History Headscratchers / JudgeDredd

** The death penalty seems to exist depending on the writer. Generally, though, killing a judge will likely earn it. Also, it seems that there's plenty of HypocriticalHumor afoot. The judges took power, as democracy [[{{Understatement}} proved to be less than ideal]]. The judge system itself, relies on judges being completely by the book. Dredd is probably the only one who is ever consistent in this (and even he slips up at times). In fact, there are plenty of corrupt judges (One ''Simping Detective'' story states that Jack Point is the only honest judge in Sector 13. This being the [[SmokingIsCool chain-smoking]] [[TheAlcoholic alcoholic]] [[AnythingThatMoves womaniser]] who [[ObfuscatingStupidity literally dresses like a clown]]). One story even uses the phrase "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely", lending credence to the theory that the judges are nowhere near as ideal as they'd like. There's a good reason for the SJS.

** First, why would a Judge's pistol have a feature that recorded the DNA of the user on the bullets fired? Lawbringers are DNA-locked, so only the authorized user can fire them in the first place. Recording that on the bullets would be redundant.

** The Judges have to fight mutants as well. And from the "Judge Dredd verse Aliens" comics, it seems that it is standard procedure to burn mutated pest.

*** Chief Justice Fargo would have been a "current judge" at the time of the hearing.

** Also, when Chief Judge Fargo finds Dredd in the Cursed Earth, he explains how Dredd was cloned from ''his'' DNA. In that case, shouldn't the DNA sample at Dredd's trial have been identified by the computer as ''Fargo'' DNA, rather than Dredd's? Even if the DNA was modified for the cloning experiments, the findings should only suggest that the person who fired the gun belongs to one of the clones, for which Dredd would not be the only individual named. Of course, it's arguable that the council could have tampered with the findings to gain a conviction against Dredd, but nothing is done to explicitly suggest this.

* Rico replaces the DNA sample being used to clone new Judges with his own, declaring with scenery-chewing glee that the resulting army will be just as crazy as him. What he doesn't seem to realize is that ''he was cloned from the exact same DNA that was already there''. He and Dredd are both clones from an earlier phase of the project, and they both have the same DNA, an important plot point that explains how Rico is able to frame Dredd for murder earlier. Rico just replaced the existing DNA with an exact copy.]] Given the quality of the movie as a whole, the writers might have realized this and [[TheyJustDidntCare just not bothered to change it]].

* Movie question: In the early part, before Dredd is framed, he comes to intervene in block wars to find the other Judges huddled for cover from the automatic gunfire above. He then strides down the middle of the street and declares that they are beyond the effective range of the rifles. Can weapons have an effect range when being fired straight down?
** One of the many reasons I suppress the memory of the film.
** "They're firing caseless Fletcher rounds...", as Dredd states, suggests to me that the perps are using some sort of shotgun. The sound and look of their guns backs this up to some extent. Over a large distance, caseless shotgun rounds will disperse to the point where they're not going to be a problem for an armoured Judge, despite the speed at which the shrapnel is flying.
*** Possibly Flechette rounds? In most fiction I've read, flechette rounds are highly effective in short ranges or against unarmored targets at medium range, essentially firing several razor sharp darts, however drag on the darts causes them to lose power quickly when compared to standard rounds. Real life mileage varies, with such weapons used as antipersonel weapons when dropped from planes in World War I.