Fascist show trials render legal evidence secondary to political verdicts.

Evidence

The trial, which began on 28 May 1928, was planned as a political showpiece. A special tribunal had been created to judge Gramsci, Terracini, Scoccimarro and twenty other defendants. The prisoners were accused of organising an armed insurrection. Legal arguments or evidence were largely irrelevant—the regime had decided that a conviction was necessary, to be followed by exemplary punishment. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 228

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the necropolitics/biopolitics strain of the toolkit — how sovereign power dispenses with juridical form to dispose of enemies of the state. — connects to: Fascist regimes stage trials to eliminate intellectuals rather than to establish guilt; The fascist regime staged Gramsci’s trial as exemplary political punishment — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 228; A trial ascertains facts, applies law, and determines guilt or liability. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 796 (+1 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Fascist regimes stage trials to eliminate intellectuals rather than to establish guilt; The fascist regime staged Gramsci’s trial as exemplary political punishment — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 228; A trial ascertains facts, applies law, and determines guilt or liability. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 796 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• A trial ascertains facts, applies law, and determines guilt or liability. #complicates (0.78) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 796