Sounds like a Salem Witch trial.
Your Honor, we asked her if she was a witch and she said nothing. GUILTY! Toss her in the lake, if she floats she is guilty, hang her. If she drowns, she is innocent bury her.
Next
Tea Party member number 27, report to the Docket!
“Sounds like a Salem Witch trial. Your Honor, we asked her if she was a witch and she said nothing. GUILTY!”
Exactly! People that refuse to study history because “It’s booooring!” are doomed to repeat it.
Not so! The Witch trials couldn't act like a denial was proof until it was spoken; thus we get the awesome rules lawyer
story:
The 80-year-old Corey was accused of witchcraft during the 1692 Salem trials, but he refused to enter a plea to the court. As punishment, he was laid naked in a pit in a field, and slowly pressed to death over two days. Heavy rocks were gradually placed upon his chest--but he refused to cry out in pain, or enter a plea, and each time he was asked to do so, he simply replied: "More weight."An explanation: this guy was a Real Life Rules Lawyer, and knew that if he died under interrogation, he was still legally a Christian and his sons could inherit his property. Confessing would spare his life, but he would no longer be considered a Christian and his property would be forfeit. Denying the charges would result in his conviction and execution, as the trials were flagrantly rigged, and again his property would be forfeit. So, by refusing to enter any plea at all, he saved his family from poverty and earned a Dying Moment of Awesome. &mdsh; from TvTropes