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Common Nonsense Jury

129 statements
23 feature instances
18 referencing feature instances

Common Nonsense Jury	type	FeatureClass
Common Nonsense Jury	label	Common Nonsense Jury
Common Nonsense Jury	page	CommonNonsenseJury
Common Nonsense Jury	comment	A jury defies all logic and common sense and comes back with a verdict contrary to the evidence. It's not a Joker Jury, a Jury of the Damned, or a Kangaroo Court — a group of regular citizens has come back with the wrong decision. Usually, a not guilty verdict is intended to demonstrate the jury's outright gullibility (or intimidation), whereas an unfair guilty verdict indicates they were unable to see past some fear or prejudice against the defendant. In real life (principally in the USA), the "voir dire" process is meant to ensure that juries are made up of fair and impartial members who will treat the case seriously. In the UK and Commonwealth, it can include testing the competency of potential jurors. However, in most US jurisdictions, lawyers are allowed to weed out potential jurors for any reason at all (other than race), granting plenty of latitude for less ethical lawyers who prefer juries that are easily swayed by emotional appeals and courtroom theatrics. Occasionally, a surprise acquittal can be due to a phenomenon known as "jury nullification", in which the jurors return a "not guilty" verdict even though the prosecution has in fact proven their case beyond a reasonable doubt. This is usually because the jury feels that extenuating circumstances justify the crime, or occasionally because they feel the law is unfairly applied or simply wrong. There are two sides to this: A) the US legal system says that it is not the jury's place to decide what the law should be, but to come to a conclusion as to whether the law as it is currently written has or has not been broken. B) Nevertheless, jury nullification is legal in the US. A criminal court can't insist on a guilty verdict, an acquittal can't be appealed, and jurors can't be punished for a verdict. note There are circumstances where a judge can set aside an acquittal, but it's extremely rare and limited to cases of juror misconduct; the result is a mistrial, not a guilty verdict, which means the defendant has to be tried again, or the case is dropped.
Common Nonsense Jury	fetched	2023-07-07T07:14:42Z
Common Nonsense Jury	parsed	2023-07-07T07:14:42Z
Common Nonsense Jury	processingComment	Dropped link to BoomerangBigot: Not an Item - FEATURE
Common Nonsense Jury	processingComment	Dropped link to HeroicBSOD: Not an Item - FEATURE
Common Nonsense Jury	processingComment	Dropped link to MoralGuardian: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
Common Nonsense Jury	processingComment	Dropped link to RKelly: Not an Item - IGNORE
Common Nonsense Jury	processingComment	Dropped link to TwelveAngryMen: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
Common Nonsense Jury	processingUnknown	MoralGuardian
Common Nonsense Jury	processingUnknown	TwelveAngryMen
Common Nonsense Jury	isPartOf	DBTropes
Common Nonsense Jury / int_109f7814	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Common Nonsense Jury / int_109f7814	comment	In the Sherlock episode "The Reichenbach Fall" Moriarty stands trial for attempting to steal the Crown Jewels. He was caught red-handed at the scene, there are plenty of witnesses and good quality security camera footage. At trial he offers no defense and the judge tells the jury that they have no choice but to convict. They return a unanimous verdict of 'not guilty'. Moriarty threatened to kill the jurors' families unless they acquitted him.
Common Nonsense Jury / int_109f7814	featureApplicability	1.0
Common Nonsense Jury / int_109f7814	featureConfidence	1.0
Sherlock	hasFeature	Common Nonsense Jury / int_109f7814
Common Nonsense Jury / int_247422c7	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Common Nonsense Jury / int_247422c7	comment	During the court-martial of Pavel Young in Field of Dishonor, the six-member officer panel is split between political ideologies. Three of the court's members refuse to convict on the charges regardless of the evidence due to the politics of the situation, though they initially claim it is because they do not believe the charges to be valid. Eventually, Admiral Sonja Hemphill admits that the facts of the case are irrelevant, she simply will not agree to the conviction,note Because she knows that if he was convicted of all charges, a declaration of war against Haven would never get through Parliament, risking the safety of the kingdom but because she is not completely amoral, she agrees to a compromise verdict that spares him from a death sentence. The fallout of the trial leads the the remaining plot of the novel.
Common Nonsense Jury / int_247422c7	featureApplicability	1.0
Common Nonsense Jury / int_247422c7	featureConfidence	1.0
Honor Harrington	hasFeature	Common Nonsense Jury / int_247422c7
Common Nonsense Jury / int_261c8d3f	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Common Nonsense Jury / int_261c8d3f	comment	The Simpsons: In the episode "New Kid On The Block", Homer, ever the Jerkass Big Eater, eats a whole restaurant's stock of food (several times over) because it offers an "all you can eat" buffet and then has the gall to sue it for false advertisement because it wasn't all that he could eat. It ends up being one of the few times that Lionel Hutz (representing Homer) wins a case because all of the people in the jury were fat food lovers like Homer who felt sympathy for his "plight".
Common Nonsense Jury / int_261c8d3f	featureApplicability	1.0
Common Nonsense Jury / int_261c8d3f	featureConfidence	1.0
The Simpsons	hasFeature	Common Nonsense Jury / int_261c8d3f
Common Nonsense Jury / int_29516906	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Common Nonsense Jury / int_29516906	comment	The first television series of Dragnet featured an episode in which a jury acquitted a (guilty) man because a witness could not identify the man himself but only describe what he was wearing. They did this despite expert testimony that the probability of two people wearing identical outfits was very low. The 'not guilty' verdict prompts the Judge to lecture the jury on what idiots they are for a good five minutes. (The rest of the episode involved the police arresting him for a new crime with definite proof it was him.)
Common Nonsense Jury / int_29516906	featureApplicability	1.0
Common Nonsense Jury / int_29516906	featureConfidence	1.0
Dragnet (Franchise)	hasFeature	Common Nonsense Jury / int_29516906
Common Nonsense Jury / int_2a1f0a3e	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Common Nonsense Jury / int_2a1f0a3e	comment	A few verdicts on For the People are clearly driven by prejudice. There was also the time Allison aimed for jury nullification in order to protect her client.
Common Nonsense Jury / int_2a1f0a3e	featureApplicability	1.0
Common Nonsense Jury / int_2a1f0a3e	featureConfidence	1.0
For the People	hasFeature	Common Nonsense Jury / int_2a1f0a3e
Common Nonsense Jury / int_3defe34c	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Common Nonsense Jury / int_3defe34c	comment	This was discussed, if not necessarily demonstrated, in Runaway Jury.
Common Nonsense Jury / int_3defe34c	featureApplicability	1.0
Common Nonsense Jury / int_3defe34c	featureConfidence	1.0
Discussed Trope	hasFeature	Common Nonsense Jury / int_3defe34c
Common Nonsense Jury / int_5755b96a	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Common Nonsense Jury / int_5755b96a	comment	Played with in The Order of the Stick when Haley points out that the innocent verdict they receive when being tried for destroying a mystical Gate is erroneous because, regardless of the surrounding circumstances, they are actually guilty of the charge. It turns out that the entire trial was a sham orchestrated to get them to the city, and the "jury" was in fact Roy's father using an illusion.
Common Nonsense Jury / int_5755b96a	featureApplicability	1.0
Common Nonsense Jury / int_5755b96a	featureConfidence	1.0
The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Common Nonsense Jury / int_5755b96a
Common Nonsense Jury / int_5c1a9545	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Common Nonsense Jury / int_5c1a9545	comment	The Practice: A drug dealer claimed self-defense in stabbing (7 times) an addict he'd threatened to murder over his mounting drug debts. His long criminal record and the complete lack of any supporting evidence prompt him to try and strangle the DA in open court in an unsuccessful bid to provoke a mistrial and delay the inevitable (the judge even refuses to grant it because he knows the guy's going down for murder). The not guilty verdict prompts the DA to break down into a tirade about juror stupidity. Another episode features the judge berating the jury for their decision to award a ridiculous amount of money to the plaintiff in a dubious fraud lawsuit, before exercising his power to reduce the amount. The attorney and clients accept that without much protest (they were pretty stunned when the verdict was announced), though the client does ruefully admit that when he first heard the jury's original verdict he immediately started imagining his brand new boat. Jimmy once defended a woman who stabbed a drug lord to death and the judge wouldn't allow them to plead self-defense or defense of others. He managed to convince the jury to acquit.
Common Nonsense Jury / int_5c1a9545	featureApplicability	1.0
Common Nonsense Jury / int_5c1a9545	featureConfidence	1.0
The Practice	hasFeature	Common Nonsense Jury / int_5c1a9545
Common Nonsense Jury / int_71ac2098	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Common Nonsense Jury / int_71ac2098	comment	Mystery, Alaska has an incident where a local store owner is acquitted in the shooting of the representative of a Walmart expy who wanted to buy his store. Since he's local and the best hockey player in town, the jury finds him not guilty so he can participate in the Big Game against the NY Rangers. They also attempt to award him damages, but the judge rightly points out you can't do that in a criminal trial. He also lambasts the jury for putting the game above what's right. No one really cares.
Common Nonsense Jury / int_71ac2098	featureApplicability	1.0
Common Nonsense Jury / int_71ac2098	featureConfidence	1.0
Mystery, Alaska	hasFeature	Common Nonsense Jury / int_71ac2098
Common Nonsense Jury / int_7da03988	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Common Nonsense Jury / int_7da03988	comment	The second episode of Harry's Law featured a woman on trial for committing armed robbery, with eyewitness testimony and video evidence. The defense Harry presented basically amounted to "Yeah, she did it, and she wasn't insane or senile, but she's an old woman". It worked.
Common Nonsense Jury / int_7da03988	featureApplicability	1.0
Common Nonsense Jury / int_7da03988	featureConfidence	1.0
Harry's Law	hasFeature	Common Nonsense Jury / int_7da03988
Common Nonsense Jury / int_7dcdbde1	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Common Nonsense Jury / int_7dcdbde1	comment	The Great Ace Attorney has most trials revolve around the Jury System, and if you get a Game Over, the jury will falsely declare your client guilty. This can happen even if you are near the end of the trial and it's incredibly obvious who the real culprit is. In fact, they will do this at least once per trial even when you do everything right, at which point you need to do a Summation Examination and examine the jurors' reasoning, then point out flaws and convince the jurors to change their vote.
Common Nonsense Jury / int_7dcdbde1	featureApplicability	1.0
Common Nonsense Jury / int_7dcdbde1	featureConfidence	1.0
The Great Ace Attorney (Visual Novel)	hasFeature	Common Nonsense Jury / int_7dcdbde1
Common Nonsense Jury / int_8125b468	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Common Nonsense Jury / int_8125b468	comment	Gotham City, being the poster child and home to the Trope Namer of Joker Immunity, means any criminal regardless of whether or not they have a legally-mitigating mental disorder can manipulate their way into Arkham Asylum. The Great White Shark was dumb enough to have his case transferred to Gotham City to skate on an Insanity Defense for embezzling millions from the life savings of his company's clients; dumb, because he winds up getting sent to Arkham Asylum. The presiding judge lampshades the jury's idiocy for falling for his obvious lies, but takes comfort in knowing the white-collar "Shark" will be a mere guppy amongst the myriad of maniacs and psychopaths that Arkham houses. Of course, another explanation is that the jury thought anyone willingly going to Arkham must be insane.
Common Nonsense Jury / int_8125b468	featureApplicability	1.0
Common Nonsense Jury / int_8125b468	featureConfidence	1.0
Batman (Franchise)	hasFeature	Common Nonsense Jury / int_8125b468
Common Nonsense Jury / int_8dfbdff2	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Common Nonsense Jury / int_8dfbdff2	comment	A frequent occurrence on the Law & Order franchise: The SVU episode "Obscene" had a Moral Guardian crusader shoot an offensive shock jock. They had evidence that it was a premeditated publicity stunt and her defense was that the shock jock was a bad influence on her son. It worked. The SVU episode "Redemption" opens with a jury finding a man not guilty of raping his granddaughter despite said granddaughter's testimony, Stabler's testimony, and the fact that the victim and the defendant had the same sexually transmitted infection. Even by his standards Stabler is not in a good mental state for the rest of the episode.
Common Nonsense Jury / int_8dfbdff2	featureApplicability	1.0
Common Nonsense Jury / int_8dfbdff2	featureConfidence	1.0
Law & Order	hasFeature	Common Nonsense Jury / int_8dfbdff2
Common Nonsense Jury / int_8f58ab76	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Common Nonsense Jury / int_8f58ab76	comment	Liar Liar has Fletcher's secretary relate a friend's story of the "burglar sues the homeowner after B&E goes bad and wins" predicament to point out how he and other Amoral Attorneys are all alike. Fletcher insists he's not: if he were the burglar's attorney, he would've gotten him twice for twice that amount of money. All this implies they must have a very compliant jury (also judge).
Common Nonsense Jury / int_8f58ab76	featureApplicability	1.0
Common Nonsense Jury / int_8f58ab76	featureConfidence	1.0
Liar Liar	hasFeature	Common Nonsense Jury / int_8f58ab76
Common Nonsense Jury / int_93df96	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Common Nonsense Jury / int_93df96	comment	In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch demonstrates the accuser Mayella's injuries were caused by a left-handed individual while the defendant, Tom Robinson paralyzed his left arm in an accident. The jury of that time in the Deep South still convicted him, but the fact that they spent hours deliberating instead of immediately returning with a guilty verdict is taken as unofficial confirmation that at least some of them recognized the truth (even if they quickly acquiesced to the unjust and racist expectations of their community that a black man accused of such a crime could not be allowed to go free).
Common Nonsense Jury / int_93df96	featureApplicability	1.0
Common Nonsense Jury / int_93df96	featureConfidence	1.0
To Kill a Mockingbird	hasFeature	Common Nonsense Jury / int_93df96
Common Nonsense Jury / int_99c003af	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Common Nonsense Jury / int_99c003af	comment	The Boondocks plays it for laughs. In one episode, an intern for the Black Panthers was sentenced to death for the murder of a cop despite the real killer leaving the gun with the receipt attached, his prints on the gun, and shouting to everyone around that he was the murderer. Uncle Ruckus served on a jury that convicted a blind black man accused of shooting (from 50 yards away) three white women with a rifle and delighted in shouting racist threats (complete with a hangman's noose) from his seat in the jury. There was also the episode in which R. Kelly is acquitted of lewd conduct with a minor, despite overwhelming evidence, because the jury liked his music and Kelly's (white) attorney argued that the (black) prosecutor hates black people.
Common Nonsense Jury / int_99c003af	featureApplicability	1.0
Common Nonsense Jury / int_99c003af	featureConfidence	1.0
The Boondocks	hasFeature	Common Nonsense Jury / int_99c003af
Common Nonsense Jury / int_bd0d2c55	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Common Nonsense Jury / int_bd0d2c55	comment	Rumpole of the Bailey presents us with "Rumpole a la Carte," in which the chef at a posh French restaurant in London is on trial for a health violation — namely having a live mouse presented upon a customer's plate. Like most things in the health code, this is a strict-liability offense: it doesn't matter why you did it, or how it happened, it only matters that the code was violated. However, Rumpole does his best to laugh the case out of court, and produces evidence that the mouse was planted as a complex plot by the cashier.note The chef's venomous French wife was divorcing him, and since they had been married under French law, she would get half of the profits from the restaurant via community of property. The cashier hated the wife and was desperately in love with the chef, so she cooked up the scheme to ruin the restaurant so the ex would get nothing. The jury acquits.
Common Nonsense Jury / int_bd0d2c55	featureApplicability	1.0
Common Nonsense Jury / int_bd0d2c55	featureConfidence	1.0
Rumpole of the Bailey	hasFeature	Common Nonsense Jury / int_bd0d2c55
Common Nonsense Jury / int_bd886ad	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Common Nonsense Jury / int_bd886ad	comment	Subverted in Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law When the titular character is on trial for a potential murder, the jury is the one to initially declare him not guilty, to even their own surprise, but Judge Mentok ignores this and sentences him anyway. This is because the whole situation was just an elaborate setup to give Harvey a surprise birthday party, including all but one part of everything leading up to his apparent execution.
Common Nonsense Jury / int_bd886ad	featureApplicability	-0.3
Common Nonsense Jury / int_bd886ad	featureConfidence	1.0
Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law	hasFeature	Common Nonsense Jury / int_bd886ad
Common Nonsense Jury / int_c35714d6	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Common Nonsense Jury / int_c35714d6	comment	Blackadder Goes Forth, while we don't know the details of the case, presents us with a nice example:
Common Nonsense Jury / int_c35714d6	featureApplicability	1.0
Common Nonsense Jury / int_c35714d6	featureConfidence	1.0
Blackadder	hasFeature	Common Nonsense Jury / int_c35714d6
Common Nonsense Jury / int_ca08598f	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Common Nonsense Jury / int_ca08598f	comment	The jury for Clay Davis's trial in The Wire, who are seemingly under the impression that massive campaign finance fraud ceases to be illegal if you give away all the money. Davis actually wasn't giving the money away, and was just as massively corrupt as the prosecution claimed; it's just that the jury were too dumb to see through his fairly wild — if articulate — lies of apparently handing it out by the pocketful to passing people in need.
Common Nonsense Jury / int_ca08598f	featureApplicability	1.0
Common Nonsense Jury / int_ca08598f	featureConfidence	1.0
The Wire	hasFeature	Common Nonsense Jury / int_ca08598f
Common Nonsense Jury / int_cac20f89	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Common Nonsense Jury / int_cac20f89	comment	JAG: Basically the plot of the season ten episode "The Sixth Juror" when Petty Officer Jennifer Coates is brought in as juror and starts asking pertinent questions which no one had thought about.
Common Nonsense Jury / int_cac20f89	featureApplicability	1.0
Common Nonsense Jury / int_cac20f89	featureConfidence	1.0
JAG	hasFeature	Common Nonsense Jury / int_cac20f89
Common Nonsense Jury / int_f0a86c12	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Common Nonsense Jury / int_f0a86c12	comment	An episode of How I Met Your Mother involves environmental lawyer Marshall Erikson in court against a corrupt Mega-Corp for illegal dumping which resulted in an ecological nightmare in a particular lake. In a variation of this trope, he actually convinces the jury and they find the corporation guilty; but then the judge decides to all but waive the fines and any other consequences (from $25 million and jail time for the executives who knowingly polluted the lake down to a measly fine of $25 thousand) because the company is big and powerful and it was just some stupid lake. This causes Marshall to realize the judges are the ones with the power to enact real change and punishment and he decides to become one.
Common Nonsense Jury / int_f0a86c12	featureApplicability	1.0
Common Nonsense Jury / int_f0a86c12	featureConfidence	1.0
How I Met Your Mother	hasFeature	Common Nonsense Jury / int_f0a86c12
Common Nonsense Jury / int_fea9f0b9	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Common Nonsense Jury / int_fea9f0b9	comment	The Great White Shark was dumb enough to have his case transferred to Gotham City to skate on an Insanity Defense for embezzling millions from the life savings of his company's clients; dumb, because he winds up getting sent to Arkham Asylum. The presiding judge lampshades the jury's idiocy for falling for his obvious lies, but takes comfort in knowing the white-collar "Shark" will be a mere guppy amongst the myriad of maniacs and psychopaths that Arkham houses. Of course, another explanation is that the jury thought anyone willingly going to Arkham must be insane.
Common Nonsense Jury / int_fea9f0b9	featureApplicability	1.0
Common Nonsense Jury / int_fea9f0b9	featureConfidence	1.0
Arkham Asylum: Living Hell (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Common Nonsense Jury / int_fea9f0b9

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

Common Nonsense Jury	processingCategory2	Crime and Punishment Tropes
Common Nonsense Jury	processingCategory2	Plots
Common Nonsense Jury	processingCategory2	The Courtroom Index
Fun Home (Comic Book) / int_539a29a3	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Bernie / int_539a29a3	type	Common Nonsense Jury
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939) / int_539a29a3	type	Common Nonsense Jury
A Civil Action / int_539a29a3	type	Common Nonsense Jury
To Kill a Mockingbird / int_539a29a3	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Billions / int_539a29a3	type	Common Nonsense Jury
For the People / int_539a29a3	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Harry's Law / int_539a29a3	type	Common Nonsense Jury
JAG / int_539a29a3	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Law & Order / int_539a29a3	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Rumpole of the Bailey / int_539a29a3	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Among Us (Video Game) / int_539a29a3	type	Common Nonsense Jury
Liberal Crime Squad (Video Game) / int_539a29a3	type	Common Nonsense Jury
The Great Ace Attorney (Visual Novel) / int_539a29a3	type	Common Nonsense Jury
The Boondocks / int_539a29a3	type	Common Nonsense Jury

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