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Old views of future trials

By G.C. Seabourne

In spare evenings, I am getting through the DVDs of 1960s fantasy/sci-fi/thriller The Prisoner. There's a general legal theme, obviously, with our hero, Number 6, kidnapped and incarcerated in The Village, an apparently pleasant, if highly regulated, society  with underlying police state/totalitarian organisation.
    Today's episode (no. 8, 'Dance of the Dead', 1967) had a particularly interesting scene in which Number 6 was put on trial for possession of a contraband radio. Proceedings were conducted in fancy dress (quite true to life, then), before a tribunal of three judges, selected by the people of the village. Number 6 protested, in very common law-ish terms - about the unfairness of the hearing, and the bias of the tribunal and advocates. He was nevertheless sentenced to death, with  the presiding judge donning the familiar black cap. I take it that he will escape, as there are more episodes.
     My appetite whetted, I shall look for other portrayals of the trial in sci-fi.

Full post as published by Common Lawyer on May 09, 2008 (boomark / email).