Basic Trope: A jury renders a verdict contrary to the facts.
- Straight:
- Bob has been acquitted in spite of a mountain of evidence against him.
- Bob has been convicted even though no evidence existed against him.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob has been acquitted even though he confessed and pleaded guilty.
- Bob has been convicted even though the real culprit turned himself in and came to the court to confess.
- Bob has been acquitted even though he, a psychotic cannibalistic Serial Killer, actively swears to hunt down every single member of the jury and turn them into his food no matter what they vote for.
- Bob has been convicted even though he, a guy who is constantly donating to charity, passively tries to show that he's literally going to protect every last one of them from the crowds if they get too rowdy, no matter what they vote for.
- Downplayed: There are some holes in the jury verdict.
- Justified:
- Bob has an Amoral Attorney.
- The law the jury has to apply was unjust.
- Bob was accused of killing an Asshole Victim who was so hated that despite efforts to screen out sympathetic people the jury still decided to let him walk.
- Bob was accused of killing an Incorruptible Pure Pureness who was so beloved that despite efforts to screen out unsympathetic people the jury decided to let him get the electric chair.
- The jury is easily swayed by the prosecutor against Bob. Some people will believe in accusations without proper evidence.
- The jurors are that stupid.
- Someone bribed (or threatened) the jurors to deliver the wrong verdict.
- Inverted: The verdict mirrored exactly the facts.
- Subverted: At a first glance, the jury rendered a stupid verdict but, after analysis, the verdict was in fact waterproof...
- The jury's verdict seems nonsensical until one hears about a previously scandalous frame up with more 'evidence' than remotely probable to be discovered. Given the history and the sheer overkill nobody on the jury believed it wasn't planted. Bad practices bred quite a large amount of unreasonable doubt.
- Double Subverted: ..until we learn the jury neglected to consider a crucial piece of evidence which have been introduced during the end of the trial.
- Parodied: Bob gets convicted even though they had only exculpatory evidence and they had a spontaneous confession from the real guilty person who, moreover, committed the crime right before their eyes.
- Zig Zagged: Bob is up on multiple charges, some of which the jury correctly decides on, and some of which they choose the opposite verdict one would expect from the evidence.
- Averted: The jury does its duty with due diligence. Whatever else happens that affects the verdict, it was not their fault.
- Enforced:
- The writer wants to write a tale about how something like 12 Angry Men would never happen in a world that he believes has become too stupid and corrupt to care about justice.
- "Are you telling me our star backed out because he had jury duty? I'll show them!"
- Bob was originally going to be put in jail to finish off his arc when his actor left the show. However, the actor decided to stay on, requiring hasty rewrites to keep him out of jail.
- Lampshaded: "Have these jurors flunked the intelligence tests?"
- Invoked: The defense manages to throw out any competent jurors on technically legal, but incredibly nitpicky grounds.
- Exploited: The defense manages, somehow, to convince the jury that the victim was actually an imaginary friend of the defendant. The jury unanimously acquits.
- Defied: The Judge make sure the morons get screened out of the jury.
- Discussed: "Objection! Your Honor, I object on the grounds that the jury is a gaggle of jerkoffs!
- Conversed: "This case is going to end with those twelve morons letting the murderer go, right? Because the writer wanted to say something about how Kanye can literally get away with murder, that much beloved he is?"
- Deconstructed:
- Due to the verdicts rendered by the Common Nonsense Jury, public confidence in the justice system reaches new lows.
- The jury is so obviously wrong that the judge or lawyers pull strings to get them to be declared hung.
- Reconstructed:
- When twelve idiots are the only thing keeping The Woobie from getting the chair as the result of a Miscarriage of Justice, you don't look at a gift horse in the mouth.
- But they can't assemble a new jury and the verdict stands.
- Played For Laughs: The jury make a decision based upon Insane Troll Logic, leaving judge, prosecutor, and defender stumped.
- Played For Drama: The blatantly wrongful conviction of Bob shows just how bigoted society really is.
- Played For Horror:
- Bob suffers every kind of horror a Hellhole Prison can inflict because twelve people felt that going to see a movie/baseball game/have sex was more important than due diligence... or worse yet, they are too damn horrible to care.
- Twelve assholes are to blame for the death (or Fate Worse than Death) of Bob the innocent… that sounds like a perfect seed for a "murderous ghost" or "vengeful slasher" plot, if there was one…
- Implied: Before the trial, Bob's lawyer confidently assures him the evidence is in his favor, but he still loses.
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