People being Convicted by Public Opinion in Live-Action TV series.
In General:
- Talk shows like The Jerry Springer Show or The Maury Povich Show.
- Whenever a guest is accused of doing something wrong to his or her significant other, such as cheating with someone else, the crowd will always boo the suspect, sometimes even after the person is proved innocent. On top of this, if the show shows the couple got back together in a "Where Are They Now?" update segment, the audience will always boo the person that had broken the other's heart, even if the two of them are truly happy now.
- In any episode featuring paternity tests, the suspected father who denies that the baby is his typically gets booed by the audience upon his first entry, while the audience openly sympathizes with the mother. This has happened even in obvious cases, such as when a black man was accused of fathering a child who was fair-skinned, blonde-haired and blue-eyed, not to mention many cases where the woman in question has pointed to five or even more men as potential fathers.
- Any cop show will eventually feature this.
- An example of the trope being referred to by name is in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, where a secretly-made video of an abusive boss goes viral on the internet, leading everyone to condemn said boss. A more tragic example of this is when a singing coach is accused of sexually abusing children, and his name gets dragged through the mud after the information of the case is released to the public. Worse, it's later revealed that he was set up by two vengeful girls that he let go because he didn't believe they had the singing talents he was looking for. Sadly, the damage has already been done and the public wasn't interested in his innocence, which he points out to the detectives as he rips them a new one for destroying his life.
By Series:
- A woman in one episode of Castle invoked this trope. She wanted to divorce her borderline-abusive famous athlete husband, but knew if she did the public would consider him the victim of "another trophy wife just looking for her share." If, however, she disappeared after they'd spent the night getting drunk on his boat, everyone would believe he'd killed her and his reputation would be ruined.
- Criminal Minds episode "Carbon Copy" features an unsub killing nurses. Looking into the area's history, they realize he's most likely copying an older case where another serial killer targeted nurses. Their first suspect in this case is the first suspect in the previous case. He'd been cleared originally, but not before being publicly arrested and having his face and name smeared by the local news. Even after they caught the right person, he was recognized in a local bar and jumped by angry patrons, leading to serious medical problems for the rest of his life, and thereby giving him the perfect motive to get back at the FBI and the town for ruining his life. JJ points out that they have to be extra sure before they risk doing the same thing to him all over again. Smash cut to them storming his house and arresting him... but it's okay, because it really was him this time!
- In Cruel Summer, everyone seems to believe that Jeannette Turner played a role in the kidnapping of Kate Wallis, even though the only evidence is Kate's accusation on live TV and an old necklace of Jeannette's that Kate handed to the police.
- Nick Knight ran into it in an episode of Forever Knight, both with the suspect he was investigating, and a past incident where he was hanged as a killer, even though he was innocent.
- This was pretty common in Matlock, where a client would not only look pretty guilty but have everyone who knew them convinced of their guilt. One example had an obnoxious DJ accused of murdering his rival. Even Ben told him that the jury "can't wait to find you guilty."
- In the Monk episode Mr. Monk And The Man Who Shot Santa Claus, Monk suffers this after he shoots a man dressed as Santa who was throwing toys to children from a building. Of course, he actually shot him in self defense, but he's hard pressed to prove as much. The general public quickly comes to despise him, not helped by his obsessive compulsive tendencies making him look further like a Christmas-hating madman, an Immoral Journalist who goes out of her way to make him look bad, and a Frame-Up by the Santa he shot. It isn't until he finally proves the Santa is a murderer that the public forgives him.
- In one episode of NCIS, a man who was arrested and then got Off on a Technicality for the murder of a prostitute contacted Gibbs and requested that he be formally charged and court-martialed because he felt that he'd suffer this trope forever unless he was formally acquitted and the real murderer was caught. Gibbs did manage to clear him, though the man ended up getting into some trouble for having lied in his initial statements to the police regarding his relationship with the deceased.
- On The Orville, this is the hat of the planet that our heroes visit in "Majority Rule". Every decision regarding the punishment of misdeeds is made by a system of "upvotes" and "downvotes"; if the offender receives ten million downvotes, the result is a lobotomy. Given that the episode is a satire aimed at social media, everyone on that planet makes decisions in a shallow manner, oftentimes not even bothering to take the time to learn about the facts of a particular misdeed (e.g. a girl downvotes a guy just because she doesn't like his looks).
- In Proven Innocent, part of Gore Bellows' strategy for convicting people is to make sure that they get convicted in the court of public opinion first, publicizing even minor indiscretions so that the public basically believe they're guilty before the defendants even get to trial. "Shaken" looks at a positive version of this; after the team determine that Deborah Vanderhey is responsible for the death of her granddaughter as part of a long history of domestic abuse that was covered up by her family's lawyers and doctors, the judge informs Deborah that while she cannot charge Deborah with anything as the statute of limitations on her crimes has expired, she is certain that the woman will be tried in the court of public opinion.
- In the Hulu true crime drama The Thing About Pam, the title character manages to get away with murdering her best friend for her insurance money, and also killing her mother. She carefully manipulates the justice system to get off scot-free for these crimes, but she is eventually convicted in the court of public opinion, much to her dismay. After a news documentary about her case airs, most of the people in the small Missouri town she lives in become convinced that she got away with murder. They begin to shun her, and this results in her committing another murder in a sloppy way, so that she eventually gets caught and has to answer for her crimes.
- Walker, Texas Ranger: In Season 6's "In God's Hands", Trivette nearly has his reputation destroyed when he is placed on administrative leave following the accidental shooting of a 6-year-old boy while engaging an armed robber he and Walker were pursuing in a shootout, contending with an old rival who was passed over when they were both up for being named Ranger, annoying television reporters twisting his words and the victim's revenge-driven older brother. Luckily, the victim survives the shooting as his older brother is barely talked down from shooting Trivette with an illegally-purchased gun. In addition, Walker is able to prove that the bullet came from the villain's gun and Trivette's bullet was lodged in a tree.
