The Show Trial of Good Friday

"Jesus was never tried to determine his innocence or guilt... In a show trial, the guilt of the person being 'tried' has already been determined. There is no effort to weigh evidence, nor is there a defense of the offender. Show trials are conducted under the firm control of the state; there is no independent judiciary. The procedure does not conform to laws but follows the expedient will of power elites. Some ad hoc body of accusers stands in place of a jury, and its members belong to the same ruling class as the accusers. A show trial is not a legal process but a political process whose purpose is the public degradation and humiliation of an enemy of the state before his foreordained conclusion." (William Herzog, Jesus, Justice, and the Reign of God, pp 240-241)