This day, Maundy Thursday 2009, may be an interesting point in the Christian calendar to remember not only the facts of the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus, but to analyze the extensive perversion of the legal system that was required to put him to death. The linked file is an analysis of those events from the viewpoint of a lawyer and judge and may give you a different perspective of this Easter season. The preamble in the paper:
About 2,000 years ago, there occurred the central events of Christian history which we observe and celebrate during the Easter season, events which principally exist in our minds as the cornerstone of our Christian faith: the death and resurrection of a man called Jesus. For a trial lawyer or judge however, these events are foreshadowed, though not overshadowed, by the trial that took place before his execution.
We talk about the trial of Christ — in fact, he was tried within both the Roman and Hebrew judicial systems and scholars debate whether there were in fact two full trials. I believe that there were no full trials because of the subversion of all the rules, and that there were seven trials in all.
I hope that you find this paper to be interesting whether your faith is Christian, Jewish or otherwise.