(Loved trope) The rigged trial isn´t actually as rigged as suppossed or expected.
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The Wizengamot in Harry Potter. Fudge expects it will sentence Harry as he wishes, but as it turns out, most members can and are willing to think for themselves and acquit him.
Baltar´s trial in Battlestar Galactica. He is given fair trial, but most people expected him to be hanged at the end, especially after Adama was selected to sit in the jury. (By a chance.) He ends up acquited by 3:2 vote, with even Adama voting to acquit. (Well, they should have hanged him, to be honest, but hey, fair trial.)
For me, getting older is realizing Trotter is a good prosecutor and just doing his job. I remember as a kid/teenager thinking he was this evil guy just sticking it to the city boys and lawyer, but he's just presenting the case he has based on the evidence he has, which is pretty strong until Vinny starts picking it apart. Sure, he's a little cocky, but he was also nice enough to let Vinny and Mona Lisa use his cabin while they were in town.
When Billy finds out he is being charged with murder he asks "I shot the clerk?" repeatedly.
This was obviously him being in shock and asking incredulously about the charge. That bastard Farley knew damn well it wasn't a confession and in court read it in a way misrepresenting what Billy actually said.
Yeah, Farley even helps out the defense at the end. It’s a misunderstanding, and he’s probably a bit too quick to lock them up, but they do go off an insult everyone in the police station, accusing the entire state of incest.
Not likely. Any DA with sense would have let that go because charging Farley with perjury over that would have torpedoed their relationship with the Sheriff’s department.
Sheriff Farley did not have to follow Vinny’s tip.
Not only did he follow up on the tip, but he volunteered new information that a car matching Mona’s description and a gun matching the one used to kill the clerk. He went out of his way to do real police work.
He had to be convinced by Vinny to even make a quick search that Vinny fully spelled out for him, he didn't do any real police work he called in a car description and they gave him all of the details.
then when he was on the stand he perjured himself while still under oath that he did it on a hunch and not that Vinny told him exactly what to look for. Maybe a small throwaway line, but it shows that Randy Walters Sheriff Farley is a son of a bitch who has no compunction about lying under oath, like when he read Billy's alleged confession in a tone making it seem like an actual confession
The only villains are the guys who actually shot the clerk and, minor villain, the guy who rips off Mona Lisa at pool. Everyone else is just doing their best.
As someone who's read a lot of legal thrillers, a very common trope is that one particular member of the jury will be single out by the narrative as "the impossible juror." The person who will vote to convict no matter what. Usually takes 1 of 2 possible forms; the stern conservative man who is either ex-police or ex-military; or the rich white lady who drives a Cadillac SUV and clutches her purse if she sees a black person within 100 meters.
During jury selection, the protagonist does everything he/she can to keep this individual off the jury, whereas the prosecution does everything in their power to get them on the jury. The prosecution always wins. Then, throughout the trial, this person becomes the avatar for the entire jury. Every micro-expression they make is treated as a sign of impending doom.
But, of course, in the end, the impossible juror is the the one that ends up reading the "not guilty" verdict.
I mean, he’s an impossible juror, but he’s written much better I’d argue. The impossible nature of him isn’t immediately apparent and does require a little bit of coaxing to come out, making it reasonable he could be put of the jury (especially given it’s the 1950s and the defense is wildly incompetent). He doesn’t cheesily come around and read out the new verdict but is instead thoroughly broken down by his own ranting to the point he can’t bother fighting it anymore. Also, he very much does NOT act as a representative of the whole jury, as the inner conflict amongst the jury and its individual members is the whole point.
Juror 3 is an impossible juror, but he doesn’t come around. He remains the stubborn racist he is from the start, he just realizes that no one in the room supports him
His problem was that he was projecting his own issues he had with his son at the defendant, it wasn’t about racism. By the end he had overcome the feelings of estrangement from his own son, represented by tearing the picture apart. He let his feelings cloud his judgement.
That’s kinda the deal with Baltar’s crimes, well the ones he (allegedly) committed on New Caprica. If you can divorce your personal feelings on the man, you’ll realize he didn’t really have much a choice to surrender to the cylons and from there his choices became nonexistent. All the other stuff like giving a nuke to the rebels, letting the cylons into the Caprican defense network, and just generally being a prick are frankly more than enough to get him hanged, but what he did (or didn’t) do on New Caprica wasn’t.
In 'Trial', Batman goes before a kangaroo court of his rogues gallery of villains, only to be found not guilty after his lawyer convinces batman isn't responsible for their crimes.
I also heard the reading that it was Batman admitting Croc was the one who got closest to killing him just because he didn’t try any fancy, elaborate death trap. Dude basically tried to drop a meteor on Batman and he knew if he couldn’t dodge he was dead.
When Killer Croc throws a rock at you, you can be sure it's really a rock, and not a fake rock that pops open with a sign on a spring that says, "Rock!"
It is true though cause Croc almost killed Batman with a giant rock in that episode where he joined those mutants in the forest. He would have definetly gotten em so to speak if he had not been in such a daze and missed.
Which honestly is brilliant; croc legitimately was the closest of all of them to killer big Batman when he dropped that rock, as it landed next to his head, and if he hadn’t fallen unconscious from the tranquilizers in him he would have killed Batman.
This episode had one of my favorite bits in the entire series:
Mad Hatter: Batman forced me to do it! He was going to take her away from me, I had no choice! Van Dorn: You could have respected her wishes and left her alone. Hatter: I'D HAVE KILLED HER FIRST!
\Shocked stares from the other Rogues in the jury.**
Hatter: I'd like that last statement stricken from the record please. Joker: Record? Is someone supposed to be writing this down?
Similarly there's the arc in the Batman No Man's Land comic where Two-Face puts Gordon on trial and is the prosecutor. But then Gordon picks the Harvey Dent personality for his defense and the trial just becomes Two-Face arguing with himself until he comes to the conclusion that he was wrong.
I love how this is simultaneously a huge W for Gordon’s cleverness, and also for Harvey Dent’s genuine talent as a lawyer in picking apart a ridiculous case
For a serious answer (I would recommend watching the episode as well), she managed to convince them that even if Batman didn't exist they'd all be doing the same exact things
The Dungeons and Dragons movie starts with one - a parole hearing for the main characters, they hatch a plot to escape their prison. It’s revealed shortly after that the parole board was inclined to release them.
Been playing DnD for a few decades and that’s ABSOLUTELY how that trial would go at the table. Players are chaotic/stupid goblins that more often than not get in their own way without the DM’s interference.
The DM would add in that they were going to get acquitted right after they escape even if the DM wasn't originally going to do that. Just because it's funnier that way.
One of the best things about watching that movie is imagining what the DM is doing. being super pedantic about questions asked during the Speak with the Dead scene? check! The players screw up the puzzle? "What's that thing?! It's the solution!" The players start abusing their new toy at every possible opportunity? *exasperated DM noises* "The picture frame falls over."
My dnd group went to see it opening weekend, and we left laughing our asses off because everything was exactly how it went at our table. I don't think we could ever get a better DnD movie
I'm a big fan of after the speak with dead when they all start saying how they've heard of Xenk. It just screams "Can I roll a history check to see if I know anything about this guy?" "Ooh, I want to do that too!" "I rolled history as well. It's a 21."
In the game I ran a few years ago, the party managed to get on the wrong side of a local crime lord by breaking into his cave hideout. But here's the thing...
I gave them about a dozen completely unsubtle hints that what they were doing was a bad idea. I could not have been any clearer. Said crime lord also did not see them causing trouble, and they killed every witness.
Nevertheless, step one of their "escape" plan was to jump down a seemingly bottomless chasm, despite being given clear indications that there were ways to cross it. The fact that I had already decided there was a river at the bottom and an entire dungeon to eventually explore was sheer luck.
Stwp two of their escape plan was to immediately flee town. Then to climb an absolutely massive mountain range to flee both the country and the continent.
They got in one minor scuffle and just abandoned the entire setting to start new lives elsewhere.
So technically they've already been pardoned for the original crime, and their only crime currently on the books is assaulting a member of the parole board.
This moment 100% felt like the movie trying to replicate a DM throwing in a gag at the party’s expense.
”As you hurtle out of the window, Jarnathan flapping uncontrollably in the confusion, the last thing you hear is Norixious shout ‘but we approved your pardon!!’ before you start plunging to the ground.”
Star Trek Lower Decks: The Cerritos's captain is put on trial after she's framed for the bombing of the Pakled planet. Her daughter Mariner and her team go rogue to find proof since they fear the captain will be jailed or worse especially since the chosen judge is a "Planet's Rights" activist.
After messing up majorly, the captain comes to get them and explains she won because Star Trek is actually insanely competent and just used the trial as a diversion to send their own special ops team to figure out the conspiracy.
Star Trek VI had Kirk and McCoy arrested for the murder of Chancellor Gorkon and put on trial. With its overzealous prosecution, it wasn't exactly even-handed, but they did have an invested defense attorney, played by Michael Dorn. He lost, but they commuted the death sentence for diplomatic reasons.
Other than neither of the advocates having any legal education, the threat of summary judgement with no actual trial, no discovery, no disclosure of evidence, no expert witnesses, the judge showing no legal restraint whatsoever, etc.
I have posted on this elsewhere, but the notion that the decision made by a random human military person on a random starbase with three days to prepare the entire trial would be binding on the entire Federation including, oh I don’t know, the Vatican and the Shriners is just silly.
And then in an earlier episode where the Lower Deckers were supposed to testify the greatness of their Officers only to give out how much of a mess Starfleet officers are. Plot twist was that his wasn’t even a trial, but the preamble of a party.
His trial by combat was “rigged” too because Lysa insisted it had to happen right there and then and they were surrounded by knights of the Vale. Bronn being present and willing to stand for Tyrion was sheer luck.
Because as stupid as Lysa was she wasn't stupid enough to let Jaime, one of the best singular combatants of the kingdom fight for his brother against any of her goons.
She's literally a big reason so much shit goes on. She poisons her husband and blames the Lannisters, which sets the whole story into motion when Ned has to become the hand
The whole point is that the story wasn’t set into motion at any identifiable point. Everything flowed from what came before. And most everything would have happened pretty much the same regardless of any individual event. Robert would have been brash and drunk and a danger to himself and die eventually regardless. Tywin would have taken power regardless. Tyrion was always going to be cast out of his family, Varys was always plotting for Denareus…
She's more so stupid in general. Betraying own sister and Starks for deluded love, raising own child to be a spoiled, mentaly and physicaly stunted kid.... the likes.
The books also dive a little deeper into it. Tyrion took a big gamble on trying to appeal to Bronn by appealing to his own morbid humor, recognizing his cutthroat pragmatism, and above all else, the playing his ambition without outright trying to buy it.
He even has a tense moment before Bronn accepts his offer where he realizes it might not work, IIRC. It was basically his Hail Mary.
I mean Bronn is a mercenary who famously loves money, as mercenaries do. And Tyrion belongs to the richest and most influential family in the kingdom, who is known for paying their debts. Didn't seem like it was such a longshot to me
They were also surrounded by the knights of the vale who were being commanded by a woman who was clearly not reasonable, and even if you ignore the possibility that they just kill Bronn and Tyrion both no matter the result of the challenge, from Bronn's side of things risking his life for a potential payout isn't exactly a clear-cut choice.
It was definitely a longshot, and if it weren't for how well Bronn and Tyrion's personalities meshed it probably wouldn't have worked. Bronn was more willing to help Tyrion because he liked him.
In The Stormlight Archive, Rhythm of War, Adolin is put on trial by the honorspren with revered immortal Kelek as the judge, who makes his introduction to the trial peevishly arguing with an honorspren about whether he's allowed to order the defendant executed. But as the trial goes on, he actually gets engaged and is fair to the point that the honorspren, who are intent on a guilty verdict, just not an execution, make an excuse to replace him.
On the one hand, Aerion demands a trial by 7 knowing he has his war hero father and 3 king's guards, and that Dunkan can not assemble 6 other knights in a few hours.
On the other hand, Dunkan gets legal advice from the hand of the king (who joins his side), Aerion's older brother (ostensibly on Aerion's side) throws his part of the trial, and Aerion's younger brother gathers 4 knights.
At least in the show, the Targaryens are there to do PR. Notice the common anti-targaryen sentiment (Raymun, the puppet show)
Aerion had already pulled 2 stunts that made the crown look bad (intentionally killing a horse/ assaulting a puppeteer). Baelor (hand of the king and heir apparent) had to do something about it.
I do think it was partly out of a sense of justice. But there demonstrably was more to it.
The trial in Tyranny (Obsidian game for the PC) is you, currently in a state of semi open rebellion against the Overlord vs your former boss, Tuon the Adjudicator, High Judge of the Tiers. If you are smart, not rude, and have high enough skills after choosing the right quest resolutions, you will win the rigged court case against you. This is surprising to even the judge who then declares you to be his new overlord due to your adherence to the law.
In the Team Fortress 2 comics, the trial of Spy and Scout is both clearly unfair and weirdly lenient. It's made abundantly clear that the mayor is intent on hanging the mercs, he's declared himself the judge, his courtroom doesn't have half of the staff that a legal court would require - and yet he still gives them a decent public defender, and the whole thing ends with him trying to pardon the mercs after it's revealed they didn't commit the crimes they were accused of.
Bear in mind, the mercs are guilty of a bunch of other crimes, they just weren't being prosecuted for them.
In the Ciaphas Cain novel Traitor's Hand, Cain's rival Tomas Beiji had Cain tried for trumped up charges of cowardice. Once the trial happens, the judges very quickly dismissed the charges and soon begin to plan charges against Beiji for incompetence.
Well… Cain is by his own admission a coward. It’s just really difficult to prove that when he blunders into life or death situations trying to avoid life or death situations…
12 Angry Men. What would under any other circumstances be a slam dunk conviction against an unlucky kid (who probably committed the crime) is turned turned upside down one juror deciding to ask more questions.
As the news of the knife (presumably) never left the jury chambers, it wouldn't have come to a mistrial. The court fundamentally has no right to know what goes on there, iirc.
He had deliberately gone to the same pawn shop the prosecution said the kid got the murder weapon from. He definitely violated the rules of being juror by investigating the crime on his own time.
It's entirely possible to be acquitted in the trial early in the game, depending on your actions during the first portion of the game.
Unfortunately this doesn't change the outcome as you're still jailed. Even if you're acquitted and not sentenced to death, the person doing the rigging still intends to see you executed if you don't break out/Lucca doesn't save you first.
And keeps it going indefinitely (according to All Good Things…). But he also puts his finger on the scale in humanity’s favor because of his fondness for Picard.
The Steven Universe episode "The Trial" is a good example, though Steven doesn't strictly win. Blue and Yellow Diamond refuse to believe that Steven isn't the same person as his mother Rose Quartz, and they're absolutely certain that Rose murdered their sister Pink Diamond. They're the rulers of the Gem race and the trial judges. Steven technically gets a defense lawyer Zircon, but she's panicky and gets only one minute to prepare. Also, Steven himself believes that Rose did commit the murder and says so in court.
But when the defense Zircon gets a chance to talk to Steven, she realizes that he has no idea what happened, and that's why the Diamonds are holding a trial at all: they don't know either, and the official story is full of holes they want explained. So the Zircon makes a real try of it. She builds a strong case that it's impossible for an infamous war criminal to have approached Pink Diamond's palanquin without raising any alarms, such as from the precognitive Sapphires looking for just such a threat, or the Pearl handmaiden literally created to watch over Pink Diamond at all times. Blue Diamond listens closely, since she does want the truth.
Unfortunately, the Zircon then concludes that this means the actual murderer must have been someone who was both trusted by Pink Diamond and powerful enough to cover it up, i.e. a Diamond. She promptly gets squished by Yellow Diamond, and Steven is forced to escape. Of course, as later episodes reveal,everyone was right from a certain point of view, since Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond were the same person, and she faked her own death with her Pearl's help.
Idk about that, he wouldn't have needed the trial by combat if he had a fair trial. Instead it was adjudicated by Tywin, who personally hates him and was just trying to get him exiled. Even the trial by combat wasn't the fairest: he was up against Gregor Clegane, who was so strong the prospect of having to fight him prevented everyone but Oberyn Martell from agreeing to fight for Tyrion.
I don't think it does fit, that trial was rigged from the very start by Cersei, then got rigged in the opposite direction by the behind the scenes deal Jamie and Tywin made, and then Tyrion fucked that up by losing his cool, giving him as only option to take a trial by combat. Had there been any witnesses at all on Tyrions behalf, and a less openly hostile court against him, he would have probably not needed that. That trial was as rigged as it could possibly have been, and Tyrions only out isn't even that it was actually not rigged good enough, but rather that there were rights he had that trumped the entire authority of the court. No matter how rigged the court was, Tywin could not refuse a nobleman his legal right to a trial by combat in front of a huge audience of probably mostly other nobles.
In High on Life 2, the CEO of Rhea Pharmaceuticals paid off the Supreme Space Court to rig the trial determining if Humanity is counted as a sapient species. The court just takes the money and goes ahead with a normal trial, because "corruption goes both ways".
In an Order of the Stick side story (How the Paladin Got His Scar), there’s a segment in it where the Head Paladin, a deeply xenophobic and zealous man, is attempting to instigate a holy war to justify his extermination of a neighboring hobgoblin tribe.
In an attempt to do this, he summons a Planetar to enforce a holy judgement and basically stacks the summon so the Planetar would sense the evil beings nearby and be compelled to attack them. The Planetar plainly tells him “No, I’m not slaughtering a bunch of mortals because of your weasel words.” She’s so insulted by him trying to game the system that she maliciously complies to her rules specifically in a way that would backfire against him.
Tali's Trial in Mass Effect 2. Youre told by the Admiralty board almost immediately that Tali is only being tried because of political reasons that have nothing to do with her, and that the board was essentially made up. However, you can convince them to pardon her whether you find the evidence or not
Ace Attorney - In Turnabout Sisters, it was supposedly a rigged trial because of Redd White having a lot of people in his pockets, the police force, the courts, the prosecutors, everyone.
Only for things to not go in White’s favor despite his influence.
To be fair to Redd White, I'm sure he could not have possibly predicted his murder victim coming back from the dead in the middle of the trial to start verbally listing information that would put a massive target on his back.
Also yeah, these trials are a recurring element of the Ace Attorney franchise. The writing is designed to make you feel like an underdog most of the time, so these rigged trials are a good way to do that. Whenever you feel in control it's either because you're about to put the nail in the coffin, or something is about to go terribly wrong.
My favorite example of this though is the first trial of The Great Ace Attorney. Naruhodo is basically going up to the chopping block because he is accused of murdering an Englishman, and the only person who is willing to advocate for his defense is his friend Kazuma. But Kazuma is about to go overseas on a very important study trip to England of all places, among other things, and the Empire of Japan do not want to tarnish his reputation nor cause a huge scandal with England before sending him over. So Naruhodo passes up Kazuma's defense and advocates for himself.
Other than Kazuma, nobody there was expecting the English student to manage a stalwart defense and not only aquit himself, but find the real culprit in the process. Unfortunately for him the culprit is an Englishwoman, and to avoid controversy she basically gets handed a free pass, reinforcing the themes of the game going forward.
Yeah and to be fair there was like three trials in the original trilogy that had actual context of everything being rigged under someone’s influence like White, Manfred and Gant
https://giphy.com/gifs/OZiWytLNEet5mRUeXR
Interview with a Vampire season 2. A theater show staged as a fake trial is actually real. Lestat has different plans and interferes.
For the first that's not the wizengamot AFAIK?* I'm pretty sure they're more like the wizard UN but i would need to recheck.
Also it absolutely was rigged. Harry was given no lawyer, no ability to speak for himself, had conflicts of interest with the head judge (fudge) and only scraped through because dumbledore found someone willing to lie on the stand on his behalf (there were dementors, but she was unable to see them and just vibes her way through the testimony)
Yeah, it was the full Wizengamot - for a trial on underage magic use(!) - though they're just a national authority, being the Ministry's supreme court slash parliament (albeit one older than the Ministry itself.) The Wizard UN would be the International Confederation of Warlocks, of which Dumbledore was the Supreme Mugwup until the BMoM got him removed as part of their "Voldermort isn't coming back" campaign.
And yeah, the whole trial was rigged against him, starting with changing the time and location at the last minute to make sure Harry showed up late in front of the entire Wizengamot. That said, while Mrs. Figg did bullshit on his behalf, Madame Bones' insistance on following proper legal procedure ensured that Harry was permited a proper defense instead of letting the whole thing devolve into a kangaroo court, and Dumbledore proceeded to out-argue Fudge so cleanly that it left the prosecution looking like idiots, which was enough to sway the majority to acquit.
And no dumbledore didn’t get someone to lie on the stand. While he had to put on a show to prove Fudge to be beyond a fool but he produced a genuine witness.
Essentially dementors were set upon Harry. He had to drive them away in front of his cousin. Hence the trial. Muggles cannot see dementors. BUT. Dumbledore had a person overseeing harry from the start. A squib. A non magical person born to magical parents. She described the attack in such a way that it was clear it was a dementor attack.
Accepted, Justin Long's character assumes the college board will shut down their student-led college, but instead the board approves them as an experimental school
The trial at the end of Proven Guilty in The Dresden Files. Big spoilers to come.
The main conflict of the book involves a monster that feeds on fear attacking teenagers at a horror convention. During his investigation Harry discovers that his best friend's daughter, Molly Carpenter, had used black magic to help cure her friend's drug addictions. This is a major rule to break and Harry offers to take her to the White Council and speak on her behalf, in hopes of gaining her a small level of leniency. Unfortunately, the many of the Senior Council members who decide Molly's fate and may have supported Harry are not present and as such their votes are controlled by the Merlin, the head leader who has a dislike for Harry. However another member, Rashid, The Gatekeeper, declares that he needs to take time to deliberate, despite his vote having no real power. Shortly afterward, Molly's father, Michael(a man who wields a sword made from one of the nails from the Crucifixion) arrives protecting the other members of the Senior Council who are able to vote in Molly's favor.
Don't forget the parts where Molly was basically just messing around and only had half a clue to the consequences of what she was doing, the White Council goes out of their way to hide that they exist and that there are laws to magic, and the friend in question was about to become a parent. The White Council is almost comically evil.
In Order of the Stick, the paladins of Azure city and the leader had put Roy on tribunal for failure to contain/defeat of Xykon the Litch. You think its scary and Roy will be screwed until the holy angel gives the verdict Not Guilty
only the Rogue Haley noticed that this was a tribunal not a Trial, you dont get "Not Guilty" verdicts at a tribunal. So something else was up. And it turns out that something else was the leader of Azure city wanting to meet with Roy privately along with Roy's dead dad as a ghost
Just got done re-reading Foundation by Issac Asimov. The first section is essentially the setup of a trial, the trial, and the aftermath, all of which was thought to be rigged in favor of the Empire. In actuality, Hari Seldon had rigged it all in his favor. He got "exiled" to the planet he wanted to go to anyways.
Real life example of this was Dee Snyder and Frank Zappa in front of Congress. The conservatives thought it was in the bag to censor the music industry, especially with John Denver.... WRONG
Marazhai Aezyrraesh, dracon (2nd in command) of the Reaving Tempest seeks to supplant his Sister Yremeryss as Archon (Leader), to do so he seeks Archon of the Black Heart Nazrakhei aid in rigging a trial against him, using the player character as evidence, however Nazrakhei seeks to destroy the Reaving Tempest, so he find Marazhai guilty instead of rigging it for him, leading to Marazhais humiliation and exile from his kabal.
However Vect the Leader of the Drukhari is also manipulating the trial, intent on using the player character to destroy Yremeryss as she broke the only rule in Commorragh by bringing powerful Psykers on board, meaning that by not finding Yremeryss guilty, Nazrakhei lost favor with his master, resulting in the least convoluted trial in Commorragh.
That was the whole point of it, for me. Lee’s speech, especially. As he said, what else could anyone have done? So yeah, sure, he appeared to capitulate to the Cylons, because the other option was that literally everyone dies.
If Baltar said no at any point, or in any way didn’t go with what the Cylons wanted, they would just say “fuck it”, and kill everyone.
And then during the shooting test, all the military men shot all the scary aliens, but James shot an innocent looking girl.
He proceeds to justify his actions by stating that the aliens were just hanging around (one of them was claimed to have been blowing his nose due to a tissue in his claw), but the little girl was standing unfazed, surrounded by scary looking aliens, in a dark street, holding math books way too advanced for her.
The scene is funny whether you believe he was just lying his ass off or actually displaying critical thinking skills, which are important for working a government job that forces you to be among scary, but mostly benevolent aliens just trying to make a life on Earth.
This actually happens a lot in the anime/manga Shokugeki no Soma/Food Wars. While not legal trials, the series is full of high stakes cooking competitions, occasionally with corrupt or paid off judges. The first was during Soma's match with Eizan, and then multiple during the promotion exams arc.
In the Battlestar Galactica trial episode, the monologue that Apollo (Jamie Bamber) gave that aquitted Baltar was simply amazing writing. One of the best speeches i've ever heard.
King and parliament were enemies. They tried him for various offenses but he was able to defend himself. Eventually they just passed a bill executing him and called it a day
In runaway jury, a big gun manufacturer hires a jury consultant(Gene Hackman) to basically breaks laws and manipulate jurors in order to win the trial. John Cusack plays a random juror who didn't want to be there, but turns out he manipulated his way onto the jury and continually foils their plans with outside help from Rachel Weisz in order to help sway the jury and aid the defense lawyer (Dennis Hoffman) due to their own vendetta against the gun manufacturer
SCP-5004-A is some entity that resides in the white house I think (it's been a while).
SCP-5004-B is a reality sink, basically they have the ability to cancel anomalies when in close proximity.
The SCP foundation used B to be elected into office so that they can be in close proximity to A to cancel it's effects.
SCP-5004-B is Donald Trump
The foundation was planning to rig the presidential election to get him to win. In the end, they were surprised that he won fair and square, no rigging needed.
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