10 Weird Times Dead People Were Put on Trial

When someone is tried for a crime, it is fair to expect that they will be alive, but this is not always the case: there have been few posthumous trials throughout history. Although it may seem somewhat counterproductive to try a defendant who is already dead—since he cannot defend himself and there are limited options for punishment if found guilty—there are some reasons for holding such trials. They can be used to seize the deceased’s property, provide closure for the plaintiff, or work to exonerate someone who was wrongly convicted in life.

However, for obvious reasons, post-mortem trials are not very common, so here are 10 cases where the dead have faced the courts – and why.

1. Jill van Lydenberg
2. The Pope is beautiful
3. Sergei Magnitsky
4. Joan of Arc
5. Alexander and John Ruthven
6. Martin Bormann
7. Saint Geneva
8. George Gordon
9. Uberti farinata
10. Henry Plummer

Jill van Lydenberg

On August 29, 1618, Gilles van Lydenberg – leader Objectorsa religious movement in exile – was arrested for treason. He believed that his children would be able to inherit his son ownership If he died before the trial took place, he would have died by suicide in September. But he was wrong. Van Lydenberg was tried and convicted the following May. His property was confiscated, and his body – now mummified and mummified – was sentenced to death. His body was shoved into the coffin and then the whole thing was done Hanging from the gallows He left for 21 days before being buried in the cemetery.

Van Lydenberg was not entirely satisfied with Van Lydenberg’s punishment, so a crowd of young men dug up his coffin, His body was defiledAnd they threw him into the ditch. The court was not very happy with this punitive act and issued an injunction to prevent further tampering with the body.

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The Pope is beautiful

Pope Stephen VI was keen to erase the legacy of his predecessor, The Pope is beautiful (Pope Boniface VI ruled justly between them 15 days), so in January 897 he accused him of usurping power. The trial – now called the “Body Pool” – was a horrific affair. Formosus had died nine months earlier, but Stephen VI insisted that his body be present at court. Formosus’s rotting body was exhumed, dressed in ecclesiastical clothing, and seated on the papal throne. Although Formosus designated a deacon to speak on his behalf (because he clearly could not speak for himself), it was Stephen VI who did most of the talking, and of course won the case.

All papal ordinations and consecrations of Formosus were cancelled. His body was covered in rags, the three fingers he used to perform blessings were cut off, and he was thrown into the Tiber River – a fate reserved for the most notorious criminals in ancient Rome. This was done to prevent his remains from becoming Venerable holy relicsBut Stephen VI’s plan was not entirely successful: a fisherman pulled Formosus’ body from the river and returned it to the tomb in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Sergei Magnitsky

In 2008, lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was arrested for reporting on tax fraud committed by Russian officials. He died after 11 months in prison, after being beaten by guards and denied medical care due to pancreatitis. But that did not prevent the Russian government from prosecuting and convicting him of tax evasion in 2013.

There was massive international outcry over Magnitsky’s treatment before and after his death. In 2019, an investigation by the European Court of Human Rights concluded that the Russian government had committed several crimes Human rights violations. Besides being denied medical care and being physically abused, it was also declared that “the length of his detention was unjustified” and that “the trial after his death was inherently unfair.”

Bill Browder, founder of Hermitage Capital Management – ​​the investment firm Magnitsky was working with when he discovered and exposed high-level corruption –He said And that the European Court of Human Rights ruling “completely destroys the lies and propaganda related to Sergei Magnitsky.”

Joan of Arc

It is known that Joan of Arcwas a teenage military leader who fought for France Burned at the stake After being accused of heresy. English forces managed to hold on to Rouen for almost 20 years after her execution – which occurred on May 30, 1431 – but once they were driven out, her mother and two brothers pressed for a retrial of her case. Pope Callixtus III agreed, and the documents for Joan of Arc’s trial were re-examined.

On July 7, 1456, the Inquisitor-General concluded his investigation and issued his final ruling: the original The trial was cancelled Due to fraud and improper procedures. All charges were dropped. Not only was Joan of Arc’s name officially erased, but she was also declared a martyr and in the following years became a national symbol of France.

Alexander and John Ruthven

On August 5, 1600, fighting broke out when Alexander captured Ruthven King James VI of Scotland To Gowrie House as part of what some believe attempt To kill the monarch. Who started the conflict and why remains unknown, but James’s royal attendants heard it Cry for help Through the tower window and immediately rushed to help him. Both Alexander and his brother John Ruthven, 3rd Earl of Gowrie, were killed in action.

The event became known as the Jori Plot. The dead men obviously couldn’t tell their side of the story, but James claimed they had tried to assassinate him. The bodies of the Ruthven brothers were preserved until they could be put on trial, and on November 15, 1600, the two were found guilty of treason. They were stripped of their medals, possessions, and even… last name It was “extinguished and abolished forever” with members of Clan Ruthven forced to choose new surnames. Their bodies were also punished. They were hanged, drawn and quartered and the separate body pieces were then put on display in Edinburgh, Stirling, Dundee and Perth.

Martin Bormann

Technically, Martin Bormann – a high-ranking member of the Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler’s private secretary – was tried in absentia at the 1946 Nuremberg trials, rather than posthumously, because it was not known whether he was dead or whether he had managed to escape Germany.

Bormann’s defense attorney, Friedrich Bergold, Argue The court could not convict him because he was already dead. But Bergold did not win this argument and Bormann was sentenced to prison halter For the war crimes he committed.

The search for Bormann initially led nowhere. But in 1972, his remains are believed to have been found in Berlin. after Examination of body teethIt was highly likely that the remains were indeed Bormann’s – a fact that was later confirmed in 1998 after DNA testing. The Nazi official died on May 2, 1945, most likely by biting into a cyanide capsule to die by suicide, meaning he was tried posthumously.

Saint Geneva

For hundreds of years, the body Saint Geneva— the patron saint of Paris, who died around the year 500 — rested in peace in the Church of the Holy Apostles, which became known as the Church of Saint Genevieve after miracles were reported to have occurred at her grave. But all that changed at the end of the eighteenth century, when secularism swept through France French Revolution.

In 1791, the Church of Saint Genevieve was renamed the Pantheon and became home to a relic Honoré Gabriel RicchettiPresident of the National Assembly. Genevieve’s shrine and remains were moved to nearby Saint-Etienne-du-Mont; They eventually ended up at the Hotel des Monnaies. Then the revolutionary regime put her bones on trial convicted She has the right to “(participate) in spreading the error.” Her bones were burned and her ashes were thrown into the Seine River. Only a few small traces of Genevieve now remain.

George Gordon

On 28 October 1562, George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly, encountered troops Mary, Queen of Scots in Battle of Kurichi. The fight was over the earldom of Moray: she frankly claimed it was his, but Mary gave it to her illegitimate brother, James Stuart. He honestly lost the battle and was imprisoned in the Aberdeen Tollbooth, where he collapsed and died that night, as he was running described As “brusque, obese, and short of breath.”

But Mary was not going to let death get in the way of his conviction. Huntley’s body was disembowelled and pickled before being transported to Edinburgh. In May 1563 – seven months after Huntley’s death – the trial took place in the earl’s presence. Body width In an open, upright coffin. His pickled remains were found guilty of treason. His body was then left unburied at Holyrood Palace. It took three years before the body was released and Huntley was finally buried in his family grave in Elgin Cathedral.

Uberti farinata

Farinata degli Uberti was a 13th-century Florentine nobleman who led the empire Ghibelline faction– A political group that supports the authority of the Holy Roman Emperor, rather than the Pope. Uberti died in 1264, but 19 years later his body and that of his wife Adalita were exhumed and put on trial by the Catholic Inquisition. Both were convicted of heresy (because Uberti He did not believe in the afterlife) and ownership What their children inherited was confiscated.

Uberti appeared as a character in Dante‘s Hell In the fourteenth century. He resides in the sixth circle of Hell, along with other Epicurean heretics who do not believe that the soul lives on after death.

Henry Plummer

On January 10, 1864, Henry Plummer– Mayor of Bannack, Idaho Territory – He was accused of being the leader of an outlaw gang that was committing murders in the area. A vigilante group decided to take matters into its own hands by suspending Plummer from A.J scaffold Which he built himself to hang horse thief.

Plummer was certainly responsible for some of the murders over the years. For example, he shot John Fedder in self-defense while protecting John’s wife, Lucy, from domestic violence. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the murder, but was released after a petition signed by more than 100 officials attested that he had “excellent character.” Whether Plummer actually became the leader of an outlaw gang or whether that same gang killed Plummer is uncertain to this day.

On May 7, 1993 – 129 years after his execution – Plummer was given a prison sentence Mock trial. The Twin Bridges Public School District in Montana organized the event as part of a history class, where students played the roles of people who would have been involved had Plummer gotten a fair trial. The trial took place in a real courtroom with a real judge present. 12 registered voters served as jurors. Ultimately, the jury was split on the verdict, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial, meaning Plummer would have been released.