Unfair Motivation for a Judge to Dislike an Accused [closed]
Closed by System on Jan 17, 2019 at 15:09
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I have a scene where a character is applying to be released from prison pending trial. I want an arbitrary / unfair reason for the judge to dislike him. It has to be something that is not justified to keep him in prison (ie, risk of committing further offences, running away, or interfering with witnesses).
I was thinking something like he is rude to the judge/police, he has some character flaw that people don't tend to like etc.
EDIT: In response to the helpful answer below, it occurred to me that I should have pointed out that it would be good for it to be something that the readers wouldn't like either.
I'd really appreciate any ideas!
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Have you considered racism? May not fit with your story, but maybe some kind of societal objection ... like wrong accent, hair too long, tattoos ... all arbitrary, but could influence someone to be more harsh/unfair.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41374. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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In a modern setting, the prosecution may submit something like blogs or emails intended to prove the defendant was involved in some crime or had knowledge of it.
But the judge, in reading these blogs, finds the defendant's other opinions repellent, even though legal. These could be talking about a callous attitude toward women, for example, or how he insisted his girlfriend have an abortion, or a liberal attitude about drugs or immigrants, or any number of other things allowed as free speech, that grates on the judge.
In any case by reading the defendant's communications, the judge just doesn't like the defendant as a person or human being, even though the behavior itself does not rise to the level of criminal activity; it is just an "ick" factor for the judge and the reader.
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