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:
“In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt
But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“A man who has no office to go to—I don’t care who he is—is a trial of which you can have no conception.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)