The Star Chamber (1983)

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The Star Chamber (1983)

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The Star Chamber is a 1983 thriller film written by Roderick Taylor and directed by Peter Hyams. It stars Michael Douglas and Hal Holbrook. Its title is taken from the name of the notorious 17th century English court.

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The Star Chamber (1983)

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Plot: Judge Hardin (Douglas) is an idealistic Los Angeles jurist who gets frustrated when the technicalities of the law prevent the prosecution of two men who are accused of raping and killing a 10-year-old boy. They were driving slowly late at night and attracted the suspicion of two police officers, who wondered if the van's occupants might be burglars. After checking the license plate for violations, the policemen pulled them over for expired paperwork, smelled marijuana, then saw a bloody shoe inside the van. However, the paperwork was actually submitted on time (it was merely processed late), meaning the police had no reason to pull over the van and Hardin has no choice but to throw out any subsequently discovered evidence, i.e. the bloody shoe. Hardin is even more distraught when the father of the boy attempts to shoot the criminals in court but misses and shoots a cop instead. Subsequently, the father commits suicide while in jail only after he informs Hardin that another boy has been discovered raped and murdered and tells him "This one is on you, your Honor. That boy would be alive if you hadn't let those men go." After hearing all this, Judge Hardin approaches his friend, Judge Caulfield (Hal Holbrook), who tells him of a modern-day Star Chamber: a group of judges who identify criminals who fell through the judicial system's cracks and then take actions against them outside the legal structure.
Judge Hardin participates in one of these proceedings in which he presents the case of the two criminals. The Star Chamber declares them "guilty" and dispatches a hired assassin. Soon afterward, however, a police detective (Yaphet Kotto) comes to Judge Hardin with conclusive evidence that someone else raped and killed the boy. Realizing that he and the Star Chamber have just sentenced two men to die for a crime they didn't commit, Hardin implores the Star Chamber to recall the assassin, but is told by the other judges that the hit cannot be canceled. For the judges' own protection, their system includes a buffer between themselves and the assassin; they don't know who he is and he doesn't know who they are. They rationalize to Hardin that although an occasional mistake is inevitable and regrettable, what they are doing still serves society's greater good - especially, they argue, considering that the two targeted men are clearly criminals guilty of plenty of other crimes, even if not of the specific crime for which the group convicted them.

–from wikipedia

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The Star Chamber (1983)

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The Star Chamber (1983)

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The Star Chamber (1983)

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The Star Chamber (1983)

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The Star Chamber (1983)

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