Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Forum administrators, Interface administrators, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
116,618
edits
Kangaroo Court: Difference between revisions
replace redirect
No edit summary |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (replace redirect) |
||
| (32 intermediate revisions by 11 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:KangarooCourt 8592.jpg|link=Visual Pun|frame|[[Lady Gaga|She's got Justice right in her pocket...]]]]
{{quote|''"The case against Clevinger was open and shut. The only thing missing was something to charge him with."''
|'''''[[Catch-22]]'''''}}
A '''Kangaroo Court''' is a sham legal proceeding or court; one that denies due process and fairness in the name of expediency. The outcome of such a trial is essentially decided in advance, (usually for the purpose of providing a conviction), either by going through the motions of manipulated procedure or by allowing no defense at all and overuling all objections. In either case, a [[Hanging Judge]] usually presides over the trial in question.
This one is unfortunately [[Truth in Television]], especially in countries ruled by dictators, who are fond of putting dissidents through "show trials" as a prelude to execution. The name either started in;
Line 9 ⟶ 10:
* Europe, during the colonial era, and refers to courts deporting people ''en masse'' to [[Land Down Under|Australia]] simply to clear backlogs.
Compare [[Joker Jury]] (which a
See also [[The Scapegoat]] and [[Miscarriage of Justice]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[One Piece]]'' had a Kangaroo Court set-up at Enies Lobby, with the ironically-named "Eleven Just Jurymen", a jury of condemned criminals who would only say "Guilty!", and Chief Justice Baskerville, an insane giant three-headed judge. Though they were never actually shown trying anyone, acting more as a bunch of [[Giant Mook]]s.
* Suzaku Kururugi in ''[[Code Geass]]'' actually ''went back'' to one of these after the protagonist rescued him. Say what you want about him, the man walks the walk.
Line 41 ⟶ 42:
** In the Hallmark adaptation, Alice even says to the Queen that she won't stand by and let an innocent man be condemned. The Queen calmly replies, "Why not? It happens all the time!"
* [[Dan Aykroyd]]'s crazy judge presides over this kind of court in the movie ''[[Nothing but Trouble]]''.
* Traffic court is already close to kangaroo court in real life, as convictions are relatively easy to obtain, but ''[[Cars (film)|Cars]] (2006)'' takes this to an extreme: the [[Only Law Firm in Town|only competent lawyer in town]] works for the municipality, the [[Hanging Judge|judge has already decided]] to convict before the trial even begins and the process is [[Courtroom Antics|pure theatre]] in which the case [[Crusading Lawyer|is more a plea about the plight of the town]] than a serious lawyerly analysis of ''Arizona Revised Statutes Title 28 - Transportation - Chapter 3 - Traffic and vehicle regulation''.
* Kirk and Bones' Klingon trial in ''[[Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country]]''. In fairness, they did get a Klingon "lawyer", Worf's [[Identical Grandson|Identical Grandfather]], who was really on their side. Not that the court paid much attention to him or anything. They were framed, so it might have gone that way anyway, but they had no possibility of winning, really.
** The [[Novelization]] noted that ''everyone'' was surprised when the judge actually sustained one of the defense attorney's objections.
* ''[[Red Nightmare]]'': [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuvHBgHyHh0 Jerry Donavan] is given a Kangaroo Court where the court must be reminded to present its evidence. After being found guilty, the court adds to the indignity by denying Donavan a firing squad. [https://web.archive.org/web/20180207194302/http://0to5stars-moria.ca/sciencefiction/invasionusa1952.htm
* [[wikipedia:Legion (1998 film)|Legion]]: Aldrich is sentenced to death for desertion after he cancels a commando mission. Considering Flemming's view towards war this sentence was a show trial. Also, the other convicts were sentenced to death for crimes such as going AWOL and computer hacking.
* In the climax of [[Pink Floyd]]'s [[Rock Opera]] ''[[The Wall]]'', Pink puts himself on trial in his head, with the witnesses being the various pople who hurt him or he hurt throughout his life and the judge being a giant talking buttocks in a powdered wig. Oddly enough, {{spoiler|this proves to be a very ''good'' thing - the judge's sentence is ''"TEAR DOWN THE WALL!"'', opening him to the world again.}}
Line 58 ⟶ 60:
* Implied in ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]: On Stranger Tides''. A child asks to see the hanging of the pirates, to which his father tells him that its the trial that is occuring soon, the hangings are actually going to occur later (noon, more specifically), and when the Judge (Jack Sparrow in disguise) sentences Gibbs to life imprisonment, the court attendees boo at the decision, as they wanted to see a hanging, and promptly start [[Produce Pelting|tossing food]].
* In ''[[Death Of A Soldier]]'' the American soldier stationed in Australia who had been going around town killing women to 'steal their voices' was given this kind of trial in the most blatant of fashions. Every objection by the prosecutor was sustained by the judge, while every objection made by the defense was overruled. However, this was a case when the defendant really did do the crime, it was rushed to ease tension between the soldiers and the townsfolk.
* ''[[High School Musical]]'': a humorous version is used to seperate the various social groups. [
== Literature ==
* Harry's trial in ''[[
** Bartemius Crouch didn't give suspected Death Eaters much of a chance to defend themselves, either. Ludo Bagman was only able to present a defense at his trial because he was, at the time, a popular Quidditch player and the rest of the Wizengamot wouldn't stand for him being thrown into jail without a chance to defend himself. Barty Crouch Jr.'s trial was a sham to let Crouch Sr. publicly disinherit his son, and is only made marginally less awful by the part where a) Barty Jr. actually was guilty and b) was caught literally red-handed standing over the bodies. And they were lucky; many people, including Sirius Black, were taken to [[The Alcatraz|Azkaban]] without any trial at all. And there are [[Dirty Commies|absolutely]] [[A Nazi by Any Other Name|no allegories whatsoever]] in that.
** And let's just say that things don't get any better in the seventh book, when the Death Eaters take over the Ministry and put Umbridge in charge of trials accusing Muggle-borns of stealing magic.
** [http://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1524&context=mlr A scholarly article] published by a professor of the University of Tennesee College of Law, ''Harry Potter and the Half-Baked Bureaucracy'', does a formal analysis of what little of the Wizarding legal system that can be deduced from all the references in canon. The author's conclusion: Magical Britain's justice system, when compared to that of "some despotic Central African nation", comes off as the worse of the two.
* [[Franz Kafka]]'s ''[[The Trial]]'', in which the prisoner, Josef K, is never told what the charge is, cannot defend himself, and therefore
* In the ''[[Thursday Next]]'' series, Thursday is put on trial by Jurisfiction for changing the ending to ''[[Jane Eyre]]''. Two of her trials take place in Kafka's ''
* Played fairly seriously in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] novel "[[X Wing Series|The Krytos Trap]]", with the trial of Tycho Celchu. The whole thing is quite complicated, but the nonhuman public tended to believe he was guilty and too much effort was put into defending him, while the human public tended to see it as a sham trial of an innocent man (It was, but in a bit of a subversion, it was for good reasons {{spoiler|and the director of intelligence knew he hadn't done it, but suspected he might be a traitor anyway, and used the trial to flush the real mole out}}).
* Famous [[Double Subversion]] in ''[[The Count of Monte Cristo (novel)|The Count of Monte Cristo]]'' - Dantes has just been framed for treasonous activities and goes before Villefort the Public Prosecutor alone in his chambers. Villefort is touched by Dantes' integrity and about to let him go, when he sees that a letter which was part of the evidence against Dantes, implicates his own father in treason and would ruin his career. At this point of course, the Kangaroo Court element kicks in as Villefort applies powers ''[[Values Dissonance|actually given to him under the law]]'' to have Dantes imprisoned indefinitely without trial.
** The Depardieu [[Film of the Book]] also includes a scene where Villefort has an impoverished woman sentenced to death for infanticide while delivering a lecture on her immorality. This is [[Hypocritical Humor|particularly hypocritical]] as Villefort believes ''himself'' guilty of infanticide.
* Gently spoofed in ''[[The Phantom Tollbooth]]'', in which (very short) Officer Shrift arrests Milo and Tock - because, among other things, "it's illegal to bark without using the barking meter" - stifling Milo's repeated protests by informing him that he's also the judge, and yes, the jailer too.
Line 78 ⟶ 79:
** The trial wasn't rigged as such, it was conducted in a completely fair manner—it was just a sad fact that no white man in the 1930s would rule in favor of a black man in court. Despite that, Atticus claimed that they were actually quite close to a hung jury.
** Even if the jury was always destined to vote against Tom Robinson it is pointed out after the trial that the judge picked Atticus as the defense because he was the only lawyer who had anything close to a chance of winning a black man's case.
* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: The trial of [[Jesus Christ]] in [[The Bible|the Gospels]] is presented as a sham going against ''every bit'' of Jewish law on how trials are held, being carried on at night, in secret, etc. Roman subjects who were not citizens, however, had no right to a trial, so Jesus could be sentenced to death at the whim of Pontius Pilate... kind of: Pilate did attempt to state that Jesus did not commit any crimes, but the crowd would not hear of it, so he essentially convicted him just to shut them up (and symbolically washed his hands of the whole affair, saying that it was they, not him, who'd done the condemning).
** Of course, given that according to Christian belief [[Foregone Conclusion|Jesus was sent to Earth specifically to die a martyr]], one could argue that this is the ultimate example. God Himself pretty much set the outcome.▼
▲** Of course, given that according to Christian belief Jesus was sent to Earth specifically to die a martyr, one could argue that this is the ultimate example. God Himself pretty much set the outcome.
* Clevinger's trial in ''[[Catch-22]]''. Lieutenant Scheisskopf is the judge, prosecutor and Clevinger's attorney.
* Carried to the point of insanity at the end of ''[[Alice in Wonderland]]'', of course. The Queen repeatedly demands an execution before the trial even begins: "Sentence first, verdict afterward"; the King, more forgiving, just wants the jury to consider their verdict before the evidence is presented.
Line 90:
** In ''A Fighting Man of Mars'', Tan Hadron explains the truth of where he came from, and is still convicted as a spy by an obviously biased jeddak.
* In ''[[Sword of Truth]]'', Kahlan is put on trial by a wizard of the Imperial Order for a [[Long List]] of crimes. The jury and witnesses have been misled, bribed, threatened or tortured into finding her guilty.
* [[Honor Harrington]] gets one in her very first book, when the People's Republic of Haven sentences her to death for the destruction of a Havenite freighter which they claim was unarmed, but which packed the firepower of a
** Subverted brutally when Thomas Theismann stages his coup and overthrows Oscar Saint-Just. Saint-Just asks cynically if he'll get a show trial just like all the ones he's been responsible for. Theismann informs him there have been enough of those sort of trials
* In book 4 of the ''[[Wheel of Time]]'' series, Suian is on the receiving end of one of these courts, led by Elaida. Although all of the Sitters were handpicked by Elaida in order to get Suian deposed, stilled, and executed, the rebel Sitters insist on claiming that what was done was legal, as Elaida had the ''bare minimum'' of Sitters required. It's the old Quorum of the Senate argument.
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s "[[Queen of the Black Coast]]" [[Conan the Barbarian]] is in flight from a court where they insisted that he had to tell them where a friend was. The friend in question was a young soldier who had killed a captain of the guard for "offering violence" to his girlfriend and had to flee with her to avoid the wrath of the law. Conan believed that his friend was in the right and refused to betray him, and when the judge threatened to have Conan thrown into the dungeon until he betrayed his friend, Conan split the judge's skull and got the hell out of there.
Line 128 ⟶ 127:
* Virginia's defense of Wolf in ''[[The Tenth Kingdom]]'' is derailed by one of these. Luckily Tony, in one of his rare moments of dropping the [[Idiot Ball]], manages to coerce Wendell into tracking down evidence and making [[The Reveal]] which condemns the true guilty party.
* Mulder's trial in the series finale of ''[[The X-Files]]'' was a mixture of Kangaroo Court and [[Joker Jury]].
* The [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] has had a longstanding tradition known as ''Wrestler's Court''. Whenever a performer does something which is considered against the (very informal) rules and traditions of the company, they are put on trial by their peers, with wrestlers [[Bob Holly]] and [[The Undertaker]] as prosecutor and judge, respectively, by virtue of their long WWE tenures. Punishments range from being the butt of practical jokes for a certain period to being forced to pay other wrestler's travel expenses.
* ''[[Mission: Impossible (TV series)|Mission Impossible]]'' featured several of these, including the episode titled "The Trial".
* ''[[Diagnosis: Murder]]'': Mark Sloan is convicted of murder in a borderline Kangaroo Court. One of the witnesses, a landlady, is used to authenticate [[We Will Not Use Photoshop in the Future|forged handwriting]]. At no point is a handwriting expert called to testify.
** These web pages summarize the episodes where Sloan is falsely accused and the evidence and/or accusers do not have strong evidence or use the [[wikipedia:Trial by media|trial by media]] technique. [http://www.tv.com/diagnosis-murder/obsession-1/episode/15897/summary.html\], [http://www.tv.com/diagnosis-murder/obsession-2/episode/15898/summary.html\], [http://www.tv.com/diagnosis-murder/retribution-1/episode/15886/summary.html\], [http://www.tv.com/diagnosis-murder/retribution-2/episode/15887/summary.html\], [http://www.tv.com/diagnosis-murder/resurrection-3/episode/15899/summary.html\], [http://www.tv.com/diagnosis-murder/resurrection-4/episode/15900/summary.html\]
Line 145 ⟶ 144:
* ''[[Inquizition]]'' was a [[Game Show]] Network original involving four contestants and the Inquiziter whose face you never saw, set in an unknown foreign country. The winner of the three elimination rounds would be given their papers and allowed to leave the country, while it was greatly suggested that each rounds loser would be executed.
* Pick a Chinese period drama. ANY Chinese period drama. If a trial is featured, it will be this unless it is headed by [[Justice Bao]].
* A ''[[JAG (TV series)|JAG]]'' episode set in [[Qurac|an Arab country]] has an American judged for violating their airspace. While the first part of the trial seems, if not sympathetic to the prisoner, remotely interested in distributing justice, at one point {{spoiler|Rab manages to prove that the planes were miles outside the country's airspace. Then, a recess is asked, and when they come back, the witness changes the original distance that would prove the prisoner's innocence, and the records from where he stated the other distance just [[Blatant Lies|magically vanish]].}} Good thing {{spoiler|it was a [[Decoy Trial]] and the plan was to break out the prisoner anyway.}}
* Mike gets one of these in the "[[Agent for H.A.R.M.]]" episode of ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000|MST3K]]'', when he's put on trail for [[Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds|accidentally destroying several planets]].
* In a ''[[Sliders]]'' episode, the sliders end up in a world where the justice system has become a [[Game Show]], and lawyers are banned. When Arturo tries to object to this attitude that Quinn may as well be convicted, the host warns him not to try any other "lawyer tricks". To be fair, though, Quinn is acquitted when the real killer is found.
* In a fifth season ''[[Earth: Final Conflict]]'' episode, a radical judge kidnaps various people, including [[Action Girl|Renée Palmer]], and tries them without a jury for "crimes against humanity" before executing them in a gruesome way. Luckily, the authorities show up just in time to spare Renée the same fate. The judge deliberately twisted the facts to prove his point, blaming Renée for things that others did.
* Showed up twice in ''[[Tales from the Crypt (TV series)|Tales from the Crypt]]''.
** In "Let the Punishment Fit the Crime," an [[Amoral Attorney]] is tried in a court with no due process, no jury, and highly [[Disproportionate Retribution]] sentences.
** "The Third Pig", a bloody retelling of the [[Three Little Pigs]] had the third pig tried for the murder of his brothers. The judge, a wolf, is more interested in a golf game than the case and immediately hands the case off to the jury, [[Joker Jury|all wolves]], who deliberate in less than a second.
Line 205 ⟶ 204:
* [[Exalted|The Roseblack]] is under advisement to find excuses to extend her campaign in the Threshold as long as possible, as her enemies in the Deliberative are planning to have her executed on trumped up charges of treason the moment she sets foot back on the Blessed Isle (the fact that she actually ''is'' planning to commit treason is merely because she objects to this kind of thing being able to fly).
** Well, also the part where the Roseblack would really like to be the next Empress despite having quite possibly the ''worst'' claim, by either blood<ref>In addition to the part where her main rival is the Empress' oldest surviving legitimately and publicly acknowledged child while the Roseblack herself barely qualifies as great-great-great-granddaughter, just to make her position even worse her grandfather -- through which her descent from the Imperial line runs -- is still alive.</ref> or right<ref>The Imperial Senate, which gets to name the successor in a disputed case, is not only entirely unable to form a quorum on this issue but she isn't even the leading candidate in it.</ref>, out of all the possible contenders. But she did have a very nice army! So this is a case of 'the trial proceeding might be laughable, but the charge is actually true'.
* Inverted by ''[[In Quest]] Gamer'' in their proposed "Kangaroo Court" variant of ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'', in which players can try to apply some semblance of real-world logic to the game; for example, using the Pacify card on an [
** The card [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=89052 Twisted Justice] is styled after creating such a situation, and the flavor text is from the perspective of the judge as he's being manipulated to send an innocent man to his death.
== Theater ==
* Hermione's trial in Shakespeare's ''[[The Winter's Tale|The Winters Tale]]''.
* In ''[[The Crucible (theatre)|The Crucible]]'', simply having your name screamed by a child in court was enough to prove your guilt. From that point it was a matter of demanding a confession with the threat of hanging if they didn't. Sadly, this is [[Truth in Television|Truth in Literature]], since it's based on the actual Salem Witch Trials and the [[Red Scare|HUAC hearings of the McCarthy era]].
** It gets to the point at which ''even members of that Kangaroo Court are subjected to a Kangaroo Court''. When one of the "afflicted" girls tries to admit that she was pretending, the other girls in turn pretend that she's a witch who's tormenting them. Guess who's the one that everyone believes?
* The jury in [[Gilbert and Sullivan]]'s ''Trial By Jury'' are instructed by the Usher to ignore anything the defendant says so that they can remain impartial:
Line 228 ⟶ 227:
** One of the sidequests has another one; this time the present King Guardia is being framed for selling the Rainbow Shell.
*** Made even more hilarious by the fact that the Rainbow Shell has not budged an inch. You'd think the judge would say something like "oh, before we condemn the king of Guardia, let's make sure that this crime actually occured." It dosn't help that it was sitting IN THE BASEMENT of where the trial was occuring
* The trial that Ellen is subject to in Hell Realm in ''[[Folklore (video game)|Folklore]]'' is full of preconceived conclusions, as it's meant to be a symbolic representation of her own guilt. {{spoiler|She isn't even guilty in the first place.}}
* Happens too many times to count in ''[[Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]]'' and its sequels; you can seemingly debunk every piece of evidence pointing towards your client (which is considered sufficient in real life, as the defense has nothing to prove, at least in the U.S. court system), but they're ''still'' not off the hook until you can actually ''prove'' their innocence, seemingly always by catching the real killer. This is perhaps justified by [[Rule of Fun]]. Still, the incompetence of the games' current court system becomes more apparent as the series goes on and reaches a head in the third case of the fourth game, and Phoenix actually is so frustrated with this -- {{spoiler|especially since it ''cost him his career''}}—that he begins a quiet crusade to reinstate the jury system and succeeds in getting a test run in the same game's fourth case. It's [[Narm|unintentionally hilarious]] when the judge explains that jury systems work by virtue of ''normal citizens having common sense''.
** The third game really starts to show how the courts are poorly maintained. In the third case, {{spoiler|Tigre impersonates Phoenix Wright and gets a guilty verdict for Maggey Bryde in order to make sure he didn't come up as a suspect in the murder of Glen Elg. He fooled the court with not only his looks, but ''a fake attorney badge made out of cardboard''!}} In the fifth case where Edgeworth returns after Phoenix is injured, Larry tells Edgeworth about {{spoiler|the fake attorney badge from case 3}} and Edgeworth notes to himself about how he is shocked that the judicial system could have decayed this much while he was away.
Line 247 ⟶ 246:
* The Sheriff of Nottingham takes a "hang 'em all" attitude towards trials in ''[[The Adventures of Robin Hood (video game)|The Adventures of Robin Hood]]''.
* The [[Might Makes Right|Mantra Army]] Court in ''[[Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne]]''. You can get thrown in here for annoying someone. Wanna get out? It's ''trial by combat''. ''Against'' '''''[[Badass|Thor]]'''''.
* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' zigzags the Trope in the Wonderland chapter; it is, naturally, no surprise that the Queen of Hearts seems willing to convict and execute Alice, but in this case, the crimes Alice is accused of are actually the work of the Heartless. The Queen ''is'' willing to accept proof of a [[Frame-Up]] as means to acquit - [[The Main Characters Do Everything| so long as Sora finds it.]] Even then, however, the Queen doesn't want to acquit Alice, and a rather strange Boss Battle ensues.<ref>Sora first has to select one box out of five. Two have Heartless, one has Donald, one has Goofy, and one has both Donald and Goofy. No matter what box is picked, the Boss fight starts, but picking a box with Donald and/or Goofy means the selected party member is trapped in a cage, meaning Sora has to start the fight against the Queen and her men without them.</ref> But even if Sora wins, Alice isn't out of the woods, as she's been kidnapped while all this is happening, and the Queen won't decide the case without the defendant present.
== Web Comics ==
* Inverted in ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'': the court they find themselves in has ''explicitly been set up to pardon them'', but look like they're getting a fair trial.
** A more straight up example occurs [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0734.html here ]
* ''[[Van Von Hunter]]'' starts out like this after a short flashback.
Line 261 ⟶ 260:
* [[Blind Seer|Terezi]]'s trial of "Senator Lemonsnout" in ''[[Homestuck]]''. For starters, there is no defense at all. Lemonsnout ends up hanged out her window. And it's supposed to be ''repesentative of her world's actual legal system''. Also, the judge is called [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|His Honorable Tyranny]].
** Later on, we see the exploits of [[Famous Ancestor|her ancestor Redglare]], an actual [[Amoral Attorney|legislacerator]]. It's disturbingly close to Terezi's roleplay.
* ''[[Evil Diva (webcomic)|Evil Diva]]'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20110629214808/http://www.evildivacomics.com/?p=459 They'll try Angela before they damn her]
* ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20150623025040/http://dozerfleet.wikia.com/wiki/Sodality_(series) Sodality]'' features Darius Philippine running such a court within SCALLOP, which the Toklisanan government tolerates only because one of the four girls on trial is a Phexo. Even though Candi is acquitted, she is made to do time and is eventually even tethered. Since she's a Phexo, she's practically a slave and any freedom she has is illusory. They can tweak the terms of her captivity however convenient. Lex later uses this to Candi's advantage, having an agent arrest Candi and then disappearing her into a SCALLOP-run cell so that a corrupt senator can't have her assassinated for knowing too much.
** Darius also allows for Laurie to be acquitted on the bogus charges of her conspiring to steal the Earwig armor, but only after making certain to do as much damage to her good name as possible to hurt her chances of finding a job once she leaves the Sodality.
** Celia is acquitted, but only because she threatened to expose Darius for covering for Oisdaat after the latter raped her.
** Dolly was found guilty, even though Jeraime's will stated that the Earwig armor was to go to Dolly and that the contract with SCALLOP for the armor had been rendered null and void. Darius tried to argue that since her marriage to Jeraime was not legally recognized in Toklisana and that Jeraime wasn't dead yet, that it didn't matter. Darius didn't want evidence that he {{spoiler|had an affair}} leaking, and the Earwig helmet's AI knew all of Darius' dirty secrets.
* This is Zigzagged in one of the original ''[[Nodwick]]'' strips from ''[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]'' magazine, where the heroes are captured by a cabal of drow, to be sentenced for the wanton destruction of Lolth's spider-ship. [[Villain Has A Point| (Which they ''are'' guilty of, by the way.)]]. The judge initially doesn't intend to ''give'' them much of a trial, as they had been convicted ''in absentia''. However, she actually seems reasonable, and lets them go when they offer reparations by giving the Spider Goddess information about a potential suitor in another dimension. (Who? [[Spider-Man]]!)
== Web Original ==
Line 278:
== Western Animation ==
* The [[Dream Sequence|dream sequences]] of [[Little Lulu]]'s ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EM9DL_Guh4 Musical Lulu]'' and [https://web.archive.org/web/20120510083917/http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6104141953792692791 its fish-themed semi-remake with] [[Little Audrey]] both involve textbook Kangaroo Courts, with the girls being tried by a courtroom of musical instruments and fish, respectively, and are both pronounced guilty after several unfair testimonies and a very brief deliberation from the Jury.
** Granted, Audrey didn't help her case by being so damn rude about it.
* In ''[[The Fairly OddParents]]'' episode "Something Fishy", Cosmo is pronounced guilty of sinking Atlantis after Timmy utters a single word in his defense.
Line 289:
{{quote|'''Apax:''' Oh goody! More contempt! Another two.... no, no, no, make that ''four'' years! Two for each of your charming personalities.}}
* In the ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]'' episode "Gang Busters", Buster and Plucky are put on trial for a crime Montana Max framed them for. The jury is made up of clones of Yosemite Sam.
* In the [[Classic Disney Short]] ''[[
* In the [[Clear My Name]] episode of ''[[Sheep in The Big City]]'', Sheep is assured that he'll "be found guilty [[Blatant Lies|in a completely fair trial]]." The judge declares him guilty after his opening statement.
* Given [[A Hell of a Time|the setting]], it's inevitable that this trope come up in ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]''. In fact, it happens twice in one episode, first for [[Call a Smeerp a Rabbit|Cerbee]] and then for Jimmy and Beezy.
Line 299:
* ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'': Two mice stole a slice of pie from Garfield and framed Odie, who demanded a trial. Garfield then said Odie would get a fair trial where he'd be convicted. During the trial, Garfield called Nermal to testify despite Nermal having not to do with the episode until then and asked question that had nothing to do with the case. Garfield later asked his teddy bear to say anything if Odie wasn't guilty. {{spoiler|Fortunately Nermal found the culprits.}}
* In the episode of ''[[Family Guy]]'' "Cool Hand Peter", Peter, Quagmire, Cleveland, and Joe are given two weeks in jail by a clearly-biased jury, made up of various characters from ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''; clearly this is [[Self Deprecating Humor]] on the writers' part, as the show is frequently accused of ripping off of ''The Simpsons''.
* This was Zig-Zagged with Mr. Mxyzptlk's trial in his second appearance in ''[[Superman: The Animated Series]]'', where he was charged with [[Alien Non-Interference Clause|"meddling with an underevolved species"]], violating interdimensional travel laws, and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|breaking his word]] (which is considered a very serious crime in his dimension, apparently). The trial consisted simply of the three judges reading the accusations, scolding him, and finding him guilty, and when his wife Gsptlsnz tried to defend him by arguing "extenuating circumstances", they responded by turning her into a tree - clearly they aren't fond of lawyers. Of course, Mxyzptlk was obviously guilty of these charges, and the sentence he received could be viewed as lenient, considering all the trouble he caused; Superman compared it to "three months of community service", although it Mxy probably didn't like it very much.
* Zigzagged in the ''[[Inside Job]]'' episode where Reagan is put on trial for assaulting the Reptoid leader - which she is obviously guilty of, by the way. She tore his arms off, at a peace treaty negotiation no less, and is still covered with his blood as she is brought before the judge. At first, the judge ([[Judge Judy]], who like many celebrities in the episode, is secretly a Reptoid) doesn't give her much chance to speak, declaring her guilty and sentencing her to have ''her'' arms torn off. Then, however, she is willing to hear Brett's version of the story (that it was due to a design flaw in a piece of equipment he designed to prevent her from being hugged, something she hates) and Judy is willing to reduce the sentence to court mandated therapy and [[Laser-Guided Karma|one group hug]].
== Real Life ==
Line 311 ⟶ 313:
* Charles I had no chance of receiving a fair trial, although in his enemies' defense they could not technically have tried him even were he a tyrant (opinion is divided on the subject) under the legal system at the time. The outcome, while undergoing plenty of constant negotiating behind the scenes, was never in doubt as regards his guilt.
* In 1882, "Doc" Manning, Frank Manning, and James Manning found themselves in a rare example of a Kangaroo Court that wanted to get them off when they were tried for the murder of US Marshal Dallas Stoudenmire by a jury made up entirely of their friends.
* Many modern historians believe that the infamous Captain William Kidd was nothing more than a privateer with harsh methods. His trial for piracy lasted only two days, he was not given a lawyer, and critical evidence that would've exonerated Kidd was deliberately misplaced.[
** Kidd was trapped between the Tory and Whig political parties. The Tory's wanted to use Kidd to disgrace the Whig's. When he refused to testify, he became politically useless. The Whigs wanted him convicted to avoid public embarassment.
* The Khmer Rouge functioned the same way as the PRC and USSR did. But they usually had the guilty dig their own graves before beating them to death.
Line 341 ⟶ 343:
** Cicero's defense in this case, Pro Milone, could not even be completed, because Clodius (the victim, and a very popular man against whom many knew Cicero held a personal grudge) still had many living supporters, all of whom showed up on the day of the trial and caused a riot in the middle of Cicero's speech. Cicero was never even offered the chance to finish arguing his case. Milo, Cicero's client, is said to have later read the oration and said "If you'd finished reading this, I'd have won." The Roman court system was not known for its unshakable impartiality.
* On a more lighthearted note: This has been done in professional sports clubhouses for years, right down to using the Trope Name. Players who make stupid plays in a game are brought before a "trial" of their teammates to be ridiculed and fined; the money is kept in a collection used to fund some type of party or event at season's end. One of the most famous examples was the Baltimore Orioles of the 1960s, where Frank Robinson was appointed the team judge and went so far as to wear a barrister wig during the proceedings.
* The "rocket docket" foreclosure cases of the Great Recession of 2008 show a few characteristics, including incredibly brief trials which leave the victim no real chance to be heard and a failure to require proof of the basic facts (such as whether the plaintiff owns the mortgage document in question, such as whether signatures on documents are legit or the work of "robosigners" or straw persons). The objective was to clear a huge backlog of cases quickly, without regard for justice or the fates of those losing their homes. While the taxpayers were bailing out the big banks, the foreclosure victims of those same banks were often [[A Fool for a Client|too poor to afford counsel]] - which didn't help.
* [[The Trouble with Tickets|Traffic court]] in most jurisdictions shows some aspects of this: specifically, an eagerness to enter a conviction based on no evidence other than the uncorroborated words of the police officer making the accusations. Traffic tickets are a profitable source of revenue for governments, who would not want to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
* In some cases, the legal proceedings of involuntary commitment follow the Kangaroo Court format. As the blogmistress of [http://crazymer1.wordpress.com/ Crazy Mermaid] details [http://crazymer1.wordpress.com/category/committment-hearing/ here], "Devon said that I had the option of not attending the hearing at all and just allowing her to represent me. I declined her strange offer. In retrospect, that should have been my first clue that the hearing was simply a formality, nothing more than a 'Kangaroo Court'. Its purpose was to fulfill the letter of the law but not the intent. My fate was already sealed."
* Sir Walter Raleigh fell victim to one of these when he was charged with treason. The only material evidence presented against him was a signed statement from one of the conspirators of the Main Plot that planned to assassinate King James I. The Court denied his attempts to call the author of this letter for cross-examination. In spite of an excellent defense in court and essentially no evidence against him, he was convicted and sentenced to death. James spared his life in spite of the sentence, and imprisoned him for thirteen years. He was released to lead an expedition once again. That expedition went poorly, and the Spanish demanded his execution. He was executed in 1618 on the basis of his prior conviction.
Line 348 ⟶ 352:
** For that matter, at least one prominent Nazi officer -- Otto Skorzeny -- was acquitted at Nuremberg precisely because his attorney successfully argued that everything he had been accused of re: war crimes (sabotage, espionage, wearing enemy uniforms while attacking, etc.) was, although against the Geneva Conventions, still considered standard operating procedure by the OSS and British intelligence. So they could either acquit him, or convict their own special operations troops. The Tribunal acknowledged the fairness of this point and chose option #1.
** You can read more [[wikipedia:Nuremberg Trials#Criticism|here]].
* When [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Eugene_V._Debs Eugene V. Debs] was prosecuted for publicly speaking out against the draft (a violation of the recently-passed Espionage Act, which forbade interfering with conscription) there was practically no chance of acquittal. His trial was essentially a political show, an attempt by President [[Woodrow Wilson]] to intimidate left-wing critics into silence, in a wartime climate of patriotism Americans were even more suspicious of the left than usual. Not that this mattered at all to Debs, he made the statement fully expecting to go to jail as a result, using the trial itself as a soapbox. [[Might as Well Not Be in Prison At All| Even while behind bars]], he ran for President on the Socialist Party ticket (for the second time) and while he naturally didn’t win, he gained 913,000 votes, slightly more than he had in 1912, and almost half the Popular Vote. His perseverance led Wilson’s successor [[Warren G Harding]] (himself a conservative who was no fan of Debs either) commuting his sentence in 1921.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]▼
[[Category:The Courtroom Index]]
[[Category:Truth in Television]]
Line 356 ⟶ 362:
[[Category:Plots]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
▲[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
| |||