FLAYING JUDGE SISAMNES: WHEN CORRUPT JUDGES WERE PUBLICLY SKINNED ALIVE

"The Flaying of Sisamnes", by Gerard David.

The ‘due administration of justice is the firmest pillar of good government’ and once that pillar becomes weak the whole structure of governance comes tumbling down. To maintain this pillar, the integrity and independence of the judiciary in administration of justice must be jealously guarded.  This means that the magistrates and judges who are at the center of the administration of justice must be honest and impartial; they must be like caeser’s wife, above suspicion and beyond reproach.

In the 6^th Century BC during the reign of Cambyses II, the King of Persia, as documented by Herodotus, Judge Sisamnes having been bribed gave an unjust verdict in a lawsuit. On being found out, the king ordered for his arrest. He was found guilty of prevarication. He was sentence to be strangled and flayed, and the chair on which he sat when pronouncing the unjust judgment be upholstered with his skin. The sentence was publicly executed.  

The king then named Sisamnes’s son, Otanes, to succeed his father as judge. The son, now as a Judge Otanes, was to perform his duties while sitting on his father’s seat upholster with his father’s skin, and the king recommended him to bear in mind the source of the leather of the seat upon which he would seat to hear evidence, deliberate and administer justice. This must have left a continuous lingering impression and maybe it ensured he set the bar of fairness higher knowing very well the consequences of corruption and lack of fairness.

In the 15^th Century, in the  1480s, the municipal authorities of Bruges wanted paintings in their justice-room. They commissioned David Gerard to make paintings that will inform the authorities of importance of integrity and honesty.  Gerard drew the painting known as “Judgment of Cambyses” which depicts the scenes of the arrest and fraying of Judge Sisamnes. The intention was to represent the scene of flaying of Judge Sisamnes with a sense of coldness and exemplary cruelty and acted as a stern warning to judges in the justice room against the temptation of corruption since, looking at the painting, its moral and horror cannot easily be forgotten.

"The Arrest of Sisamnes", by Gerard David.

A graphic detailed painting of a man being frayed alive hanging on a wall in a public place is by no means a pleasant sight to look at but if we consider the intention then we can perfectly congratulate Gerard for accurately picking the right historical event and depicting it in a painting that remains relevant in all human ages.

The painting perfectly portrays the giving of a judge a dosage of his own medicine. A judge being directly subjected to the pain and agony he subjects others when he dispenses unjust verdicts. A judge passing an unjust verdict may not understand the pain of injustice, as it has been well put by George Martin, that “The [judge] who passes the sentence should swing the sword [but when he] hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is.” When the judge sits at the bench he may not understand the consequence of his crooked character. Gerard’s painting speaks a language that maybe the judges understand, a language that tells the judge “imagine this pain being subjected to yourself?”

It portrays a judge being subjected to the pains of injustice which he subjected members of the public by dereliction from his mandate of being fair, just, impartial and honest; a judge being subjected to the cost of forsaking his independence for a bribe; a judge being subjected to the consequence of forsaking his public duty for selfish personal gains.

Of Course, the Painting is not intended for judges alone, but to enable everyone empathize with others who are victims of injustice. It enables a person place himself in the shoe of a victim of an unjust sentence. It enables the public to be angry of the pains of injustice and take action against unjust actions. It gives the public a shared determination to wipe away corrupt judges. It enables the public realize that their action of giving, condoning and accepting bribes is painful and the painting does just that by creating a mental picture of anyone who is corrupt to enter the flesh of the victim of a corrupt judgment and feel the pain of an unjust and unfair action.

The judiciary is a creation of the society, for a judge to give a corrupt verdict a member of the society must have contaminated the independence of the judge. As John Marshall would put it, that “the greatest scourge an angry heaven ever inflicted upon an ungrateful and sinning people, was an ignorant, a corrupt or a dependent judiciary.” Society creates corrupt judges by either participating, condoning or not placing judges or judgments to account.

 The consequence of lacking an impartial and independent judiciary is that justice can only be bought by the highest bidder. It places a price on justice and creates an impression that laws and facts are not enough to balance the scales of justice unless money is added on the scales. It makes justice worthless and equality before the law is dependent on how mighty the wallet is. It makes humanity leap towards animalist character where might is right. Where as long as you can afford the price of justice you have no obligation to follow the law, you can kill, steal and destroy and remain untouchable. Society turns into a state of nature.

An Independent judiciary entails the passing of judgment based on facts and law and impartial Judges serve as neutral arbiters. Its impartiality enables ‘the rich and poor, the educated an uneducated, the strong and weak to stand without distinction in the leveling light of the constitution and body of law.’ When the justice lacks its impartiality and independence, people in the society lack avenue to report and address their grievances. The legitimacy of the government is eroded because who will observe a law if they know it cannot be enforced or used to protect them. Due to corruption an innocent man goes to jail and a guilty man walks free and  ‘the society will exclaim that it is immaterial to whether I behave well or ill; for virtue itself, is no security. And if such a sentiment as this, should take place in the mind of members of the society, there would be an end to all security what so ever. They take law into their hands; they become the police, the prosecutor, the judge and executioner.

The Judgment of Cambyses. Stained glass, by Dirk Vellert,
in the background his skin is upholstered on his son's judgment seat,

removes this legitimacy and predictability and the application of the law is dependent on who is the highest bidder. If someone with a greater price wronged you then you have no voice and the scale of justice will swing towards the one with the mightier wallet. This leads to creation of mafias in the society who can resolve the conflicts and secure the rights that government has neglected to protect and there and then disorder becomes the order of the society.

It can perfectly be said a corrupt judge is a threat to National Security because their unjust verdict has a ripple effect that when placed together with other million ripples created from other  areas of injustice they build a great wave that can sweep down all the Pillars of the society. A corrupt judge deprives people an avenue to peacefully and justly resolve their conflict. If this avenue lacks, people  stop observing the law and governance fails.

There is great truth in the statement of George Washington, the first president of America when he said in his letter to Edmund Randolph that “ impressed with a conviction that the due administration of justice is the firmest pillar of good government , I have considered the first arrangement of the judicial department as essential to the happiness of our country and to that stability of its political system- hence selection of the fittest character to expound the laws, and dispense justice has been an invariable object of my anxious concern.” (Emphasis mine)

From the foregoing, I believe we share the same convictions and anxious concerns that the fittest characters are the ones who are to dispense justice and that the happiness of our system is determined by them.  And that we can always run to strong tower of justice ‘when constitutional freedoms and liberties are endangered, when expediency threatens justice, when fad menaces principles, and when whim diverts consistency, it is an independent judiciary that strikes the balance and sets all things right. The judiciary must be free to decide matters before them impartially, on the basis of facts and in accordance with the law, without any restrictions, improper influences, inducements, pressures, threats or interferences, direct or indirect, from any quarter or for any reason.’

Judicial independence is a matter of character. In all our actions may we always keep in the forefront of our minds the painting of “Judgment of Cambyses” knowing very well that the pains of injustice are gruesome and it is upon ourselves to maintain an impartial, accountable and just system. As Pericles would put it, that “If Athens shall appear great to you consider then that her glories were purchased by valiant men and by men who learned their duties.” If Justice is to appear great in our society let all men know and do their duty.