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{{trope}}
The gallows is replaced with an electric chair in modern settings, and the messenger on horseback with a telephone call from the mayor or governor.
Now a [[Discredited Trope]] that is subverted more than not. Compare [[Acquitted Too Late]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* One
* ''[[Samurai Champloo]]'' subverts this in the episode "Beatbox Bandits", where Fuu and Jin are ordered to be executed unless Mugen delivers a parcel and comes back in time. In the end, just as Fuu gives up hope of Mugen appearing, his sillhouette appears in the horizon...which turns out to be the annoying, reoccuring, comedy relief character (Fuu and Jin survive in the end though).
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== [[Film]] ==
* The narrator of [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[The Green Mile]]'' reminds us frequently that this almost never
* In the movie ''Almost Heroes'', we are introduced to Bartholomew Hunt as he is about to be executed then pardoned in this manner.
* The film ''[[
** Of course, it's worth noting that this was probably more of a reprieve for the troops.
* In ''[[The Mummy
* Subverted in the 2005 ''Casanova'' starring Heath Ledger, where it turns out the papal messenger is a fake, and when the authorities find this out, all the main characters are obliged to make a run for it.
* Played straight in D. W. Griffith's silent movie ''Intolerance'' which interweaves stories set at different historical periods. In the 20th Century story the hero is framed for murder, but the heroine finds a witness to his innocence on the morning of his execution. A frantic race against time ensues for the Governer to issue his pardon before he is hanged. To be fair, this film was made in 1916, and the visuals were great (a car racing a train, trying to get word of the pardon to the gallows in time), and had not been seen before. This was almost 100 years ago, and the trope was not yet so old and overused.
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* Parodied in ''[[Top Secret]]'', where the Germans decide not to execute Val Kilmer's character at the last minute. Cut to the firing squad who's getting ready to aim and fire while the phone rings, and an old lady with a walker slowly inches her way towards it.
* Done at the end of the [[Bob Hope]] vehicle ''[[My Favorite Brunette]]'', much to the disgust of the prison guard assigned to throw the switch on the electric chair. ([[Bing Crosby]] in [[One-Scene Wonder|a cameo]].)
* Done in [[Big Damn Heroes]] style in ''The Player''. One movie within the movie is an art film in which the heroine dies in the gas chamber at the end, even though innocent. By the end of the main movie, the director of the art film has become so corrupted by Hollywood that his little art film with a downer ending now has [[Bruce Willis
== Folklore ==
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== [[Literature]] ==
* Subverted in the beginning of the [[Discworld]] book ''[[
* One of the Vorhalas brothers was expecting this when Regent Vorkosigan showed up to his brother's execution in ''[[Vorkosigan Saga|Barrayar]]''. Unfortunately, Aral was there because he believed that he needed to witness the execution with his own eyes.
== [[Live
* Subverted in the Cycling Tour sketch from episode 34 of ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]''. Mr. Pither is about to be executed by a Soviet firing squad. An officer is shown running toward the execution site yelling "Nyet!" (No!). He hands a paper to the firing squad officer.
{{quote|
* Also subverted in ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' TOS episode "Shadowplay". Henry Ritchie is about to be executed in the electric chair. Prosecutor Adam Grant has been convinced that Ritchie may be not guilty by reason of insanity and convinces the state governor to postpone the execution. The governor calls the execution chamber, but he's too late - Ritchie has already been killed.
* In ''[[
** This example may be the latest possible reprieve, given that the firing squad corporal gets as far as "Ready, aim, f-".
* Subverted in ''[[The West Wing]]'', which looks at the issue from the point of view of the man granting the reprieve; after wrestling with the issue of whether to grant a Death Row triple-murderer a stay of execution for a weekend, and initially deciding not to, Bartlet eventually realises that he
* In the live action ''[[The Flash (TV 1990)||The Flash]]'' series, it was a genuine race against time to clear an innocent man before he was electrocuted in an hour. In the end, the Flash actually outruns the governor's telephone call and unties and pulls the man out of the chair before the volts zap him.
* Parodied in a ''[[Rutland Weekend Television]]'' sketch. Just before the condemned man is about to be executed a telegram arrives which reads "The execution is candelled" (sic). The prisoner insists that this must be a typo for "cancelled", but his jailors argue that it might mean the Governor wants the execution carried out by candlelight.
* An episode of the short-lived D. B. Sweeney series ''Strange Luck'' featured a mad gubernatorial dash to the prison to rescue a man about to be executed for a murder he did not commit, with the hero and the real murderer (who had confessed after years of a guilty conscience), following along behind. During the rush to the prison (the phones were out... it was raining heavily), the brakes on the hero's car give out and he slams into a power pole, snapping a high-tension power line. When the power line breaks, it simultaneously a) cuts power to the entire prison just as the switches are flipped to fry the innocent man and b) [[Karmic Death|clips the real murderer, electrocuting him]].
* The first episode of ''[[Tales
* {{spoiler|Averted}} in an episode of ''[[Criminal Minds]]''. A woman who had been involved with a serial killer, eventually killing their son, is about to be executed alongside the killer. Gideon suspects that her son is still alive and the team does a mad dash around the area trying to find him. {{spoiler|The son is found but the woman convinces Gideon to let him live without knowing who his parents were, and both are executed.}}
* In one episode of ''[[F Troop]]'' Agarn is sentenced to death because he allowed a prisoner to escape and is therefore obliged to fill out the prisoner's sentence due to some Army law that undoubtedly only exists in TV. Just as the firing squad is assembled, O'Rourke arrives with the recaptured prisoner, meaning that Agarn no longer needs to be killed for the other man's crimes. Unfortunately for Agarn, Captain Parmenter accidentally says "Fire" (As part of a conversation) before dismissing the firing squad, so they shoot Agarn. Fortunately for Agarn, due to the poor quality of the men at Fort Courage, [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy|every single one of them misses him and hits the water tower instead]].
* [[CSI]] did it in "The Execution of Catherine Willows", only to have the guy done in at the end anyway.
* [[Bones]] had an episode of it as well, played straight, even though the guy actually *was* a killer. More bodies were found and his execution had to be called off while they were examined.
* During a late point of the 1840 time line of ''[[Dark Shadows (TV series)|Dark Shadows]]'', Quentin Collins I and his cousin Desmond were about to be executed on charges of witchcraft, in fact Quentin's head was on the block, when Valerie Collins {{spoiler|(really the extremely long-lived witch Angelique)}}, the wife of "cousin from England" Barnabas Collins {{spoiler|(really a time-traveling immortal vampire)}}, arrived to stop the execution by producing a box containing {{spoiler|the head of warlock Judah Zachary, who had been her master almost 200 years earlier and whose spirit was possessing Quentin's friend and main accuser, Gerard Stiles, in order to see Quentin killed so that he could gain control of the Collins fortune}}.
== Music ==
* In the song "Joe Bean", made famous by [[
== [[Real Life]] ==▼
* During the [[American Revolution]], General [[George Washington]] handled low morale and rampant insubordination during a harsh winter (worse than Valley Forge, even) by sentencing eight men to be hanged for various charges. As the eight men had the nooses placed around their necks, staring into the already-dug graves, with the coffins ready and everything, a soldier suddenly stepped forward and pleaded for a reprieve. Seven of the eight were let go. ▼
* Likewise, the Swedish king Gustavus III had sentenced all the participants of Anjala Conspiracy to death by beheading. As those fifty men stood at the scaffold and executioner had honed his sword, a messenger suddenly announced that all but two conspirators had been pardoned. One, Johan Hästesko, was beheaded - he had personally insulted the King - and another, Göran Sprengtporten, was banished from the realm - he had been an officer in the Russian army.▼
== Theater ==
* The ending of ''The Threepenny Opera''. The finale goes on to note that the King's mounted messengers don't come very often. In fact, the finale is pretty much a savage parody of the whole trope because the main character has not only [[Villain Protagonist|thoroughly deserved a hanging]], but the ending is lampshaded as an "obligatory happy ending" to the n-th
== [[Video Games]] ==
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Subverted in ''[[Futurama]]'' where Bender is about to be executed for being Santa Claus. The Planet Express crew burst in and all claim [[I Am Spartacus|to be Santa]] (except for Zoidberg, [[Cloudcuckoolander|who claims to be Jesus]]).
{{quote|
* And on ''[[The Simpsons]]'', where the governor calls before it's "too late", to give Homer a message: He hopes he's a twitcher! He only lives because it turns out to be [[Reality TV]] [[Gone Horribly Wrong]].
* In "The Late Mr. Kent," [[Superman:
* Happens with Huey's friend Shabaz in [[The Boondocks]]. Huey had written a letter to the Governor threatening to expose his gay love affair if Shabaz wasn't pardoned; in reality, Huey had no idea if that was true or not, but reasoned that "since 20% of men are gay, and 25% of men cheat on their spouses, this should have a 5% chance of success."
▲== [[Real Life]] ==
▲* During the [[American Revolution]], General [[George Washington]] handled low morale and rampant insubordination during a harsh winter (worse than Valley Forge, even) by sentencing eight men to be hanged for various charges. As the eight men had the nooses placed around their necks, staring into the already-dug graves, with the coffins ready and everything, a soldier suddenly stepped forward and pleaded for a reprieve. Seven of the eight were let go.
▲* Likewise, the Swedish king Gustavus III had sentenced all the participants of Anjala Conspiracy to death by beheading. As those fifty men stood at the scaffold and executioner had honed his sword, a messenger suddenly announced that all but two conspirators had been pardoned. One, Johan Hästesko, was beheaded - he had personally insulted the King - and another, Göran Sprengtporten, was banished from the realm - he had been an officer in the Russian army.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Index to The Rescue]]
[[Category:Crime and Punishment Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Trope]]
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