Judge, Jury, and Executioner: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:judge-
{{quote|'''Walker:''' "Name's Walker, son. I am your judge, executioner, jury, executioner, jailer, and if necessary, your executioner."
'''Danny:''' "Uhh... [[Department of Redundancy Department|you said executioner]] [[Rule of Three|three times."]]
'''Walker:''' "I like that part of the job."|''[[Danny Phantom]]''}}
Proper legal procedure can be such a drag sometimes, can't it? You have to arrest the perp, go through the expense of a trial... plus it means [[Acceptable Targets|you have to get lawyers involved]].
Perhaps this is why so many societies, particularly those with [[
Depending on the morality of their government, these organizations may be anything from noble Jedi-like protectors who pursue only serious threats to society, to the sort of [[Secret Police|Terror Squads]] that make the Gestapo look like paragons of justice and who get called out to use [[All Crimes Are Equal|deadly force on jaywalkers]].
When a private citizen acts as
Not to be confused with [[Hot Fuzz|Judge Judy and Executioner]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Zoids]] New Century'', the Judge robots have complete authority over zoid battles... up to and including ''firing a [[Kill Sat]]'' at persistent offenders. Harsh.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' is probably the most iconic example, exemplified by his [[Catch Phrase]]: [[I Am the Trope|"I am The Law!"]]
* ''[[Marshal Law]]'' is similar to Dredd. [[Crossover| (The two even met once.)]] In the purview of people with superpowers, he has unlimited jurisdiction and is licensed to kill in any situation he feels necessary. And he feels it's necessary ''a lot''.
* The Law Machines in ''[[Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire]]''.
* [[Marvel Comics]] has The Living Tribunal, who can destroy planets or whole realities to maintain the greater Marvel multiverse.
* During the course of events in ''[[Kingdom Come]]'' [[Superman]] is essentially trying to cure this very mentality.
* ''[[Brat Pack (actors)|Brat Pack]]'' features Judge Jury, who dresses like an executioner.
* In the [[Predator]] comic books produced by [[Dark Horse Comics]] (specifically the comic ''Bad Blood''), the Arbitrators of the [[Proud Warrior Race|Predator nation]] are essentially the assigned Predator cops plus this. If you are a Predator and you are bad, they will come for you. And they will get to kill you. No questions.
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== [[Literature]] ==
* The Gunslingers in ''[[The Dark Tower]]''.
* [[Vigilante Man|Jefferson]] [[Crusading Widower|Hope]] in ''[[Sherlock Holmes|A Study In Scarlet]]'' actually describes himself using
** "It's enough that they were responsible for the deaths of [[It's Personal|two human beings]]...[[Best Served Cold|I determined]] that I should be their judge, jury, and executioner all rolled into one."
* The Lensmen (especially the Gray Lensmen) from [[E. E. "Doc" Smith]]'s ''[[Lensman]]'' series.
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* ''[[The Executioner]]'' series of action novels by Don Pendleton. [[Vigilante Man]] and [[One-Man Army]] Mack Bolan is offered a 'license' for his Mafia-busting activities by Justice Department boss Hal Brognola. He turns it down as he "doesn't want to drag the country into hell with him". Later on however he becomes a government anti-terrorist operative under the [[Stony Man]] program.
* Thomas Theisman, from ''[[Honor Harrington]]'', took this role when showing [[State Sec]] {{spoiler|head Saint-Just}} [[Boom! Headshot!|an abbreviated legal procedure]].
* 71-Hour Ahmed from the ''[[Discworld]]'' book ''[[
** Death often refers to something in this direction ("THERE IS NO JUSTICE. THERE IS ONLY ME."), although he strictly upholds the "law" of only "taking lives" and not ending them, thus being an aversion.
* Referenced in ''[[Alice in Wonderland]]''. Alice asks a mouse why the mouse dislikes cats, and is treated to a poem on how a bored cat acts as both prosecutor, judge and jury to a mouse it (the cat) has encountered. Presumably the cat would have been executioner too, but since Alice got distracted and stopped listening, we will never know the end of the poem.
* The Alvin Fogg novels of [[J. T. Edson]] feature Company Z of the Texas Rangers, charged with dealing justice to those whose crimes cannot be punished by coventional law. This usually involves a summary execution by the members of Company Z.
* In [[A Song of Ice and Fire]], it is the custom of Winterfell that if the Lord of Winterfell sentences a man to execution, he must do the deed with his own hands.
* In ''[[The Kingkiller Chronicle|The Wise Man's Fear]]'', we learn about the Ciridae, a sect of the [[Church Militant]] Amyr whose actions are "above reproach", to the point that if they walk up to someone on the street and kill them, no one would question their decision.
== [[Live
* The Judoon are mercenary versions of this in ''[[Doctor Who]]''. In their first appearance, they transport a hospital from London to the Moon so they can go after the alien hiding within and make no attempt to explain their actions to the humans they examine. When a terrified civilian tries hitting one of them with a vase, it has absolutely no effect, but they still vaporise him on the spot.
** ''[[Doctor Who/Recap/S16
** [[Doctor Who/Recap/S25
* Arthur Spooner of ''[[The King of Queens]]'' declares in one episode he has been called upon to serve as Judge, Jury, and Executioner. Well, okay, not so much the first and last ones.
* The Inquisitor in ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' is a unique version of this; a rogue android that has taken upon itself to travel through the universe judging ''every single living thing'' to determine whether it has led a worthwhile life. However, as it acknowledges that it wouldn't be fair if ''it'' judged everyone, as there would be no guarantee of a fair hearing, it assumes the personality of the person it is judging whilst they are being judged; in essence, everyone acts as their ''own'' judge, jury and executioner.
** Which results in decent people with high standards for themselves such as Kryten and Lister are slated for death while completely selfish people with low standards for themselves such as The Cat and Rimmer are allowed to live.
* The Power Rangers in ''[[Power Rangers SPD]]'' use their Delta Morphers to judge a criminal on the spot then miniaturize them into an prison cell within an small card (implied to be filed away). Considering the sentence, Death seems like a more humane option.
▲** Which results in decent people with high standards for themselves such as Kryten and Lister are slated for death while completely selfish people with low standards for themselves such as The Cat and Rimmer are allowed to live.
▲* The Power Rangers in ''[[Power Rangers SPD]]'' use their Delta Morphers to judge a criminal on the spot then miniaturize them into an prison cell within an small card (implied to be filed away). Considering the sentence, Death seems like a more humane option.
** In the original ''[[Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger]]'', the sentence is death, or rather "[[Deadly Euphemism|Deletion]]", but the trope is averted by the slimmest of technicalities. The SP License sends all available information on the case to a judge elsewhere, and returns the verdict.
** ''[[Mirai Sentai Timeranger]]'' and ''[[Power Rangers Time Force]]'' do something similar, except that instead of placing them in cards, they get "freeze-compressed" into tiny figurines. Indeed, both series were kicked off by a jailbreak from a freeze-compression prison. Thus, there's no need for judgment, as they're all escaped convicts.
* ''[[Lost]]'': in the episode "Stranger in a Strange Land," we meet the Others' "Sheriff," Isabel. She conducts the inquiry into Juliet's killing of Danny, and appears to be the sole authority in the
* ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Star Trek TNG]]'': [[A God Am I|Q]] in "Encounter at Farpoint", and by extension, the judges in the 21st century of the Trekverse. [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|He]] [[Book Ends|reprises]] this role in the series finale "All Good Things...".
{{quote|'''Q:''' The trial never ends...}}
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* The ITV series ''[[The Fixer (TV series)|The Fixer]]'' has a ex-special forces soldier turned [[Vigilante Man]] being released from prison on condition he serve as an assassin for an unnamed government unit tasked with killing those the law cannot reach. However the choice of target appears to be based not on any sense of morality, but on a need to keep British society stable.
== [[Music]] ==
* The song "Dirty Window" by [[Metallica]] has the chorus line
{{quote|''I'm judge, and I'm jury, and I'm executioner too...''}}
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* [[The Empire|The Imperium]] of ''[[Warhammer
** To be more specific of the Inquisition, they have executed billions of people, be they guilty or not of whatever crime they were accused of. And they also have an [[Earthshattering Kaboom|extreme measure]] that they will use to purge a planet of taint when it is considered "irredeemable" (and the philosophy behind it specifically states that the billions of innocent casualties that are often included is acceptable collateral damage).
* The titular "Dogs" of the RPG ''[[Dogs in the Vineyard]]''.
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{{quote|''He is judge, jury, and executioner because he killed them all''}}
== [[
* Ko-Ko of ''[[The Mikado]]'' is Lord High Executioner, as well as, presumably, judge and jury. Pish-Tush is... noble something-or-other. Pooh-Bah is Lord High Everything Else. Subverted, as Ko-Ko is a bit squeamish about executing people, leading him to sentence people less often (as opposed to most of the other trigger-happy juries on the rest of the page).
** And also because Ko-Ko is himself under a sentence of death for ... flirting.
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* The Inhibitor of ''[[Bloodline Champions]]'', as well as being a [[Church Militant]], does this.
* ''[[Mega Man Battle Network]] 4'' has Duo, a sort of super-Navi created by an ancient civilization and written onto a satellite computer to go around erasing planets as he sees fit. Too bad he happens to fly by Earth during [[The Syndicate]]'s main operation: spreading [[Psycho Serum]] and creating a sudden influx of EVIL all over the world. Good thing we've got [[The Messiah|Lan and MegaMan]] to kick his ass and [[Defeat Means Friendship|make him spare us]]! Along, of course, with the ''entire world at once'' yelling at him to stop.
* ''[[Mega Man Zero]] 3'' gives us the Eight Gentle Judges, who rule [[The Empire|Neo Arcadia]] alongside X (both the [[Mega Man X|real one]] and his [[Evil Knockoff]]). They were as much [[Knight Templar|Knights Templar]] as the rest of the series' antagonists, until they were turned [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] by [[Big Bad|Dr. Weil]] to become his [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]]. Glacier le Cactank, in particular, provides us with this quote:
{{quote|''Has the legendary hero stooped to thievery? How deplorable. As king of the Snow Plains, I do hereby judge your crime.''
(cue [[One-Winged Angel]])
''I, Glacier Le Cactank, of Weil's Numbers, have reached a verdict. The punishment for thievery is death!'' }}
* ''[[Pathologic]]'' features an Inquisitor who is the very embodiment of this trope.
* [[Sam and Max|"When we find Santa, leave the talking to me. And the hasty trial, the harsh sentancing and the immediate execution!"]]
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* In [[Grand Theft Auto IV]], NOOSE officers sometime declare themselves to be "the judge and the jury, [[Precision F-Strike|MUTHAFUCKA]]", although any law enforcement officer in the [[Grand Theft Auto]] series qualifies.
* In ''[[Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne]]'', within the ranks of the [[Might Makes Right|Mantra Army]] [[Kangaroo Court|Court]] ''[[Moment of Awesome|Thor]]'' fills this role.
* The Inquisitor (as in, the [[Player Character]]) in ''[[Dragon Age: Inquisition]]'' pretty much ''is'' the law in Skyfall, meaning the fates of various villains in the story are up to the player. In two cases, should the player decide on the death penalty, the Inquisitor does the job personally.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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* {{spoiler|Two-Face}} becomes one of these under the guise of the Judge, in ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]''. He tries to execute several super-villains {{spoiler|including himself}}, as a result of {{spoiler|a third personality developing because of Harvey's former sense of justice, despising that he had become Two-Face}}. It ends with {{spoiler|Two-Face sitting in a cell, and his third voice demanding what he pleads}}. "Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.. Guilty.."
** Batman himself comes right to the edge in an early episode of the series. After chasing down a man who keeps children underground and uses them to steal things for him, he tells him that, while he'll never betray his values of [[Thou Shalt Not Kill]] and that he'll still turn him over to the courts for judgment, he was very tempted.
* The ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' episode "Avatar Day" features a town where the justice system is called "justice" because it involves "just us," as in the same man is the prosecutor, judge, and jury. Punishment is decided by the Wheel of Punishment, however, which ranges from "boiled in oil" to "community service."
{{quote|'''Katara:''' Community service! ''Please'' stop on community service!}}
* In an episode of ''Garfield and Friends'', Jon is stopped by a [[Corrupt Hick]] for driving faster than the posted limit of 8
* "[[Monkey Dust]]" - The Paedofinder General's entire career is spent accusing people of being pedophiles.. His evidence is always based on completely spurious coincidences or otherwise innocuous irrelevancies. He then pronounces the sentence which is always death. The fact that he is a parody of actual UK paedo witch-hunt logic is somewhat worrying.
* The five-faced Quintesson Judge in ''[[Transformers: The Movie]]''. Whether the defendent is guilty or innocent, they get thrown into the [[Shark Pool]].
* On ''[[Captain N: The Game Master]]'': [[Big Bad|MotherBrain]] takes over in one episode and declares herself Judge, Jury, and Executioner of Videoland as she puts the heroes on trial.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* Medieval knights and Feudal Samurai had pretty much absolute power over those living in their lands (technically you could complain to the person above them, but in practice even getting a word to that person could be impossible), and in case of Samurai, were legally entitled to kill anybody for pretty much any reason, such as showing disrespect.
** The Samurai could be this ''[[Seppuku|to themselves]]'' in cases of extreme dishonour.
* The [[wikipedia:BOPE|Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais]] (BOPE) elite police unit in [[Brazil (useful notes)|Rio De Janeiro]] is known for such a reputation, according to the book (and later a film) ''Tropa de Elite''.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Characters As Device]]
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