History Main / HangingJudge

* The VictimOfTheWeek on ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' Season 8 Episode 8 "Crossroads". Similar to the ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' example below, he was discovered to be a corrupt judge who got kickbacks from any juvenile delinquent he sent to a specific [[HellholePrison hellhole juvenile prison center]]. The Killer Of The Week had his whole life destroyed [[DisproportionateRetribution because he was sentenced to do time for stealing a pack of gum]].

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* Roland Freisler is perhaps the most vicious example of this in real life, what with him being Nazi Germany's top judge. His trials weren't so much due criminal process as him going into furious rants and bombastic speeches while handing down brutally violent executions like candy. LaserGuidedKarma in the shape of a KarmicDeath in the nth degree struck him when a bombing raid on Berlin literally brought down his courthouse on him as he was crushed by a pillar. His viciousness made him a TheFriendNobodyLikes too, with general Alfred Jodl's wife (working as a volunteer nurse at the time) recalling years later that when Friesler's corpse was being rolled into the morgue a medical orderly who saw the event said that "It is God's will", with nobody saying a single word in reply. To further up the karma, the bombing raid was commanded by Jewish-American Robert Rosenthal who later took part in the Nuremberg Trials as part of the legal team. In yet another dimension of ironic karma, the man Freisler was trying at the time, Fabian von Schlabrendorff, managed to get himself acquitted in what has to be the greatest example of self representation in a court after Freisler died despite being part of the 20 July plot to kill Hitler. This pissed off Hitler enough that he personally ordered Schlabrendorff killed, but in the last chaotic months of the war the order was never carried out. In yet another stroke of karma, Schlabrendorff assisted with the Allies in gathering the criminal case against Nazi organizations and leaders (along the way preventing the Soviets from getting away with the Katyn Massacre of Polish officers they committed by successfully proving Soviet guilt on the matter, allowing OSS head William J. Donovan to successfully convince the Americans to block the Soviet attempt to pin it on the Nazis), later joining Germany's top judges in the Federal Constitutional Court.

* Ronan the Accuser and the Kree Accuser Corps from the Franchise/MarvelUniverse and of ''Comicbook/{{Captain Marvel|MarvelComics}}'' fame are often depicted this way, though in their case is more DropTheHammer Judge than hanging.

* Roland Freisler is perhaps the most vicious example of this in real life, what with him being Nazi Germany's top judge. His trials weren't so much due criminal process as him going into furious rants and bombastic speeches while handing down brutally violent executions like candy. LaserGuidedKarma in the shape of a KarmicDeath in the nth degree struck him when bombing raid on Berlin literally brought down his courthouse on him as he was crushed by a pillar. His viciousness made him a TheFriendNobodyLikes too, with general Alfred Jodl's wife (working as a volunteer nurse at the time) recalling years later that when Friesler's corpse was being rolled into the morgue a medical orderly who saw the event said that "It is God's will", with nobody saying a single word in reply. To further up the karma, the bombing raid was commanded by Jewish-American Robert Rosenthal who later took part in the Nuremberg Trials as part of the legal team. In yet another dimension of ironic karma, the man Freisler was trying at the time, Fabian von Schlabrendorff, managed to get himself acquitted in what has to be the greatest example of self representation in a court after Freisler died despite being part of the 20 July plot to kill Hitler. This pissed off Hitler enough that he personally ordered Schlabrendorff killed, but in the last chaotic months of the war the order was never carried out. In yet another stroke of karma, Schlabrendorff assited with the Allies in gathering the criminal case against Nazi organizations and leaders (along the way preventing the Soviets from getting away with the Katyn Massacre of Polish officers they committed by successfully proving Soviet guilt on the matter and letting OSS head William J. Donovan successfully convince the Americans to block the Soviet attempt to pin it on the Nazis), later joining Germany's top judges in the Federal Constitutional Court.

* Roland Freisler is perhaps the most vicious example of this in real life, what with him being Nazi Germany's top judge. His trials weren't so much due criminal process as him going into furious rants and bombastic speeches while handing down brutally violent executions like candy. LaserGuidedKarma in the shape of a KarmicDeath in the nth degree struck him when bombing raid on Berlin literally brought down his courthouse on him as he was crushed by a pillar. His viciousness made him a FriendNobodyLikes too, with general Alfred Jodl's wife (working as a volunteer nurse at the time) recalling years later that when Friesler's corpse was being rolled into the morgue a medical orderly who saw the event said that "It is God's will", with nobody saying a single word in reply. To further up the karma, the bombing raid was commanded by Jewish-American Robert Rosenthal who later took part in the Nuremberg Trials as part of the legal team. In yet another dimension of ironic karma, the man Freisler was trying at the time, Fabian von Schlabrendorff, managed to get himself acquitted in what has to be the greatest example of self representation in a court after Freisler died despite being part of the 20 July plot to kill Hitler. This pissed off Hitler enough that he personally ordered Schlabrendorff killed, but in the last chaotic months of the war the order was never carried out. In yet another stroke of karma, Schlabrendorff assited with the Allies in gathering the criminal case against Nazi organizations and leaders (along the way preventing the Soviets from getting away with the Katyn Massacre of Polish officers they committed by successfully proving Soviet guilt on the matter and letting OSS head William J. Donovan successfully convince the Americans to block the Soviet attempt to pin it on the Nazis), later joining Germany's top judges in the Federal Constitutional Court.

** A handful of monsters called the Hanging Judges, which repeat all the sins you've ever committed as they hunt you down. The worst sin? Being Texan - Texans killed them in life due to their being crooked judges who got together as Hanging Judges, killing people over trumped-up charges so they could steal all their wealth and land. In fact, the second bestiary actually gives statistics for the original five Hangin' Judges, much tougher than the version in the core rules, delegating the original set of stats as belonging to a "lesser Hangin' Judge" that could be created by them.

* Judge Roy Bean, "The Law West of the Pecos," (a self-appointed title) gained a reputation as a hanging judge, though he seems to have passed that sentence on only two men -- one of whom escaped. Much of his actual character is lost to folklore, which varies between portraying him as a cartoonish KnightTemplar to a dangerously corrupt criminal masquerading as a judge and everything in between. The truth seems to be that he was an eccentric, greedy, and self-serving justice who was as strict or lenient as he felt like being at the time. For example:

** He had a tendency to choose juries himself, based on who spent the most money in his saloon that year. He also made them take mandatory breaks during trials, during which they had to purchase a drink from him or risk being dismissed. He also held court inside his saloon, which made some sense because it was a public forum in a town with very few public buildings but made slightly more sketchy by the fact that he used his position to run his competition out of town.
* Another Wild West example: Isaac C. Parker, a U.S. District Judge, presiding over the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas for 21 years. He was actually nicknamed "The Hanging Judge" since he sentenced 160 people to death by hanging (156 men, and 4 women), 79 of which were indeed hanged. Time/Life treats Parker in a favorable light, claiming that he brought peace to a lawless territory, and, among other things, treated Indians as fairly as whites; in fact, when he died the chief of the local Creeks put a wreath on his grave. 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 "needed killin'." But Parker's reputation for harshness is often overstated; of 13,490 cases tried before his bench, 344 were for capital offenses. Of those, 160 defendants were convicted and sentenced to hang, and only 79 were actually hanged.
* If you had the misfortune of being targeted in a real-world WitchHunt and put on trial for witchcraft, you were, in all likelihood, as good as dead: because accusations of witchcraft were nebulous, judges would distrust the word of the accused. As such, you would be subject to [[SarcasmMode such wonderous proceedings]] known as "trials by order", such as being thrown into a lake. If you floated, that was proof of you being a witch, and you would be executed. If you drowned, you would be cleared of all charges...not that it would do you any good, since you'd be dead. If you were fortunate, you'd be accused of being a witch in Salem, Massachusetts in the early 1650[=s=], where you could avoid the gallows by pleading guilty (although you would be excommunicated from the church and forced to give up your land and property).

* Even worse was Gaius Verres, who had been praetor of Sicily in the first century BCE. First of all, he extorted so much loot, slaves, and capital from Sicily that some have estimated that he actually caused a recession ''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 MoralEventHorizon. You will be pleased to hear that he was eventually murdered on the orders of Mark Antony, who [[KarmicDeath wanted some of the art treasures he had thieved from Sicily.]]

* General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett becomes one in the ''Series/{{Blackadder}} Goes Forth'' episode "[[Recap/BlackadderS4E2CorporalPunishment Corporal Punishment]]" in a military court. He's completely ready to have Blackadder shot for shooting '''his''' prize pigeon, and though Blackadder is supposedly on trial for disobeying orders Melchett barely mentions that. He fines the Defence £50 for turning up, refers to Blackadder as 'the Flanders Pigeon Murderer', and before anyone has even spoken he requests that the clerk hang on to the black cap[[note]]actually just a square of black cloth, which was placed over the judge's wig before pronouncing sentence of death[[/note]] because he'll "be needing that later."

* Notorious Nazi judge Roland Freisler (see the real-life folder below) is portrayed by Creator/AndreHennicke in ''Film/SophieSchollTheFinalDays''. Some viewers complained about his portrayal, claiming that the actor playing him as such a [[EvilIsHammy cartoonishly hammy character]] was an obvious exaggeration of history. [[RealityIsUnrealistic It wasn't.]]

* Archon Makbar in the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E25Tribunal Tribunal]]" is a true believer in the... ''efficiency'' of the [[KangarooCourt Cardassian justice system]].

* Gleefully embodied by Q in his [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E1EncounterAtFarpoint first]] ([[spoiler:[[{{Bookends}} and]] his [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E24AllGoodThings last]]]]) appearance on ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration.'' His 'courtroom' is ironically modeled on the {{Kangaroo Court}}s of the early 21st century, when atomic war had reduced Earth to a ''Mad Max'' dystopia.

* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'', Two-Face puts on a mock trial to rally his troops and gain their support by sentencing Catwoman to death. Fortunately, his courtroom is adjourned when Batman shows up.

* Judge Alvarez in the ''Series/ColdCase'' episode "Jurisprudence", who sentences young offenders to long sentences for minor crimes in exchange for kickbacks from the reform centre where they are sent.

* An episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' 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 16-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, it was RippedFromTheHeadlines (specifically, "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal Kids for Cash]]") -- and then copied with significantly less elegance in every other Lawyer Show.

* Ronan the Accuser and the Kree Accuser Corps from the MarvelUniverse and of ''Comicbook/{{Captain Marvel|MarvelComics}}'' fame are often depicted this way, though in their case is more DropTheHammer Judge than hanging.

** Judge Whitey, who treads the line between embracing and parodying the profession, filled up every mental asylum in New York when he declared being poor a mental illness in "[[Recap/FuturamaS3E11InsaneInTheMainframe Insane in the Mainframe]]". (TruthInTelevision: Poverty really was once considered a mental illness, and one study shows that a judge will more likely give a harsher ruling just before their lunch break, with more lenient sentences afterward.) In "[[Recap/FuturamaS7E1131stCenturyFox 31st Century Fox]]", he presides over a trial to determine whether the robot fox is a protected species... while being part of a foxhunting club. In fact, he was wearing a foxhunting outfit under his judge's robes.

** Judge Whitey, who treads the line between embracing and parodying the profession, filled up every mental asylum in New York when he declared being poor a mental illness. (TruthInTelevision: Poverty really was once considered a mental illness and in a study, it is shown that a judge will more likely give a harsher ruling just before their lunch break, with more lenient sentences afterward.) In "31st Century Fox", he presides over a trial to determine whether the robot fox is a protected species... while being part of a foxhunting club. In fact, he was wearing a foxhunting outfit under his judge's robes.

May be a SternOldJudge. This character typically presides over a KangarooCourt, can give {{Longer Than Life Sentence}}s, and may have a GuiltyUntilSomeoneElseIsGuilty viewpoint. See also the equally-bad JokerJury. If he leaves his courtroom and actively pursues criminals as well, there's overlap with JudgeJuryAndExecutioner. For another courtroom villain, see AmoralAttorney.

* Pierra Cauchon, the bishop who presided over the 1431 trial of UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc, deliberately violated numerous rules of ecclesiastic (church) court procedure in order to get her convicted and executed, with the most glaring offence being stuffing the tribunal to the gills with pro-English clergy without [[FoxNewsLiberal a single pro-France clergyman to provide any counterbalance]]. In addition, the trial shouldn't even have happened at all because she was held in a state prison guarded by soldiers instead of a church prison guarded by nuns, which ended up reinforcing the crossdressing charges she was convicted on by forcing her to keep wearing men's clothing so she could avoid being raped by the guards.[[note]]Her trousers, doublet, and boots could all be fastened together so they couldn't be pulled off easily.[[/note]]

* The bishop who presided over the 1431 trial of UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc, Pierra Cauchon, basically functioned as this during her trial. He deliberately violated numerous rules of ecclesiastic (church) court procedure in order to get her convicted so he could have her killed, with the most glaring offence being stuffing the tribunal to the gills with pro-English clergy without [[FoxNewsLiberal a single pro-France clergyman to provide any counterbalance]]. In addition, the trial shouldn't even have happened at all because she was held in a state prison guarded by soldiers instead of a church prison guarded by nuns, which ended up reinforcing the crossdressing charges she was convicted on by forcing her to keep wearing men's clothing so she could avoid being raped by the guards.[[note]]Her trousers, doublet, and boots could all be fastened together so they couldn't be pulled off easily.[[/note]]
* The only sentence available for those convicted by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehmic_court Vehmic courts]] of Westphalia in Medieval Germany was death by hanging.

* The bishop who presided over the trial of UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc, Pierra Cauchon, basically functioned as this during her trial. He deliberately violated numerous rules of ecclesiastic (church) court procedure in order to get her convicted so he could have her killed, with the most glaring offence being stuffing the tribunal to the gills with pro-English clergy without [[FoxNewsLiberal a single pro-France clergyman to provide any counterbalance]]. In addition, the trial shouldn't even have happened at all because she was held in a state prison guarded by soldiers instead of a church prison guarded by nuns, which ended up reinforcing the crossdressing charges she was convicted on by forcing her to keep wearing men's clothing so she could avoid being raped by the guards.[[note]]Her trousers, doublet, and boots could all be fastened together so they couldn't be pulled off easily.[[/note]]

* [[OlderThanFeudalism Athenian]] lawgiver Draco is the UrExample, giving us the word "[[TropeNamers draconian]]" to describe excessively harsh punishment. It is said that when asked why [[AllCrimesAreEqual minor offences got the same death sentence as the serious ones]], he replied that in his view only these lesser crimes deserved death, it's just he couldn't think of any punishment harsher than death for more serious ones (good thing they [[FateWorseThanDeath didn't have]] Website/TVTropes back then). Incidentally, the Greeks of his time regarded him as a genius and a courageous and enlightened lawgiver. Mostly because he also brought several innovations, perhaps the most important being an explicitly written code of law that all literate citizens could read (and all illiterate citizens could have verified by any random literate person they found), instead of oral traditions arbitrarily interpreted by a special caste. In other words, the law was harsh, but at least it was ''definite.''

* 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 ''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 MoralEventHorizon. You will be pleased to hear that he was eventually murdered on the orders of Mark Antony, who [[KarmicDeath wanted some of the art treasures he had thieved from Sicily.]]

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Freisler Roland Freisler]], President of the People's Court of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany, a notorious ''[[KangarooCourt Sondergericht]]'' ("Special Court") that was set up outside the operations of the constitutional frame of law, and was usually employed against resisters to the Nazi regime and other political enemies. He was known for (in his additional role as court reporter) manipulating the transcripts to make the defendants guilty, and also for screaming the sentences to defendants -- so much so that in one politically-charged trial, the news media found it hard to comprehend what he was saying. He acted as [[JudgeJuryAndExecutioner judge, jury, and prosecutor,]] and was responsible in his three years on the bench for the majority of the death sentences the court ever issued - including some, like Helmuth Hubener ([[WouldHurtAChild only 17]]), [[EvenEvilHasStandards despite the recommendations of the Gestapo against executing him]]. [[LaserGuidedKarma Freisler was killed by a collapsed beam when a bomb fell on his courthouse]]. The bombers responsible for the raid were led by one Lieutenant Colonel Robert Rosenthal, a [[DeathByIrony Jewish lawyer]] from Brooklyn. Freisler was so hated, [[EvenEvilHasStandards even by other Nazis]], that the wife of General Alfred Jodl later recounted that a local worker remarked "[[AndThereWasMuchRejoicing It is God's verdict!]]" in public upon seeing Freisler's corpse and not only got away with it, but no one even deigned to contradict him.

* John "Maximum John" Sirica, who presided over the Watergate scandal, might qualify. Lawyers who appeared before him gave him the nickname because he always applied the maximum penalty under the relevant sentencing guidelines.

* Judge Mark Ciavarella of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas (in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania) became infamous for his harsh treatment of juvenile offenders. Ciavarella spent years sending children as young as five to detention centers for relatively minor crimes, such as trespassing or even insulting a teacher on Website/{{Myspace}}. It was later revealed that he was making an obscene amount of cash from his convictions, as the owner of the center [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal paid him a sizable kickback for each new prisoner he sent there]]. This led to his being [[LaserGuidedKarma convicted and sentenced to twenty-eight years in prison]] for his involvement in the "Kids for Cash" scandal. The good folks at ''{{Website/Cracked}}'' probably summed up many people's feelings about him by saying that they'd be "happy with a law that allows each American to kick him in the balls once". Listen to ''Podcast/{{Swindled}}'''s dedicated episode to the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wIWXfEIads "Kids for Cash" debacle here]], and see [[MamaBear the mother]] of one of Ciavarella's victims [[DrivenToSuicide who killed himself]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8JRMGP2hg8 cut him a new one here.]]
* In the Summer of 2015, Michigan, Family Court Judge Lisa Gorcyca presiding over an ugly divorce case ordered three kids to spend lunch with their father. The kids refused, claiming he was violent, so the judge sentenced them ''[[DisproportionateRetribution to a juvenile detention center for an indefinite period]]'' for contempt of court. And to add insult to injury, she claimed the kids had been brainwashed by their mother akin to the Manson Cult, aka "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_alienation parental alienation]]", and these kids can't see their mother or each other while in custody. And the kids in question are only 14, 10, and 9. Read more [[http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/2015/07/09/jailed-kids/29944037/ here.]]
* In the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Guillotine Club]] was entered only by judges having passed at least a death sentence and some members were [[AndYourRewardIsClothes handing out T-shirts]] emblazoned with the club's name to offenders [[http://www.google.fr/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CC8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gluckman.com%2FDeath%27Penalty2.htm&ei=NZoSUvOlIqSc0wXQpYCACg&usg=AFQjCNHyKS7x9fSOBdg6X8XtUpnHoQOXWw&bvm=bv.50768961,d.d2k they had sentenced to die.]]
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Daniel_Potter Robert Potter]] was a federal judge for the Western District of North Carolina whose penchant for severely long sentences earned him the nickname "Maximum Bob". The most famous case Potter heard, the 1989 fraud trial of disgraced [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_PTL_Club PTL Club]] founder Jim Bakker, saw Potter sentence Bakker to 45 years in prison, a sentence so long that the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals later reduced Bakker's sentence to 8 years[[note]]Bakker would ultimately serve just under 5 years before going on parole[[/note]].
* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_justice_system_of_Japan#Conviction_rate criminal justice system in Japan]] is particularly notable for conviction rates in excess of ''99%''. A large portion of this is attributed to plea bargains, but much is also owed to prosecutors being given large leeway on whether to prosecute a case ''at all'': as such, prosecutors generally prefer to pursue only cases which they are certain to win. Regardless, the system favors the prosecution so much that getting an acquittal is practically a miracle.
* Similarly to Japan above, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conviction_rate#Russia Russian conviction rate is nearly 100%]]. Any acquittal should be followed by a prosecutor's report on why it was justified. Too many acquittals within a year would result in the prosecutor's paycheck being significantly reduced. Even more so, the public prosecutor's office may initiate inspection of any judge, which often happens to those who are too lenient to the accused. Since the inspection is done by the very same people who initiate it, [[JurisdictionFriction judge's actions would likely be found faulty]].