The term show trial is a pejorative description of a type of highly public trial in which there is a strong connotation that the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal to present the accusation and the verdict to the public as an impressive example and as a warning. Show trials tend to be retributive rather than correctional justice. The term was first recorded in the 1930s.
Read more about Show Trial: South America, Australia
Famous quotes containing the words show and/or trial:
“Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares,
And think perchance they’ll sell; if not,
The lustre of the better yet to show
Shall show the better.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Going to trial with a lawyer who considers your whole life-style a Crime in Progress is not a happy prospect.”
—Hunter S. Thompson (b. 1939)