People being Convicted by Public Opinion in Literature.
By Author:
- A recurring theme in Agatha Christie stories, alongside the distrust that builds between suspects personally, often family members. "It is not the guilty that matter, but the innocent."
By Title:
- The Abandon Trilogy: Pierce after John breaks Mr. Mueller's hand. Even though the police reason that she wasn't strong enough to do such a thing, she gets expelled for it and people try to shame her online. She doesn't care though because Mr. Mueller is put on indefinite leave.
- In Stephen King's original book version of Carrie, the after-the-fact articles and book snippets make it clear that, after the "Black Prom", Sue Snell and Tommy Ross were blamed by the public and by investigators for driving Carrie over the edge, recast as an Alpha Bitch and her Jerk Jock boyfriend so as to have an easy scapegoat.
- The Cutie: Clay was shunned by his friend and family after a fatal drunk driving accident in college which he was in fact guilty of but avoided being arrested for.
- In Doctrine of Labyrinths the populace nearly stones Felix to death when Stephen drags him through the city streets on the way to his trial — unfortunately, he's innocent. This trope also comes into play during the trial itself, where he's perceived as guilty from the start despite no real evidence. While Felix obviously didn't deserve to be so brutally abused and humiliated, it's implied that if he hadn't made so many powerful enemies by being an asshole during his own time on the curia then his former colleagues might not have condemned him so hastily, possibly giving him a fair hearing instead of just revelling in his downfall. It was only partly Felix's fault though - the fact that he's gay, low-born, and a former prostitute would've created a bias against him regardless.
- The Encyclopedia Brown mystery "the Case of Sir Biscuit-Shooter" involves a friend's uncle who had spent time in prison, but had gone straight and was now working in a circus. His role was a clown named Sir Godfrey Biscuit-Shooter, who wore a VERY noisy "armor" made of pots and pans. Later, Sir Biscuit-Shooter is accused of knocking out the star of the circus and stealing her money—all because he had been in prison. Many of the circus performers think Sir Biscuit-Shooter is the guilty one. Encyclopedia proves the thief was the bareback rider who wore soft slippers and was able to move stealthily. Sir Biscuit-Shooter couldn't have pulled off the crime undetected as the clanking of his pots and pans would have given him away.
- Harry Potter:
- Oh so many times. The wizarding public changes their mind about whether Harry is the savior of their world or a spoiled celebrity (a status that was forced on him mind you, not that his feelings mattered at all) more times than they change their robes.
- Also Frank Bryce from the opening chapter of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, who was nearly convicted for the murder of Voldemort's muggle family. The villagers continue to treat him with suspicion and a Know-Nothing Know-It-All attitude even after his name is cleared, as they have no idea what happened to the Riddles.
- Sirius Black is a partial example. While he was convicted (without a trial), his infamous reputation went well beyond the crime for which he was originally convicted. For example, Stan and Ernie of the Knight Bus believed him to be Voldemort's right hand and an Ax-Crazy Psycho Supporter.
- In the case of Barty Crouch, Jr., it's implied that he was convicted on flimsy evidence because the public was crying for blood. Subverted when it turns out he was guilty after all. After his supposed death, though, the tide changed and people started to feel sorry for him just because he was condemned by his own father without any of the evidence actually changing. If only they knew... The movie decided not to bother making it ambiguous, most likely because of time restraints, and had him frothing at the mouth crazier than Bellatrix Lestrange herself.
- Also mentioned by Ron when they find out Hagrid is half-giant: while any who know Hagrid know he'd be incapable of the mindless violence giants are known for, most people don't know Hagrid and it's this, coupled with Fantastic Racism and Malicious Slander, in a cocktail of vileness concocted by Skeeter and Malfoy and his cronies.
- Ludo Bagman inverted this in his trial — even though there was still some good evidence against him and he could well have been guilty (though he wasn't), he was also a popular Quidditch player and charismatic (in a sociable if not smart way) enough to quickly get the jury on his side. Before long, the trial stopped being about the charge of selling secrets to a Death Eater and started being about how fantastic Bagman had been against Turkey shortly prior.
- In Harlan Ellison's short story "Hitler Painted Roses", souls go to Heaven or Hell based on how good people think they were. In the story, an Expy for Lizzie Borden, sentenced to hell because everyone knows she killed her parents, gets a chance to confront her lover, a clean upstanding pillar of the community who went to Heaven despite actually killing her parents.
- Invoked almost word for word by Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. The public decided long before the trial that Tom Robinson, a black man, was guilty of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman, because this was Alabama in the 1930s. Even when Atticus proves that Tom couldn't have committed the crime (she said he held her down and beat her, which Tom couldn't have done because he only had one working arm) and basically everyone knows that her asshole father did it, he still gets convicted because he's black.
- In The Killer Angels, General Garnett considers himself this due to Stonewall Jackson accusing him of cowardicenote and then dying before Garnett could defend his actions. Because of this, he feels that he has to win a major victory or die trying in order to redeem his honor, which is why he insists on going on Pickett's Charge despite being too ill to walk. In the film adaptation, Gettysburg (which kept Garnett's need to go on the charge without explaining the reasons why), his final scene shows him riding straight towards a loaded cannon, followed by his riderless horse emerging from a cloud of gunsmoke.
- In the Knight and Rogue Series because he's marked as a criminal Michael is an instant suspect when buildings start being burned down. He has an alibi all three times, but still gets chased by a mob twice before the real criminal is caught.
- Tyrion Lannister of A Song of Ice and Fire always had a reputation of being a monster, despite the fact that he is one of the most honorable characters in the series, simply because of his outward appearance (an ugly dwarf, who eventually loses his nose). Every time he's at trial, everyone is ready to execute him unless defending him will somehow help their own agenda. Fortunately, Tyrion is very much aware of this and has long since figured out how to use it to his advantage. Eventually, however, it does make him snap.
- An unusual variant in The Truth: when The Ankh-Morpork Times publishes evidence that Vetinari was entirely innocent of attempting to leave town with stolen funds, and was the victim of a nasty frame-up, the opinion of the average reader is given as "He got away with it, then. Of course, he's a very clever man." The unusual aspect is that they don't actually seem to care much either way. Of course, compared to the antics of many of Vetinari's predecessors in office,note allegedly stabbing a formerly trusted subordinate and absconding with as much of the treasury as you can carry barely merits a raised eyebrow.
- In many of the investigated cold cases in the Under Suspicion series, the people involved were never formally accused or charged with committing a crime, but are still regarded as guilty by the public (especially when it comes to the media and amateur sleuths), regardless of how strong the evidence against them is. This can make life difficult for them, such as being constantly gossiped about, having their name come up every time the case is mentioned and journalists bugging them; some characters even risk losing their jobs, have their relationships negatively impacted and struggle with their mental health because of the strain of people thinking they're a murderer. Consequently, some of the characters quickly agree to appear on Under Suspicion for a chance to defend themselves on national television and hopefully turn the tide of public opinion; alternatively, some of them are more reluctant and have to be persuaded to participate because they don't want to draw more scrutiny.
- In the Shirley Jackson novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Constance Blackwood is charged and acquitted for the crime of poisoning nearly her entire family with arsenic-laced sugar. She's acquitted, but the entire village ostracizes what's left of the family, with the children taunting Constance's younger sister Merricat about her deceased family every time she ventures out for food.
- Where the Crawdads Sing: Zigzagged with local outcast Kya Clark when she's on trial for murder. Many people feel this way about her, but others (such as the lawyer who takes her case) believe in her or feel ambivalent. The lawyer actually invokes this a bit to guilt the jury into really considering her case, and in the face of the evidence, they find her innocent. While many in the gallery are initially furious about this, it's noted that "As time passed, most everyone agreed that the sheriff shouldn't have arrested her. After all, there was no hard evidence, no real proof of a crime, it had been truly cruel to treat a shy, natural creature that way." Ironically, the end of the story strongly implies that she was guilty.
- In the X-Wing Series, when Tycho is tried for espionage and the murder of Corran Horn, pretty much everyone who didn't know him personally thought he did it. The New Republic trying him had to keep at least some of the public's sentiment in mind, since they had just taken the planet from the Empire, and many of the nonhumans were angry enough at the new government due to the plague that only affected nonhumans. It's stated that there were already grumblings that if Tycho hadn't been human, he would already have been tried and convicted. Fortunately, it's hard to get a less controversial Not Guilty verdict than your alleged victim walking into the courtroom with evidence of who really tried to get him killed — and it's not the defendant.
