Courtroom scenes are usually filled with drama, tension, emotion, twists and even violence. That’s why they are often used in movies and TV shows. And then there are those that are just… weird. History is full of bizarre and unique courtroom cases — in this article, we’ll look at ten of the strangest ones.
10. The wickedness of Socrates
As a general rule, if you're going to court, it's probably not a good idea to taunt and mock the jury that will decide your fate. However, Socrates didn't get the memo.
In 399 BC, the famous philosopher was accused of impiety towards the gods and corrupting the youth of Athens. According to Athenian law, Socrates was tried by a jury of 501 peers, all citizens of good standing. They found him guilty by 281 votes to 220.
It wasn't perfect, but now came the crucial part: sentencing. Again, according to Athenian custom, the defendant could suggest his own punishment, and Socrates probably could have avoided a harsh sentence if he had shown a little remorse. Instead, he mocked the jury by telling them that instead of a fine, they should thank him.
Well, the good news is they didn't fine him. The bad news is they sentenced him to death by a vote of 361 to 140, which means Socrates got 80 people who didn't even find him guilty, wanting to see him dead.
9. Limitations of statues
This time we'll stay in Ancient Greece, but we'll move on to a famous Olympian named Theagenes. The guy brought so much victory and prestige to his home island of Thassos that when he died, he was honored with a bronze statue.
Not everyone was a fan, however, and one of his former opponents, who had never managed to defeat Theagenes, regularly visited the statue, mocking it, beating it, and vilifying it as if it were Theagenes himself. One night, the man became too excited with his actions, and the statue took its revenge by collapsing on him and killing him.
One might call it karma, but the sons of the deceased disagreed and instead charged the statue of Theagenes with the murder. Moreover, the inanimate object was found guilty. It was sentenced to exile, and since Thasos is an island, this meant that it was thrown into the sea.
8. Stelvio mice
While ancient Greece didn't think it strange to put inanimate objects on trial, medieval Europe tried animals for a variety of offenses. Many of them had something to do with witchcraft, but not all of them, as was the case in 1519 when a group of field mice were brought to trial in Stelvio, Italy, accused of damaging crops by burrowing.
To their credit, the people of Stelvio took this seriously and appointed a man named Hans Grienebner to protect them from the rodent rascals. His argument was that field mice did more good than harm to the crops, eating insects and enriching the soil. The judge was not entirely convinced, but he was lenient in his sentence. He gave the mice 14 days to leave, even promising them safe passage from dogs, cats and other predators.
7. The Bushell Case
From a forgiving judge we move to a not so forgiving judge who thought he could bully, threaten and coerce the jury to get his way, and instead handed down a landmark judgment against him that still has a decisive bearing on English law.
It was 1670 and it was supposed to be a simple case when two Quakers, William Mead and William Penn, were charged with unlawful assembly, since under the recently passed Assembly Act, religious meetings of five or more people were only permitted under the auspices of the Church of England.
William Penn gave passionate testimony, convincing the jury that they had only gathered to worship, not to cause trouble. The jury therefore found the Quakers guilty only of speaking on Gracechurch Street, which was not illegal even then.
The judge, however, was not having it. He threatened to lock the jury up without food, water or tobacco until they returned a guilty verdict that the court would accept. Instead, the jury gave the court the finger when, after two days of confinement, they returned with a verdict of "not guilty." Predictably, the judge was not pleased, so he fined the jurors for contempt of court and jailed them until they paid their fines.
One of the jurors, Edward Bushell, refused to pay and instead took the case to the Court of Common Pleas, where the Chief Justice, Sir John Vaughan, sided with him and established beyond doubt the independence of juries under English law.
6. Call of Duty
The story of Clement Vallandigham is often told, but we simply cannot talk about strange trials without mentioning the lawyer who committed suicide to prove his client's innocence.
It was 1871, and Clement Vallandigham was a former Ohio congressman turned lawyer who was defending a man named Thomas McGehan. His client was accused of shooting and killing a man named Thomas Myers during a bar fight, but Vallandigham wanted to show the jury that it was more likely that Myers had accidentally shot himself while trying to draw his gun from a kneeling position.
To do this, Vallandigham wanted to put on a show for the jury. The day before his court appearance, he was at the Lebanon House Hotel in Ohio with his entourage and showed them what he intended to do. He had two guns: the real murder weapon that killed Myers, and his own gun, which he used to conduct his own CSI-style forensics. One was loaded, and the other was not. You can probably guess where this is going.
Vallandigham mistakenly picked up a loaded gun, put it in his pocket and tried to pull it out. As he thought, the gun jammed and accidentally fired. The lawyer died after 12 agonizing hours, but fortunately his client was acquitted.
5. Heretical heliocentricity
When Copernicus introduced his heliocentric model, which claimed that the sun was at the center of the universe, the Catholic Church was not thrilled with the idea, mainly because it contradicted biblical teachings that the earth was at the center. However, it did not work right away. It was only a few decades later, when the idea became popular among other astronomers, that the Inquisition decided to stick with it and get out of its comfortable chair.
The most famous case is Galileo, who was found guilty of heresy and placed under house arrest for the rest of his life. However, he got off easy compared to Giordano Bruno, who was effectively burned at the stake for his beliefs.
After his teaching made him persona non grata In Italy, Bruno wandered around Europe in the late 16th century, seeking refuge in countries that were a little more tolerant of his radical ways. Then, for some reason, in 1591, he decided to return to Italy. He was betrayed by a Venetian nobleman named Giovanni Mocenigo, who denounced him to the Inquisition, and he was arrested in 1592.
From Venice, Bruno was deported to Rome in 1593, where his trial lasted almost seven years, mainly because the inquisitors wanted to find as many of his heretical writings as possible. During this time, Bruno refused to condemn his ideas and, when he was found guilty and sentenced to death, he replied: “Perhaps you are more afraid of pronouncing this sentence on me than I am of accepting it.”
4. Trial by fire on ice
According to the 15th-century Italian preacher Girolamo Savonarola, everything in life that brings pleasure is a sin: sex, frivolity, poetry, jokes, gambling, fine clothes, and any luxury items. It was so extreme that even the Catholic Church decided it needed to be toned down a bit, which isn’t too hard to imagine, since the Church was ruled at the time by Pope Alexander VI of the Borgia family.
But even so, the Dominican monk refused to be lit with "fire and brimstone." Finally, his Franciscan rival told him to put up or shut up and challenged him to a trial by fire. If he had spoken the truth, surely God would have been on his side.
The test was supposed to take place on April 7, 1498, but it never happened. Some reported that heavy rain fell from the sky and extinguished the fire, thus a divine sign that Savonarola was wrong. Others said that the Franciscan monk simply did not show up. Either way, the public blamed Savonarola for the fact that they had come expecting a miracle.
Once he lost public favor, the church quickly imprisoned Savonarola and his two closest followers. They were convicted of heresy, tortured, hanged, and then burned at the stake.
3. Ouija board
Murder trials would be a lot easier if you could just ask the victim who killed them. That's what a group of jurors thought in 1994 during the trial of Steven Young for a grisly double murder. The problem is, the dead are pretty hard to get to... unless you have a Ouija board.
One night during the trial, four jurors decided to consult the spirits using a makeshift Ouija board made from paper and a wine glass. Luckily for them, the ghost of one of the victims was in a chatty mood that night, and he confirmed that Young had killed him, telling them to vote guilty.
Which is exactly what they did. Steven Young was found guilty, and it was only later discovered that some of the jurors had been influenced by the other side's testimony. Unsurprisingly, a retrial was ordered.
2. The Last Duel
If you watched "The Last Duel" Ridley Scott, then you are already familiar with this story about a judicial duel between two French knights that took place on December 29, 1386.
Ten years ago, Jean de Carrouges and Jacques Le Gris were close friends who fought side by side. However, the latter attacked and raped the former's wife, Marguerite. Le Gris expected her to remain silent for fear of embarrassment, but Marguerite not only told her husband, she even sued Le Gris. This was far riskier than you might imagine, because if Marguerite had been found guilty of perjury, she could have been burned at the stake.
By the late 14th century, trials by combat had become rare in France. However, King Charles VI not only sanctioned them, he supervised them. There are several first-hand accounts of the duel, and while they are not all identical, they agree that Le Gris struck the first blow to his opponent's thigh. However, this seemed to fill Carrouges with bloodlust, and he seized Le Gris' helmet with one hand and threw it to the ground. He demanded that he confess the truth, and when Le Gris refused, Carrouges "drew his sword and killed his enemy with great difficulty, because he was clad in armour."
1. Cadaver Synod
As far as bizarre court scenes go, you'd be hard pressed to find anything stranger than the so-called Cadaver Synod, where a pope put his deceased predecessor on trial.
It was January 897 AD. The accuser was Pope Stephen VI, and the defendant was Pope Formosus, who had died the previous year and been buried for six months. For reasons too long and complex to go into, they did not like each other. So when Stephen got the better of his rival (while still alive), he saw it as a golden opportunity for revenge.
Stephen had Formosus dug up and brought to trial, charging him with a host of crimes, including serving illegally as a bishop and aspiring to the papacy. You will be stunned to learn that Formosus was found guilty. There is little that can be done to punish a corpse, but Stephen tried his best anyway. He annulled all of Formosus’ ordinations and appointments. He stripped him of his fine robes, dressed him in rags, and finally cut off the three fingers with which Formosus had blessed. He then threw the body into the Tiber River.
The case may be closed, but Formosus still has the last laugh from beyond the grave. The people of Rome were so outraged by the Cadaver Synod that they rioted. Pope Stephen VI was imprisoned and strangled a few months later.
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