Hanging Judge: Difference between revisions

 

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 ==

* 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.)

* Doc Hudson's first appearance in ''[[Cars]]'' implies he is one of these.

* In ''[[Transformers: The Movie]]'', the Quintesson judge always finds the defendant innocent...unfortunately, [[Bizarro World|being innocent of any crime happens to be a capital offense.]]

{{quote|'''Quintesson Prosecutor''': Before the magistrate renders a verdict, would you like to beg for your lives? It sometimes helps...but not often.}}

* 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 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 (film)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]''. In probably his only courtroom scene, he sentences a 8-year old boy to death.

 

== Literature ==

* The ''[[Knight and Rogue Series]]'' proudly presents Loves-the-Rope Thrope.

* In the ''[[Joe's World|Joes World]]'' novels there was a Hanging Judge so extreme that he sentenced other judges to hang for ''not handing out enough death sentences''.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* ''[[Wanted: Dead or Alive]]'': In "Miracle at Pot Hole", Randall brings a suspected murderer to Pot Hole, but fears the man won't receive a fair trial when he finds the townspeople in the grip of a power-mad bully who serves as the hanging judge over a [[Kangaroo Court]].

* ''[[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.}}

 

== Music ==

* 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 ==

{{quote|"In Otiev's mind, he ruled in favor of the accused. But in his courtroom he was only a spectator, watching his hand deliver the sign of death."}}

 

* 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 [[wikipedia: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]]''.

* In ''[[The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny]]'', Trinity Moses seems a little too keen on the idea of condemning people to death.

 

* 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.

* The Sheriff of Nottingham in ''[[The Adventures of Robin Hood (video game)|The Adventures of Robin Hood]]''.

 

* In the ''[[The Order of the Stick|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]]'', 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."

 

== Western Animation ==

* The judge in the Invaded episode of ''[[Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'' had most of the cast thrown in jail.

* 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.

* 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 (animation)|Beetlejuice]]'' certainly qualifies here since he thinks EVERY punishment equals "sending them to Sandworm Land". Of course, considering that it's usually Beetlejuice himself the judge has to deal with, it's [[Justified Trope|somewhat justified]].

* In "Trial" on ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'', [[The Joker]] eagerly takes to this sort of role. When he's introduced as the judge in Batman's [[Kangaroo Court|trial]], he immediately slams the gavel and pronounces "GUILTY!" (He's persuaded to continue the trial anyway.) After the trial is over with a not-guilty verdict, Joker decides to execute Batman anyway. He even ''calls'' himself "Ol' Hanging Judge Joker" at one point.

* 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."

 

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characters As Device]]

[[Category:The Courtroom Index]]

[[Category:Crime and Punishment Tropes]]

[[Category:Villains]]