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Trial by combat was a method of Germanic law to settle accusations in the absence of witnesses or a confession in which two parties in dispute fought in single combat; the winner of the fight was proclaimed to be right. In essence, it was a judicially sanctioned duel. It remained in use throughout the European Middle Ages, gradually disappearing in the course of the 16th century.
The Scottsboro Boys were nine African American teenagers and young men, ages 13 to 20, accused in Alabama of raping two white women in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial. The cases included a lynch mob before the suspects had been indicted, all-white juries, rushed trials, and disruptive mobs. It is commonly cited as an example of a legal injustice in the United States legal system.
The People's Court is an American arbitration-based reality court show, featuring an arbitrator handling small claims disputes in a simulated courtroom set. Within the court show genre, it is the first of all arbitration-based reality-style programs, which has overwhelmingly become the convention of the genre. The original series ran from 1981 to 1993, and the current revival debuted in 1997. Both versions have run in first-run syndication. The show ranks as the longest-running traditional court show and second-longest-running court show in general, having a total of 38 overall seasons as of the 2022-23 television year, behind only niche court show Divorce Court by 2 seasons.
Nolle prosequi, abbreviated nol or nolle pros, is legal Latin meaning "to be unwilling to pursue". It is a type of prosecutorial discretion in common law, used for prosecutors' declarations that they are voluntarily ending a criminal case before trial or before a verdict is rendered; it is a kind of motion to dismiss and contrasts with an involuntary dismissal.
Brian Gene Nichols is a rapist and murderer known for his escape and killing spree in the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 11, 2005. Nichols was on trial for rape when he escaped custody and murdered the judge presiding over his trial, a court reporter, a Fulton County Sheriff's deputy, and later an ICE special agent. Twenty-six hours after a large-scale manhunt was launched in the metropolitan Atlanta area, Nichols was taken into custody. The prosecution charged him with committing 54 crimes during the escape; he was found guilty on all counts on November 7, 2008 and was subsequently sentenced to life in prison.
A courtroom is the enclosed space in which courts of law are held in front of a judge. A number of courtrooms, which may also be known as "courts", may be housed in a courthouse. In recent years, courtrooms have been equipped with audiovisual technology to permit everyone present to clearly hear testimony and see exhibits.
The Massie Trial, for what was known as the Massie Affair, was a 1932 criminal trial that took place in Honolulu, Hawaii Territory. Socialite Grace Fortescue, along with several accomplices, was charged with the murder of the well-known local prizefighter Joseph Kahahawai. Fortescue was the mother of Thalia Massie, who had brought charges that Kahahawai was one of a group of men who had raped her.
John James McCoy is a fictional character in the television drama Law & Order. He was created by Dick Wolf and Michael S. Chernuchin and has been portrayed by Sam Waterston during both the show's original run from 1994 to 2010 and since its return in 2022. He is the longest-tenured character on the show, appearing in 18 seasons. He has appeared in 382 episodes of Law & Order, four episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, two episodes of Law & Order: Trial by Jury, two episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street, and the made-for-TV movie Exiled.
Alexandra "Alex" Cabot is a fictional character within the Law & Order universe portrayed by Stephanie March. She is a primary character in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Conviction.
Mistaken identity is a defense in criminal law which claims the actual innocence of the criminal defendant, and attempts to undermine evidence of guilt by asserting that any eyewitness to the crime incorrectly thought that they saw the defendant, when in fact the person seen by the witness was someone else. The defendant may question both the memory of the witness, and the perception of the witness.
Divorce Court is an American court show that revolves around settling the disputes of couples going through divorces. The show has had four separate runs, all in first-run syndication. Since the debut of the original series in 1957, it is one of the longest-running syndicated television programs of all time. Divorce Court also holds the record for the longest-running court show of all time, leading the second-place show The People's Court by two years.
Gladys Towles Root was a successful criminal defense attorney in Los Angeles, known for her piercing cross-examinations. Root specialized in sexual assault and murder cases, partly because those were the only clients available to a woman attorney at the time and partly because few other lawyers wanted to defend them.
Trial by Jury is an American dramatized court show that aired in first-run syndication during the 1989-90 television season.
The Wichita Massacre, also known as the Wichita Horror, was a week-long series of random brutal crimes perpetrated by brothers Reginald and Jonathan Carr in the city of Wichita, Kansas between December 8 and 15, 2000. Five people were killed, and two people, a man and a woman, were severely wounded. The brothers were arrested and convicted of multiple counts of murder, kidnapping, robbery, and rape. They were both sentenced to death in October 2002. Their vicious crimes created panic in the Wichita area resulting in an increase in the sales of guns, locks, and home security systems.
Ashford v Thornton (1818) 106 ER 149 is an English criminal case in the Court of King's Bench which upheld the right of the defendant to trial by battle on a private appeal from an acquittal for murder.
Channon Gail Christian, aged 21, and Hugh Christopher Newsom Jr., aged 23, were from Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. They were kidnapped on the evening of January 6, 2007, when Christian's vehicle was carjacked. The couple were taken to a rental house. Both of them were raped, tortured, and murdered. Four males and one female were arrested, charged, and convicted in the case. In 2007, a grand jury indicted Letalvis Darnell Cobbins, Lemaricus Devall Davidson, George Geovonni Thomas, and Vanessa Lynn Coleman on counts of kidnapping, robbery, rape, and murder. Also in 2007, Eric DeWayne Boyd was indicted by a federal grand jury of being an accessory to a carjacking, resulting in serious bodily injury to another person, and misprision of a felony. In 2018, Boyd was indicted on state-level charges of kidnapping, robbery, rape, and murder.
A court show is a broadcast programming subgenre of either legal dramas or reality legal programming. Court shows present content mainly in the form of legal hearings between plaintiffs and defendants presided over by a judge, often in one of two formats: a scripted/improvised format performed by an actor; or an arbitration-based reality format with the case handled by an adjudicator who was formerly a judge or attorney.
Accused is a 1958 dramatized court show consisting of filmed reenactments of actual court cases. The show was cancelled at the end of its first season.
Day in Court was an American dramatized court show that ran on ABC Daytime starting on October 13, 1958 until its cancellation in February 1965.
References
- ↑ tarlton.law.utexas.edu(PDF) https://web.archive.org/web/20140116141958/http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/exhibits/mason_%26_associates/documents/reality_series_by_title.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-01-16.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ↑ Chun, Wendy Hui Kyong; Keenan, Thomas (June 2004). New Media, Old Media: A History and Theory Reader. ISBN 9780203643839.