The Glove Trials

The phrase "The Glove Trials" describes the old world process wherein almost every trial was settled on the basis of whether or not the gloves fit.

Court Process
In the Universe that Prince Henry currently resides, whichever that may be, almost every criminal case in the United States(and Spain up to the 1600s and England up until the late 1700s) was settled by way of Glove Trial up until the late 1800's.

A Glove Trial is handled very similarly to any ordinary trial with one major difference. The defendant and plantiff enter the court alongside their respective lawyers, the judge reads aloud the charges, and each lawyer makes an opening statement to the jury. However, after this the lawyers job ends. A young boy between the ages of 12-15 known as "The Court Mitten" walks up to the judge holding a locked box. The judge then ceremoniously unlocks the box, revealing a random pair of gloves.

The pair of gloves is selected from a large cache of gloves that is handled by the (now dissolved) US Department of Hand Garments. There is no reasoning or rule set when selecting the gloves, other than that the gloves must be of their own pair. There can be no mix matched gloves. Beyond that, a pair is randomly selected by the blindfolded Head of the Department of Hand Garments for each and every case in the US. (This was an incredibly time consuming task and overall impractical, being one of the major reasons that this type of trial was dissolved)

The judge then has the Court Mitten present the pair of gloves to the defendant. The jury then looks on nervously and with anticipation of the outcome of the Glove Trial. The defendant then tries on the gloves. If the pair of gloves is too large or too small, and therefore do not fit, the defendant must be acquitted of all charges against them. If this is the case the jury must then clap their hands together in unison. However, if the gloves do fit perfectly, then the defendant is guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment (if the gloves are leather, then they are sentenced to death). The jury then responds by stomping their feet in unison. These are both for ancient symbolic purposes.

Controversy
The Glove Trials received much controversy pretty much since their inception when Christopher Columbus began colonizing North America. There were early complaints saying that it was an unfair method of trial, but those who spoke out against it were charged with treason by Columbus and his men and put up for trial over and over again until their gloves fit.

The controversy really began to take off in the 1700s, primarily during the American Revolution. Thomas Payne actually included several pages about it during his "Common Sense" pamphlets. He said it was a "violation of their rights, and probably a bigger deal than the tax stuff." People agreed with Payne and cited that as their man reason for joining the revolution. However, after the revolution was won by the Americans they continued to hold Glove Trials to punish many Loyalists and captured British soldiers. They then realized that having the power over the Glove Trials was actually pretty fun, so they founded the Department of Hand Garments, with its first Department Head being John Handcock. This silenced the complaints over the trials for many years, they didn't rise again until the after the Civil War in 1866. The Southeners were all for the Glove Trials when they could do it to their lower class civilians, but now that the Northerners were doing it to particularly treasonous southeners who had been captured for high crimes against the north, they decided it really wasn't a fair system of court. It relied far too much on chance, with much of the time it finding people guilty due to the unpredictability of the gloves. With half of the US campaigning against the Glove Trials the government was finally forced to ban Glove Trials nationwide in 1888.

However, due to a stalemate in the case and wanting to get it over with already, the Glove Trials were brought back for one final case against OJ Simpson, where he beat the odds. Despite most rational people acknowledging his guilt, he was declared innocent by way of Glove Trial, as the gloves did not fit him, and he was acquitted of all charges. This received many complaints and the US Government decided it really only made matters worse, finally banning the Glove Trials for good.

Famous Historic Glove Trials

 * Please not that list is not exhaustive, it only contains the absolute most famous Glove Trials and only those that took place in America, many trials are left out

Salem Witchcraft Trials-Most of the accused during the Salem Witch Trials were tried by way of Glove Trial. The reasoning being that if they were not a witch, the gloves may not fit them, but if they were witches, then their hands would automatically grow or shrink to match the glove size, so if it fit they were guilty and sentenced to death. Most of the time, even if the glove did not fit, they would try different gloves until they eventually fit. Giles Corey was found guilty and sentenced to death in this way.

John Peter Zenger- When Zenger was accused of publishing libel against the US Government, he was of course, tried by Gloves(as was really the only trial that happened). Luckily for Zenger the gloves did not fit, and he was acquitted of all charges.

The Boston Massacre- The soldiers who fired into the crowd were tried by Glove. The gloves did not fit most of the soldiers and they were acquitted. However, two of the soldiers were perfect matches for their pairs of gloves, and sentenced to life in prison.

The Burr Conspiracy Trials- Slayer of Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr was on trial for treason against the United States of America. Although a majority of the public was rooting for the gloves to fit Burr perfectly they did not. The gloves were unfortunately a reported 3 sizes too large, and he was let go.

The Lincoln Conspiracy Trials- The group of men accused of aiding the plot of the escaped and later found killed John Wilkes Booth were sentenced to Glove Trial. In an astounding turn of odds, the gloves fit all of the men perfectly, sending them all to a life in prison. The body of booth was discovered in a barn sometime later, on his hands were a pair of perfectly fitting gloves, this has been a point of controversy around the years. Who placed the gloves? This was the last MAJOR glove trial before they were banned the first time.

The trial of OJ Simpson- OJ Simpson was accused of murder. Although the majority of people believed him to be obviously guilty, his incredible law team worked against the town's bumbling police force to have Glove Trial reinstated just this one time, and in an astounding turn of fate, the gloves did not fit, and OJ was acquitted of all charges until he was arrested years later for breaking & entering and stealing(this trial was not Glove based). After this trial Glove Trials were banned and have not been used since.