History KangarooCourt / RealLife

* The 'Enemy Airmen's Act' passed by UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII made heavy usage of these types of trials. The act stated that Allied airmen who participated in bombing raids against Japanese-held territory were to be tried and punished if captured. While claiming to punish those who bombed "non-military targets", the act was basically used simply to exact retribution on Allied pilots for conducting any kind of air raid on Japan, military target or not. Hundreds of Allied pilots were put through blatant show trials and then summarily executed as a result of this act. This is all in spite of the fact that Japanese air forces [[{{Hypocrisy}} had been mercilessly bombing cities across China, killing massive numbers of Chinese civilians as a result, with impunity throughout the war]]. After the war, those Japanese officers who conducted such show trials and illegal executions were themselves [[LaserGuidedKarma charged with war crimes]] by the Allies.

* The [[NotSoDifferent trials during the Red Scares]], particularly during the [=McCarthy=] era. They sometimes didn't need to be, as being accused of being a communist, or being associated with communism, or being associated with anyone who's associated with communism in any way [[ConvictedByPublicOpinion would probably destroy your reputation beyond repair anyway]]. A lot of these weren't even trials, just Congressional hearings where people had their past associations grilled with the concluding ArmorPiercingQuestion: "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?" Refusal to answer meant they would be held in contempt (for which you'd be tried), since [[LoopholeAbuse it was not a “crime” to be a communist]], so they couldn't take the Fifth, even when answering "yes" inevitably led to them being blacklisted from their jobs. Of course, [[MortonsFork anything but full cooperation would lead to blacklisting anyway]].

** American Courts, even today, often function like this, since police can lie and intentionally manipulate suspects into incriminating themselves without even having realized that is what just happened to them, and judges almost always disallowing evidence of the deception in court. And that's just what happens at the very beginning of the process, it gets increasingly worse as things go on. Evidence falsification, witness tampering, and sometimes even outright '''lies''' are all commonly done by the prosecutorial side, with the defense largely only having tools against this on paper. And if anyone on the prosecutor's side feels guilty and comes forward? Expect it to be thrown out as "hearsay", even if it clearly isn't. Discrimination and racial profiling, while not present in every case, are not uncommon, and make things that much worse when they happen. When such things happen, even if a conviction is later overturned, judges, police, and prosecutors rarely face consequences beyond a slap on the wrist. Judges are immune to monetary damages in civil suits entirely, and most official acts can't be sued over, even if ''blatantly illegal''. Police and prosecutors also have quasi-immunity. Usually they aren't personally sued at all, only their employer (local, state, or federal) because of this. Rarely are any of these people prosecuted, and rarer still convicted for any misconduct. Even disbarment and sanctions for attorneys involved are pretty rare.

** American Courts, even today, often function like this, since police can lie and intentionally manipulate suspects into incriminating themselves without even having realized that is what just happened to them, and judges almost always disallowing evidence of the deception in court. And that's just what happens at the very beginning of the process, it gets increasingly worse as things go on. Evidence falsification, witness tampering, and sometimes even outright '''lies''' are all commonly done by the prosecutorial side, with the defense largely only having tools against this on paper. And if anyone on the prosecutor's side feels guilty and comes forward? Expect it to be thrown out as "hearsay", even if it clearly isn't. Discrimination and racial profiling, while not present in every case, are not uncommon, and make things that much worse when they happen. When such things happen, even if a conviction is later overturned, judges, police and prosecutors rarely face consequences beyond a slap on the wrist. Judges are immune to monetary damages in civil suits entirely, and most official acts can't be sued over, even if ''blatantly illegal''. Police and prosecutors also have quasi-immunity. Usually they aren't personally sued at all, only their employer (local, state or federal) because of this. Rarely are any of these people prosecuted, and rarer still convicted for any misconduct. Even disbarment and sanctions for attorneys involved are pretty rare.
* DoubleSubverted in the Mary Phagan case. The accused Leo Frank, a Jew from New York, was convicted of raping and murdering Mary Phagan in Atlanta, Georgia, despite a wealth of evidence pointing at the black janitor (irony of ironies) who was the prosecution's chief witness and sentenced to death. The governor of the state looked over the evidence, however, and was not convinced; accordingly, he commuted the sentence to life imprisonment, sacrificing his own political career in the process. A lynch mob broke into the prison and hanged Frank anyway, taking pictures which sold widely in the South. This case was what led to the formation of the Anti-Defamation League.

* The 2006 documentary ''[[Film/ThisFilmIsNotYetRated This Film Is Not Yet Rated]]'' shows that the MPAA's appeal board for ratings acts like this, since past rulings on a movie with similar content cannot be used to appeal your movie's rating, leaving it less as an appeal and more like a hearing.

** The ''[[LesCollaborateurs Milice]]'' had courts whose the judges were to give only one sentence (death by the hands of the nearest collaborator) and whose verdicts were without appeals.
* Australian tourist Schapelle Corby was arrested in Indonesia for drug smuggling in 2005. During her trial, the judges ignored her defense, read or chatted. News and current affairs ran stories that amounted to Indonesia being disinterested in guilt or innocence to the point of suggesting disposing of the evidence for crimes rather than let the police know. Indonesia had even made threats against Australia and had committed acts such as flooding the country with asylum seekers much like Fidel Castro did during the Mariel boatlift, and had made their feelings and racism in response to bids for a fair trial very clear.

* As mentioned before, the USSR did not go in for very fair trials. Thus in the wake of their independence there has been a push in the Baltic States to rehabilitate people who were convicted by the Soviet government. This has stirred controversy however as some of the convicts ''did'' commit crimes, for instance, murders of Jews and Roma [[LesCollaborateurs while aiding the Nazis during World War 2]]. While they still probably got unfair trails, rehabilitating them doesn't seem right either.
* A lot of the people rehabilitated after Stalin's time were a part of the Purge itself. Others tended to be part of earlier purges or the Civil War (which was full of war crimes and massacred villages on all sides). You'll be hard pressed to find an actually innocent person among Soviet officials of that time.

* After driving out the Islamic State from their country, the Iraqi government has been extremely ruthless in persecuting captured members through show trials, which are often described as 10 minutes hearings with the accused given no chance of defending themselves or granted leniency. While it's understandable considering the [[NightmareFuel sheer]] [[FinalSolution horror]] the terrorist group inflicted on its people, human right activists rose concerns that several members were [[ForcedIntoEvil strong-armed into joining them]] such as medical staff, jihadi brides and other members that didn't necessarily commit the same crimes as its leaders and fighters. Concerns were also raised that these trials would further stigmatize the Iraqi Sunnis who were already oppressed by Shias since Saddam Hussein's fall and were often accused of being ISIS collaborators. Further, without a fair trial they could accuse ''anyone'' or punish even those who actually committed crimes beyond the scope of their acts.

* Due in large part to political tensions and how he propped up (or failed to support) various figures during his tenure, Pope Formosus was put on trial in 897 AD, whereupon he was promptly defrocked and cast down for, amongst other things, perjury. Despite the high stakes, he never said a word in his defense. Why? Well, for one thing, he was ''dead.'' He'd perished in 896, and the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadaver_Synod Cadaver Synod]] was and is generally regarded as one of the more comical examples of a kangaroo trial. The result rendered Stephen VI, the Pope in charge of the trial, a laughingstock: he was strangled to death half a year later, and his successor overturned the results. (Though ''his'' successor, who took part in the Synod in the first place, overturned ''that.'') Highlights of the trial included Formosus body being questioned and ''rebuked for not answering the questions''. Corpses were even put on trial in other cases as well, though it remained rare.

* Invoked ''in favor'' for Creator/DonaldTrump who, in December of 2019, became the 3rd [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidents President]] in U.S. history to be impeached after UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson and UsefulNotes/BillClinton.[[note]]At least, those actually tried. UsefulNotes/RichardNixon was also impeached (i.e. articles of impeachment were drawn up), but resigned rather than be tried as he knew they'd have convicted him.[[/note]] Trump was charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress after being accused of extorting the Ukrainian government to investigate his political opponent UsefulNotes/JoeBiden (whether he was guilty or not is an issue that [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement will not be discussed here]]), but the opinion of the Republican-majority Senate was that the Democrat-majority House had invoked a KangarooCourt to impeach Trump for partisan grounds on flimsy evidence, and would therefore return the favor by making the acquittal outcome obvious. Some had openly stated they would acquit him no matter what from the outset. Notably, the only outlier who didn't vote along party lines was Republican Senator Mitt Romney's vote to impeach Trump on the abuse of power charge. His second impeachment (that happened in February 2021, for being accused of incitement of the Capitol Insurrection a month prior), went much the same way, with Republican officials openly working alongside Trump's defense team, and had said even before that they wouldn't convict him (Trump was acquitted, as while a majority of the Senate (57 to 43) declared him guilty, it wasn't enough to actually remove from office or barring holding office in the future (which, like a few other Senate procedures, requires a two-thirds majority)). Still Trump's second impeachment which happened after he had already left office[[note]] something which had happened a century and a half prior to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_W._Belknap William Belknap]] - he was not convicted as the 35-25 (with one senator not voting) vote in favor of conviction fell short of the required two thirds majority of 40[[/note]] was the presidential impeachment where the highest number of Senators of the President's voted to convict. It's been remarked upon that impeachment is the only time where the entire jury is drawn exclusively from people who know the accused personally and stand to gain heavily from a verdict going one way or the other, which makes the entire thing a KangarooCourt by default; the only successful impeachments (which ended in conviction and removal from office) were rather obscure judicial impeachments which threw out judges who had annoyed Congress or been caught in too obvious crimes to ignore.

* Invoked ''in favor'' for Creator/DonaldTrump who, in December of 2019, became the 3rd [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidents President]] in U.S. history to be impeached after UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson and UsefulNotes/BillClinton.[[note]]At least, those actually tried. UsefulNotes/RichardNixon was also impeached (i.e. articles of impeachment were drawn up), but resigned rather than be tried as he knew they'd have convicted him.[[/note]] Trump was charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress after being accused of extorting the Ukrainian government to investigate his political opponent UsefulNotes/JoeBiden (whether he was guilty or not is an issue that [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement will not be discussed here]]), but the opinion of the Republican-majority Senate was that the Democrat-majority House had invoked a KangarooCourt to impeach Trump for partisan grounds on flimsy evidence, and would therefore return the favor by making the acquittal outcome obvious. Some had openly stated they would acquit him no matter what from the outset. Notably, the only outlier who didn't vote along party lines was Republican Senator Mitt Romney's vote to impeach Trump on the abuse of power charge. His second impeachment (that happened in February 2021, for being accused of incitement of the Capitol Insurrection a month prior), went much the same way, with Republican officials openly working alongside Trump's defence team, and had said even before that they wouldn't convict him (Trump was acquitted, as while a majority of the Senate (57 to 43) declared him guilty, it wasn't enough to actually remove from office or barring holding office in the future (which, like a few other Senate procedures, requires a two-thirds majority)). Still Trump's second impeachment which happened after he had already left office[[note]] something which had happened a century and a half prior to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_W._Belknap William Belknap]] - he was not convicted as the 35-25 (with one senator not voting) vote in favor of conviction fell short of the required two thirds majority of 40[[/note]] was the presidential impeachment where the highest number of Senators of the President's voted to convict. Interestingly enough the only successful impeachments (which ended in conviction and removal from office) were rather obscure judicial impeachments which threw out judges who had annoyed Congress or been caught in too obvious crimes to ignore.

* All trials in the early period of the [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny People's Republic of China]] were this way. Defendants who didn't admit their guilt would be punished more severely (an aspect of mainland Chinese law that still exists today). A formal legal system didn't really exist until after Mao died anyway — the judges would be loyal party members who often had no legal training, with two [[JokerJury "people's assessors"]] who more often than not were just peasants. Even now, the PRC's legal system is not renowned for its fairness.

* The 'People's Court' of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany was extreme even by the standards of the regime. Impartiality or fairness to those "tried" in said court were not even ''feigned''. Defendants were sometimes denied ''belts'' to hold up their trousers or given ill-fitting clothing to purposely make them look disheveled. Some trials consisted of little more than a rambling stream of invective language by the judge, Roland Freisler, a living caricature of a HangingJudge, who one time even used "OffWithHisHead" as a verdict. Fittingly, Freisler met a KarmicDeath when his courthouse took a near-direct hit during an Allied bombing raid.[[note]]To add a last wrinkle of insult to the victims of Nazi Germany to this story, Freisler's widow sued for next of kin benefits after the war and was granted them because — as the court argued — Freisler would surely have kept on in government service had he not died in the bombing raid.[[/note]] The government allowed judges to give a defendant a sentence not allowed by law ''or even to reason by analogy'' if the "healthy folk sentiment" required it.

* Thomas Jefferson's chosen method of [[AssassinationAttempt getting Aaron Burr out of the way]] in 1805-1807 was to have him framed for treason. His plan was for there to never even ''be'' a trial in the first place, and he got as far as publically delivering a guilty verdict without trial, but Chief Justice John Marshall insisted on there being a trial before any sentencing could take place; Jefferson, along with General James Wilkinson, then proceeded to forge and tamper with evidence, bribe witnesses, raid mail, and lock up anybody they thought might testify in Burr's defense. An interesting example as Marshall, the actual ''judge'', really did try to preside over the show-trial as a real and impartial judge, and the KangarooCourt antics came from government interference. Ultimately the whole thing was [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] when Marshall, who was well aware that the evidence and witnesses had been tampered with, overrided Jefferson's verdict and found Burr ''not'' guilty.

* France could be pretty bad about this historically, especially in the military courts of the [[UsefulNotes/FrenchPoliticalSystem Third Republic]].[[note]]Also, ''really'' especially the courts of the [[ReignOfTerror first part of the First Republic]], the First and Second Empires (at times), and ''really, really, really'' especially the courts of [[LesCollaborateurs the Vichy Regime]], but those don't really bear mentioning since nobody expected them to be fair anyway.[[/note]] Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason in 1895 for supposedly selling secrets to the Germans despite the fact that he didn't do anything wrong, and to top it off military officials later suppressed evidence showing he was innocent (antisemitism was also involved, with Dreyfus being suspected because he was Jewish). The real culprit was even given a reverse example, being wrongly found not guilty to cover this up. Dreyfus was eventually pardoned five years later, but it took another six years after that for him to finally be fully exonerated of the charges. The guilty party, having been legally acquitted [[KarmaHoudini was never sentenced to anything]] relating to his crimes.

* France could be pretty bad about this historically, especially in the military courts of the [[UsefulNotes/FrenchPoliticalSystem Third Republic]].[[note]]Also, ''really'' especially the courts of the [[ReignOfTerror first part of the First Republic]], the First and Second Empires (at times), and ''really, really, really'' especially the courts of [[LesCollaborateurs the Vichy Regime]], but those don't really bear mentioning since nobody expected them to be fair anyway.[[/note]] Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason in 1895 for supposedly selling secrets to the Germans despite the fact that he didn't do anything wrong, and to top it off military officials later suppressed evidence showing he was innocent (antisemitism was also involved, with Dreyfus being suspected because he was Jewish). The real culprit was even given a reverse example, being wrongly found not guilty to cover this up. Dreyfus was eventually pardoned five years later, but it took another six years after that for him to finally be fully exonerated of the charges.

* Invoked ''in favor'' for Creator/DonaldTrump who, in December of 2019, became the 3rd [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidents President]] in U.S. history to be impeached after UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson and UsefulNotes/BillClinton.[[note]]At least, those actually tried. UsefulNotes/RichardNixon was also impeached (i.e. articles of impeachment were drawn up), but resigned rather than be tried as he knew they'd have convicted him.[[/note]] Trump was charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress after being accused of extorting the Ukrainian government to investigate his political opponent UsefulNotes/JoeBiden (whether he was guilty or not is an issue that [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement will not be discussed here]]), but the opinion of the Republican-majority Senate was that the Democrat-majority House had invoked a KangarooCourt to impeach Trump for partisan grounds on flimsy evidence, and would therefore return the favor by making the acquittal outcome obvious. Some had openly stated they would acquit him no matter what from the outset. Notably, the only outlier who didn't vote along party lines was Republican Senator Mitt Romney's vote to impeach Trump on the abuse of power charge. His second impeachment (that happened in February 2021, for being accused of incitement of the Capitol Insurrection a month prior), went much the same way, with Republican officials openly working alongside Trump's defence team, and had said even before that they wouldn't convict him (Trump was acquitted, as while a majority of the Senate (57 to 43) declared him guilty, it wasn't enough to actually impeach (which, like a few other Senate procedures, requires a two-third majority)) .

* Invoked ''in favor'' for Creator/DonaldTrump who, in December of 2019, became the 3rd [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidents President]] in U.S. history to be impeached after UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson and UsefulNotes/BillClinton.[[note]]At least, those actually tried. UsefulNotes/RichardNixon was also impeached (i.e. articles of impeachment were drawn up), but resigned rather than be tried as he knew they'd have convicted him.[[/note]] Trump was charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress after being accused of extorting the Ukrainian government to investigate his political opponent UsefulNotes/JoeBiden (whether he was guilty or not is an issue that [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement will not be discussed here]]), but the opinion of the Republican-majority Senate was that the Democrat-majority House had invoked a KangarooCourt to impeach Trump for partisan grounds on flimsy evidence, and would therefore return the favor by making the acquittal outcome obvious. Some had openly stated they would acquit him no matter what from the outset. Notably, the only outlier who didn't vote along party lines was Republican Senator Mitt Romney's vote to impeach Trump on the abuse of power charge. His second impeachment (that happened in February 2021, for being accused of incitement of the Capitol Insurrection a month prior), went much the same way, with Republican officials openly working alongside Trump's defence team, and had said even before that they wouldn't convict him (Trump was acquitted, as while a majority of the Senate (57 to 43) declared him guilty, it wasn't enough to actually impeach (which, a few other Senate procedures, requires a two-third majority)) .

* Invoked ''in favor'' for Creator/DonaldTrump who, in December of 2019, became the 3rd [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidents President]] in U.S. history to be impeached after UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson and UsefulNotes/BillClinton.[[note]]At least, those actually tried. UsefulNotes/RichardNixon was also impeached (i.e. articles of impeachment were drawn up), but resigned rather than be tried as he knew they'd have convicted him.[[/note]] Trump was charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress after being accused of extorting the Ukrainian government to investigate his political opponent UsefulNotes/JoeBiden (whether he was guilty or not is an issue that [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement will not be discussed here]]), but the opinion of the Republican-majority Senate was that the Democrat-majority House had invoked a KangarooCourt to impeach Trump for partisan grounds on flimsy evidence, and would therefore return the favor by making the acquittal outcome obvious. Some had openly stated they would acquit him no matter what from the outset. Notably, the only outlier who didn't vote along party lines was Republican Senator Mitt Romney's vote to impeach Trump on the abuse of power charge. His second impeachment (that happened in February 2021, for being accused of incitement of the Capitol Insurrection a month prior), went much the same way, with Republican officials openly working alongside Trump's defence team, and had said even before that they wouldn't convict him (Trump was acquitted, as while a majority of the Senate (57 to 43) declared him guilty, it wasn't enough to actually impeach (which, like most Senate procedures, requires a two-third majority)) .

* DoubleSubverted in the Mary Phagan case. The accused Leo Frank, a Jew from New York, was convicted of raping and murdering Mary Phagan in Atlanta, Georgia, despite a wealth of evidence pointing at the black janitor (irony of ironies) who was the prosecution's chief witness and sentenced to death. The governor of the state looked over the evidence, however, and was not convinced; accordingly, he commuted the sentence to life imprisonment, sacrificing his own political career in the process. A lynch mob broke into the prison and hung Frank anyway, taking pictures which sold widely in the South. This case was what led to the formation of the Anti-Defamation League.

* Invoked ''in favor'' for Creator/DonaldTrump who, in December of 2019, became the 3rd [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidents President]] in U.S. history to be impeached after UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson and UsefulNotes/BillClinton.[[note]]At least, those actually tried. UsefulNotes/RichardNixon was also impeached (i.e. articles of impeachment were drawn up), but resigned rather than be tried as he knew they'd have convicted him.[[/note]] Trump was charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress after being accused of extorting the Ukrainian government to investigate his political opponent UsefulNotes/JoeBiden (whether he was guilty or not is an issue that [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement will not be discussed here]]), but the opinion of the Republican-majority Senate was that the Democrat-majority House had invoked a KangarooCourt to impeach Trump for partisan grounds on flimsy evidence, and would therefore return the favor by making the acquittal outcome obvious. Some had openly stated they would acquit him no matter what from the outset. Notably, the only outlier who didn't vote along party lines was Republican Senator Mitt Romney's vote to impeach Trump on the abuse of power charge. His second impeachment (that happened in February 2021, for his incitement of the Capitol Insurrection a month prior), went much the same way, with Republican officials openly working alongside Trump's defence team, and had said even before that they wouldn't convict him (Trump was acquitted, as while a majority of the Senate (57 to 43) declared him guilty, it wasn't enough to actually impeach (which, like most Senate procedures, requires a two-third majority)) .

* Invoked ''in favor'' for Creator/DonaldTrump who, in December of 2019, became the 3rd [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidents President]] in U.S. history to be impeached after UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson and UsefulNotes/BillClinton.[[note]]At least, those actually tried. UsefulNotes/RichardNixon was also impeached (i.e. articles of impeachment were drawn up), but resigned rather than be tried as he knew they'd have convicted him.[[/note]] Trump was charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress after being accused of extorting the Ukrainian government to investigate his political opponent UsefulNotes/JoeBiden (whether he was guilty or not is an issue that [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement will not be discussed here]]), but the opinion of the Republican-majority Senate was that the Democrat-majority House had invoked a KangarooCourt to impeach Trump for partisan grounds on flimsy evidence, and would therefore return the favor by making the acquittal outcome obvious. Some had openly stated they would acquit him no matter what from the outset. Notably, the only outlier who didn't vote along party lines was Republican Senator Mitt Romney's vote to impeach Trump on the abuse of power charge. His second impeachment (that happened in February 2021, for his incitement of the Capitol Insurrection a month prior), went much the same way, with Republican officials openly working alongside Trump's defence team, and had said even before that they wouldn't convict him (Trump was acquitted, as while a majority of the Senate (55 to 45) declared him guilty, it wasn't enough to actually impeach (which, like most Senate procedures, requires a two-third majority)) .

* Invoked ''in favor'' for Creator/DonaldTrump who, in December of 2019, became the 3rd [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidents President]] in U.S. history to be impeached after UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson and UsefulNotes/BillClinton.[[note]]At least, those actually tried. UsefulNotes/RichardNixon was also impeached (i.e. articles of impeachment were drawn up), but resigned rather than be tried as he knew they'd have convicted him.[[/note]] Trump was charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress after being accused of extorting the Ukrainian government to investigate his political opponent UsefulNotes/JoeBiden, but the opinion of the Republican-majority Senate was that the Democrat-majority House had invoked a KangarooCourt to impeach Trump for partisan grounds on flimsy evidence, and would therefore return the favor by making the acquittal outcome obvious. Some had openly stated they would acquit him no matter what from the outset. Notably, the only outlier who didn't vote along party lines was Republican Senator Mitt Romney's vote to impeach Trump on the abuse of power charge. His second impeachment (that happened in February 2021, for his incitement of the Capitol Insurrection a month prior), went much the same way, with Republican officials openly working alongside Trump's defence team, and had said even before that they wouldn't convict him (Trump was acquitted, as while a majority of the Senate (55 to 45) declared him guilty, it wasn't enough to actually impeach (which, like most Senate procedures, requires a two-third majority)) .

* Invoked ''in favor'' for Creator/DonaldTrump who, in December of 2019, became the 3rd [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidents President]] in U.S. history to be impeached after UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson and UsefulNotes/BillClinton.[[note]]At least, those actually tried. UsefulNotes/RichardNixon was also impeached (i.e. articles of impeachment were drawn up), but resigned rather than be tried as he knew they'd have convicted him.[[/note]] Trump was charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress after being accused of extorting the Ukrainian government to investigate his political opponent UsefulNotes/JoeBiden (whether he was guilty or not is an issue that [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement will not be discussed here]]), but the opinion of the Republican-majority Senate was that the Democrat-majority House had invoked a KangarooCourt to impeach Trump for partisan grounds on flimsy evidence, and would therefore return the favor by making the acquittal outcome obvious. Some had openly stated they would acquit him no matter what from the outset. Notably, the only outlier who didn't vote along party lines was Republican Senator Mitt Romney's vote to impeach Trump on the abuse of power charge. Trump won't be so lucky the second time around, though, as more Republicans support his impeachment for incitement of insurrection than for mere garden variety corruption, and with the Democrats set to take control of the Senate this trope is not going to be an option this time.

* The 'Show Trials' of Stalin's Soviet Union, in which the court was ostensibly impartial, but enemies of the state would tearfully confess to the numerous crimes they had committed against [[UsefulNotes/JosefStalin Comrade Stalin]], the Party and All Soviet People, and would beg the court to sentence them to the most severe penalties possible (mainly because if they didn't, [[RevengeByProxy their families would pay the price]], which they often did anyway, as in the case of Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev, who confessed to outlandish accusations of crimes against the state solely due to the fact that Stalin promised their lives and those of their loved ones would be spared. The result was them both being shot in the basement of the Lubyanka and their families either receiving similar treatment or ending up in a gulag, which wasn't much better). This was ''after'' they'd been routinely beaten, tortured, and deprived of sleep for weeks at a time. With some defendants, crimes extended back to before there even was the Soviet Union to betray, with them supposedly traitors as they were fighting with the revolution, but not in any way preventing it (the reason for the harshness is quite simple: any judges that showed leniency would often be among the next defendants).

* Invoked ''in favor'' for Creator/DonaldTrump who, in December of 2019, became the 3rd [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidents President]] in U.S. history to be impeached after UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson and UsefulNotes/BillClinton.[[note]]At least, those actually tried. UsefulNotes/RichardNixon was also impeached (i.e. articles of impeachment were drawn up), but resigned rather than be tried as he knew they'd have convicted him.[[/note]] Trump was charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress after being accused of extorting the Ukrainian government to investigate his political opponent UsefulNotes/JoeBiden (whether he was guilty or not is an issue that [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement will not be discussed here]]), but the opinion of the Republican-majority Senate was that the Democrat-majority House had invoked a KangarooCourt to impeach Trump for partisan grounds on flimsy evidence, and would therefore return the favor by making the acquittal outcome obvious. Some had openly stated they would acquit him no matter what from the outset. Notably, the only outlier who didn't vote along party lines was Republican Senator Mitt Romney's vote to impeach Trump on the abuse of power charge.

** American Courts, even today, often function like this. Since police can lie and intentionally manipulate suspects into incriminating themselves without even having realized that is what just happened to them, and judges almost always disallowing evidence of the deception in court. And that's just what happens at the very beginning of the process, it gets increasingly worse as things go on. Evidence falsifcation, witness tampering, and sometimes even outright '''lies''' are all commonly done by the prosecutorial side, with the defense largely only having tools against this on paper. And if anyone on the prosecutor's side feels guilty and comes forward? Expect it to be thrown out as "heresay", even if it clearly isn't. Discrimination and racial profiling, while not present in every case, are not uncommon, and make things that much worse when they happen.

* While {{UsefulNotes/Venezuela}}'s courts, in general, can be considered examples after coming under government control, taking the government's side 100% of the time, the trial of Leopoldo López, Venezuela's then-most prominent opposition leader, is a particularly blatant example. For example, while the prosecution was allowed to present over 100 witnesses against him, he and his defense were, out of 63 available witnesses, only allowed to present 1. He was ultimately sentenced to almost 14 years in prison.

** That being said, Congress seemed to ''attempt'' to make it a Kangaroo Court; for instance, the defense requested 40 days for evidence collection and witness prep (the same amount of time the prosecution got) but was granted only ten. Also, the presiding judge, Chief Justice Salmon Chase, tried to make rules for the court, but the Senate seemed to challenge them every single time, ostensibly because they were too fair. According to Wiki/{{Wikipedia}}, when Chase said that President Johnson "should be permitted to present evidence" that Johnson was trying to test the constitutionality of the Tenure of Office Act, the Senate merely reversed it despite the fact that ''the Senate pretty much WAS the prosecution.''

* [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil The Pirate Bay]] seem to be on the receiving end of several of these in the civil cases between them and entertainment companies. It's a matter of debate on the Spectrial over whether the judge's membership of the same pro-copyright organizations as several representatives of the entertainment industry in the case constitutes bias or not. One example which is VERY suspect is them being sued in the Netherlands but not even officially summoned. They lost that case.

** And ''this'' was the kind of justice that the Aryan Master Race reserved for itself: by comparison, those Slavic Poles who were judged in ''Sondergerichte'' (special courts, of which the People's Court was just one) were termed "Polish subhumans" and "Polish rabble" by the court, with a judge even saying Poles should get longer sentences than Germans since they were racially inferior. Regular courts in Nazi Germany at least ''nominally'' had legal protections for defendants (such as the right to counsel), but ''Sondergerichte'' lacked any.
** At the end of the war, there were the even more ruthless "flying court-martials," staffed with SS and fanatical Nazi party members, who punished deserters and defeatists [[note]]i.e. those who were flying white flags to save their homes from being bombed, or surrendered the town they were mayor of to the Allies, or manifested little enthusiasm about entering the [[HomeGuard Volkssturm]], or who rejoiced about [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler]]'s suicide[[/note]] with a bullet in the back of the neck or by a hanging from the nearest tree or lamp post.

* Many of the trials that resulted in the original deportations to Australia were blatant shams designed to just rid British society of any "undesirables" (poor people). Despite the association, this probably wasn't the origin of the term though.

* Australian tourist Schapelle Corby was arrested in Indonesia for drug smuggling in 2005. During her trial, the judges would ignore her defense, read or chat. News and current affairs ran stories that amounted to Indonesia being disinterested in guilt or innocence to the point of suggesting disposing of the evidence for crimes rather than let the police know. Indonesia had even made threats against Australia and had committed acts such as flooding the country with asylum seekers much like Fidel Castro did during the Mariel boatlift, and had made their feelings and racism in response to bids for a fair trial very clear.

* PlayedWith by the Soviet trials of Lavrentiy Beria, as there was evidence that he was actually guilty of every crime he was accused of. That said, considering he had just lost a power struggle in the wake of Stalin's death, he likely had no chance of being acquitted even if he hadn't committed any crimes--he was allowed no defense counsel, the judges were all members of the military that had conspired with his political rival Nikita Khrushchev to coup him, and the trial lasted less than an hour before he and his subordinates were immediately executed.

* Invoked ''in favor'' for Creator/DonaldTrump who, in December of 2019, became the 3rd [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidents President]] in U.S. history to be impeached after UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson and UsefulNotes/BillClinton.[[note]]At least, those actually tried. UsefulNotes/RichardNixon was also impeached (i.e. articles of impeachment were drawn up), but resigned rather than be tried as he knew they'd have convicted him.[[/note]] Trump was charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress after being accused of extorting the Ukrainian government to investigate his political opponent UsefulNotes/JoeBiden (whether he was guilty or not is an issue that [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement will not be discussed here]]), but the opinion of the Republican-majority Senate was that the Democrat-majority House had invoked a KangarooCourt to impeach Trump for partisan grounds on flimsy evidence, and would therefore return the favor by making the acquittal outcome obvious. Some had openly stated they would acquit him no matter what from the outset. Notably, the only outlier who didn't vote along party lines was Republican Senator Mitt Romney's vote to impeach Trump on the abuse of power charge.