Wilde on Trial

Oscar Wilde was on trial a grand total of three times. The first trial was when he sued Lord Queensberry, John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, when he accused him of libel, the written form of defamation of character. The card stated, "For Oscar Wilde, posing somdomite". Wilde went to trial to defend his name but Queensberry was already ahead of him. He hired detectives to collect evidence to prove that Wilde indeed was gay. By the time Wilde dropped the charges, it was already too late, leading to him being charged with sodomy and gross indecency. His second trial was on the previous charges stated however due to lack of corruption or reliability in the witnesses, those charges were dropped. In his last trial, he was found guilty of gross indecency and was sentenced to two years of hard labor. It is argued that the more social repercussion of being dismissed from high society and his work never taken seriously again was a much longer sentence.