History Main / JuryAndWitnessTampering

* ''Literature/HonorHarrington'': In ''Field of Dishonor'', three of the six officers serving as panel judges (the military equivalent of a jury) during [[RoyalBrat Pavel Young]]'s court-martial are either invested in his father's political faction or present in said father's voluminous {{blackmail}} files. This results in Admiral Hemphill offering a deal where Young is convicted of every charge that ''doesn't'' carry a death sentence, with the verdict given as a "hung jury" on the others.

** ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'': This is actually used ''by the good guys''. As part of his plan to expose [[spoiler:Kristoph Gavin]] as the one responsible for commissioning and delivering unto [[spoiler: Phoenix]] the forged evidence (which he didn't know was forged when he presented it) that led to his attorney's badge being revoked, as well as the murder of [[spoiler:Drew Misham and attempted murder of Vera Misham,]] Phoenix volunteers to be the one who selects jury members for a test run of the new "jurist system", which would allow regular citizens to ultimately decide the guilt or innocence of a defendant rather than the power resting solely with the judge. In the trial against [[spoiler: Vera]] for the murder of [[spoiler: her father,]] Apollo manages to [[spoiler:expose Kristoph as the poisoner of both Mishams, but, as Kristoph points out, since the poisons had been sitting around in their home for seven years prior and he didn't directly force either of them to ingest any of it, no one can definitively prove him guilty for anything. It's then that we cut to the jury room when Vera's fate in the case is about to be decided, and we see an unnamed person asking Phoenix to clarify the rule about no jurors who have personal ties to the case at hand being allowed to vote. Phoenix agrees and states that the juror doesn't have any such personal tie to ''this'' case. It's then that we realize that the juror is Thalassa Gramarye, who we've known until recently as Lamiroir, who's regained her memory and learned that the man whom Kristoph was convicted for killing in the first case was her husband. Again, there's no irrefutable physical evidence to prove that Kristoph is guilty, but since Thalassa knows what kind of man he is, she votes Vera "not guilty", which allows her to go free and prompts Kristoph to burst into a legendary fit of [[LaughingMad unhinged laughter.]]]]

Turns out the witness was approached outside the courtroom by the defendant, or a representative of the defendant, and was coerced into changing his/her story or not showing up to testify, either through [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney monetary offerings]] or [[AndYourLittleDogToo threats to the witness or their loved ones]]. In the case of the jury, it may be that at least one member was similarly approached and "[[ShameIfSomethingHappened persuaded]]" to sway his/her fellow jurors in a direction more favorable to the defendant.

A CommonNonsenseJury may be created because of this. A RogueJuror may have this as his/her reason for going against the grain (not all the time, though). If this trope results in a witness testimony being changed or is part of a larger {{Frameup}} plot, that may result in [[MiscarriageOfJustice an innocent person going to jail]].

* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': As revealed in the ''Origins'' story, this trope is what led to the Judge system being implemented; crime rates in the United States had spiraled completely out of control by the mid-2020's, culminating in an army of gang members led by the P Street Posse storming the White House, with the President just narrowly being rescued in time. Because of witness and jury intimidation, ''not a single conviction'' was made against the criminals. This was the last straw, and Congress passed an initative created by Eustace Fargo that would get rid of due process entirerly, and give law enforcement the authority to decide guilt and pass sentences themselves.

* ''Series/BarneyMiller'': A man about to testify in a mob investigation is ProperlyParanoid when some poisoned sandwiches are delivered to the squad-room. He refuses to eat, but BigEater Wojo is taken to the hospital to have his stomach pumped. Making the best of a bad situation, Barney has Harris check Wojo into the hospital under the witness's name, and Harris leaks to the press that he died.

** "[[Recap/BlueBloodsS1E18ToTellTheTruth To Tell the Truth]]": While on a late night shopping run, Danny Reagan witnesses a drug kingpin execute the brother of a subordinate to send a message. He's determined to testify even knowing that said kingpin has had lots of prior witnesses intimidated or killed off in gruesome ways. Sure enough, they kidnap Danny's wife and try to blackmail him into silence ([[TooDumbToLive not the smartest idea]], [[BerserkButton going up against a Reagan]]).

** "[[Recap/Daredevil2015S1E3RabbitInASnowstorm Rabbit in a Snowstorm]]": James Wesley hires Nelson & Murdock to defend John Healy, an assassin arrested for bashing a gangster's head in with a bowling ball on the order of his boss, Wilson Fisk. Despite Foggy's reservations, Matt insists on taking the case, suspicious as to why an investment firm is paying the bill for a murder suspect's defense. Though he knows Healy is guilty as sin, Matt is committed to playing his part in a fair trial, so when he discovers that Fisk's men are coercing one of the jurors, he forces the thug blackmailing her to tell her to get herself excused. The jury hangs anyway, with strong implications that Fisk found other jurors to coerce, and more strings are pulled behind the scenes to get Healy off without a retrial. Matt hunts down Healy after he is released, gets him to admit that Fisk is his boss, and then promptly impales his head on a fence spike in fear of Fisk's retaliation.

** ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'': In one episode, a couple sues their dead daughter's lesbian partner for custody of their granddaughter, saying that she's molesting her, and little girl's testimony apparently confirms their suspicions. It turns out that [[spoiler:they were convinced to sue, and that the girl was fed lines, by the homophobic prosecutor as part of his plot to "prove" that gay people are unfit to be parents]].

* ''Series/TheListener'': In one episode, the key witness in a mobster's murder trial is shot and seriously wounded. The cops think that the mobster could not intimidate the witness into not testifying and hired an assassin instead. However, they later discover that there while there was indeed witness tampering, it was done by [[spoiler:the prosecutor. The mobster was innocent of the murder and the witness was coerced into perjuring himself. The assassin was hired not to silence the witness, but to actually get him to tell the truth in court]].

* ''Series/TheWire'': In the pilot episode, drug lieutenant D'Angelo Barksdale is acquitted on a murder charge thanks to this. One witness is clearly scared by a number of men in suits (bosses or enforcers for the Barksdale drug gang, at the time the most powerful drug empire in Baltimore), giving him cold looks, but identifies D'Angelo as the man who shot another man during a fight. The second witness, on the other hand, surprises the prosecution when she contradicts what she told the police during the investigation, claiming that after she first spoke with the detective who investigated the case she "realized" she had a case of mistaken identity, and it wasn't actually D'Angelo but another man who did the shooting. Furthermore she says that she tried but was unable to get ahold of the detective to tell him about this and point him to the "real killer". Due to the witnesses disagreeing D'Angelo is acquitted, and the furious judge demands an investigation of the group who engaged in witness tampering in his court, something which only becomes a bigger issue when the witness who did testify against D'Angelo turns up dead by the end of the episode. From that point forward in the series, both [[TheMobBossIsScarier getting witnesses to cooperate against the drug gangs]] and [[WitlessProtectionProgram protecting the lives of witnesses]] (or solving the murders of slain witnesses), becomes a serious recurring issue for the police and the justice system.

** ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'': This is actually used ''by the good guys''. As part of his plan to expose [[spoiler:Kristoph Gavin]] as the one responsible for commissioning and delivering unto [[spoiler: Phoenix]] the forged evidence (which he didn't know was forged when he presented it) that led to his attorney's badge being revoked, as well as the murder of [[spoiler:Drew Misham and attempted murder of Vera Misham,]] Phoenix volunteers to be the one who selects jury members for a test run of the new "jurist system", which would allow regular citizens to ultimately decide the guilt or innocence of a defendant rather than the power resting solely with the judge. In the trial against [[spoiler: Vera]] for the murder of [[spoiler: her father,]] Apollo manages to [[spoiler:expose Kristoph as the poisoner of both Mishams, but as Kristoph points out, since the poisons had been sitting around in their home for seven years prior and he didn't directly force either of them to ingest any of it, no one can definitively prove him guilty for anything. It's then that we cut to the jury room when Vera's fate in the case is about to be decided, and we see an unnamed person asking Phoenix to clarify the rule about no jurors who have personal ties to the case at hand being allowed to vote. Phoenix agrees and states that the juror doesn't have any such personal tie to ''this'' case. It's then that we realize that the juror is Thalassa Gramarye, who we've known until recently as Lamiroir, who's regained her memory and learned that the man who Kristoph was convicted for killing in the first case was her husband. Again, there's no irrefutable physical evidence to prove that Kristoph is guilty, but since Thalassa knows what kind of man he is, she votes Vera "not guilty", which allows her to go free and prompts Kristoph to burst into a legendary fit of [[LaughingMad unhinged laughter.]]]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': Used as a gag. At one trial against the robot mafia that Bender is testifying in, his lawyer claims jury tampering, which is followed by a short a mobster rewiring members of the (robot) jury.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'' has an example where this is done both ways by two people, to the same person, during the same trial. The first one (witness tampering) is [[spoiler:the DA/prosecutor refusing to listen to testimony from a witness claiming that the defendant was innocent because, unbeknownst to the witness -- actually the brother of someone involved in the accidental death of a rich girl -- the DA was working to hide the victim's true cause of death (killed by her brother in an accident on a drug run)]]. The second example (jury tampering) is [[spoiler:the witness himself, desperate to keep an innocent man out of prison (he's a reformed convict, so he knows what it's like in prison), so he bought his way onto the jury in hopes of swinging the case for the defendant. This got the witness/juror murdered and became the episode's case]].

The prosecution's case depends on certain key witnesses' testimony in order to get a successful conviction. Or, all the evidence is already in place and all that's left is for the jury to say that the person is guilty. But -- out of nowhere, a witness changes his/her testimony or refuses to testify at all, or the jury either gives an unexpected verdict or becomes deadlocked on what's supposed to be an open-and-shut case. What just happened?!?

* ''Theatre/{{Parade}}'': Several witnesses testifying against Leo have been coached, coerced, or blackmailed by AmoralAttorney Hugh Dorsey.