thing they [[Fate Worse Than Death|didn't have]] [[TV Tropes]] back then).
** Incidentally, the Greeks of his time seem to have regarded him as a genius and a courageous and enlightened lawgiver as he did make the trains run on time.
*** Hold the phone; [[Completely Missing the Point|the ancient Greeks had trains?]]
* Time/Life treats Issac Parker, a
**More specifically the Indian Territory was nearby and there had been no properly negotiated extradition system. Anyone who was wanted on one side could [[Run for the Border]] or more realistically live on the border being an extreme nuisance to honest folk on both the Indian side and the White side. It was Parker's unfortunate job to administer the White side and he did it as well as can be and arguably if he was ruthless, that was really needed.
* Robert McQueen, Lord Justice Clerk of Scotland from 1788-1799 and sometimes referred to as 'the Scottish Jeffries'. A survey of Scottish historians named as one of the twelve vilest villains in Scottish history.
* Pontius Pilate, the man who sentenced [[Jesus Christ]] to crucifixion, was not any nicer to the rest of the people in his jurisdiction. In that time, hanging would have been getting off lightly. Pilate was so renowned for brutality, he got recalled to Rome as they felt his harshness was provoking rebellion, and they didn't want that.
** [[Up to Eleven|Even worse]] was Gaius Verres, who had been praetor of Sicily. First of all, he extorted so much loot, slaves and capital from Sicily that some have estimated that he actually caused a recession ''[[Beyond the Impossible|on his own]]''. His handling of corn and grain harvesting was so poor parts of Italy starved and he nearly ended up with a slave revolt. Anyone who confronted him he put on trial for treason or espionage where he was the judge and jury, and sentenced them to death. He was discredited in a case by Marcus Tullius Cicero, where it was revealed that he had sentenced Roman knights to death without trial, in one instance in order to disguise his own corrupt dealings with a gang of pirates (and sexual slavers). The Romans considered this to be a [[Moral Event Horizon]]. You will be pleased to hear that he was eventually murdered on the orders of Mark Antony, who [[Karmic Death|wanted some of the art treasures he had thieved from Sicily.]]
* Laurence J. Rittenband, the judge who presided over the Roman Polanski case. Say what you want about Polanski, but to say that Rittenband had a squeaky-clean image compared to Polanski, would be one of the most ridiculous things said. He was into girls much younger than the ones Polanski was into for crying out loud!
* Judge Mark Ciavarella became infamous for his harsh treatment of juvenille offenders, sending children as young as five to Detention centers for relatively minor crimes, such as trespassing or even insulting a teacher on Myspace. It was later revealed that he was ''[[Moral Event Horizon|making obscene amounts of cash from his convictions as the owner of the center paid him for each new prisoner he sent there]]''. He was later ''[[Laser-Guided Karma|convicted and sentenced to twenty-eight years in prison]]''. The good folks at ''[[Cracked.com]]'' probably [http://www.cracked.com/article_19648_5-real-judges-who-put-most-evil-supervillain-to-shame.html summed up] Your feelings about him by saying They'd "be
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Characters As Device]]
[[Category:The Courtroom Index]]
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[[Category:Crime and Punishment Tropes]]
[[Category:Villains]]
▲[[Category:Trope]]
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