Judges and Trials; a Pillar of Justice

[Theori]

Whilst I feel something like this is a genuine good idea, it has a few issues....

Thanks for the critique! I'd like to try and address a bit of it.

I'm not suggesting this for the once-in-a-blue-moon scenario where a person manages to successfully get themselves proven falsely innocent. No, this is a suggestion more so that Jim McPoordecision who got stupidly involved in a low level of a terrorist organisation and felt trapped in it afterwards to convince a Judge -drawn from the Faith, who ideally should hold forgiveness and redemption as an ideal- that a couple of years in prison is a better sentence than execution.

Its there so the First Light doesn't hold essentially all of the authority in criminal justice like they current so, so far as I'm aware, because having one group control every stage of the process prevents interesting interpersonal conflict that could overwise blossom. Agreed on it granting more time for freeing comrades, and yes that is a good thing. People WOULD probably go for street-justice, as you say. Honestly, this is already technically illegal under Vigilantism for non-Law Enforcement affiliated individuals, and illegal for City Watch/First Light as Unauthorised Execution, a Capital crime by Osronan law; so its actually already technically punishable by death. This could potentially be another aspect of Judges -they being required to sign a.... 'Writ of Summary Execution' or something, where an individual considered too dangerous to be exclusively taken alive can be executed on the spot. People who straight up kill on cap without going through the right channels deserve for that to have consequences, I'd say, if only because that creates more interesting roleplay.

Non-Osronan factions are still, thus far, Essharan factions, and I'd imagine that Major/Capital crimes are the same across the board, so it would still affect them. Hell, that there is a potential point of conflict; Osronan courts muscling in on relatively autonomous villages.

I'm not even that fussed on Courtrooms, honestly, I just want to give the Church a little more to do (Bishops are a rank above priest, Magik, so its not really that high up, three of roughly five). If there's a Bishop consulted for a ruling in the prison itself, I'm cool with that, so long as that Judge is there. Hope I've made a decent rebuttal of some of your point, still love you etc. And I do take critique as a positive thing!