Hanging Judge: Difference between revisions

{{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-Out|Fyodor Karamazov]]''', ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]''}}

A '''Hanging Judge''' is a ruthless judge who rules his courtroom with an iron fist as his own personal fiefdom. He will hand out brutal sentences [[All Crimes Are Equal|for the most minor infractions]]. He may be corrupt and using the law for his own ends, a [[Corrupt Hick]] using his power to dominate the local community, a [[Knight Templar]] who believes his punishments are justified, or just a bully who gets off on abusing his power, but any hero who ends up in front of him can expect no mercy and precious little justice. You better have an [[Amoral Attorney]] at your side when you confront the '''Hanging Judge''' in the courtroom, or it's guaranteed that you won't walk out as a free bird after the trial.

* ''[[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.

* 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".

** 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.

* 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 story—and then copied with significantly less elegance in just about every other Lawyer Show.

* 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.]]

* The judge who passes sentence over the eponymous trio in the sixth episode of ''[[Filthy Rich and& Catflap]]''.

* As the page quote indicates, more than a few Inquisitors in [[Warhammer 4000040,000]] are like this, though they're more ''[[Burn the Witch|Burning]]'' Judge than Hanging...

* ''[[Deadlands]]'' Has a number:

** 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-Out|direct reference]] to [[Judge Dredd (comics)|Judge Death]] (see above). A later set introduced the Hangin' Judge monster from the RPG into the setting of the card game.

* A feline version of the Devil serves as this to a courtroom of demonic cats in Hell in ''[[PlutosPluto's Judgement Day]]''.

* [[wikipedia:George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys|Judge Jeffreys (or to be exact, George Jeffreys, Baron Jeffreys of Wem)]] was called both "the Hanging Judge" and "the Bloody Judge" as a result of his habitual excesses, particularly during the so-called "Bloody Assizes" that marked the putting down of the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685. Jeffreys was notorious for his manipulation of juries and his violent language toward prisoners and witnesses even in that unscrupulous age. He has been a popular figure in historical fiction set in the seventeenth century, and has become for Britons the archetypical Hanging Judge.

** 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.

* Time/Life treats Issac Parker, a Hanging Judge, in a favorable light, claiming that he brought peace to a lawless territory, and, among other things, treated Indians as fairly as whites. According to Time/Life the only reason he hanged so many people was that there was an excess of [[outlaw]]s in his territory who of course "needed killin'."

* 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.]]