Disregard That Statement: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples|pre="|suf="}}

== Film ==

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''[[Anatomy of a Murder]]'', when Jimmy Stewart's client directly asks him how the jury can just choose to forget an "inappropriate" question, and Jimmy casually admits they can't.

* ''[[Chicago]]'': Billy Flynn goes off on a (seemingly) wild rant while cross-examining the [[Surprise Witness]] about Roxie's diary, where he flat-out accuses the District Attorney of planting evidence. (Of course, he phrases it as hypothetical question, so in movie-land he doesn't get disbarred.)

** Also hilariously: "Objection! Strangling the witness!"

 

* Used by a rival lawyer in ''[[Shark]]'', with incriminating photographs.

** Particularly blatant example in an episode where Jack McCoy is cross-examining an expert witness testifying on the mental disorder of the defendant. He gets her to admit she is not a licensed psychologist but instead hosts a radio show that discusses this disorder among others.

{{quote|'''McCoy:''' So in other words, you're not a psychologist but you play one on the radio?

* In ''[[Murder One]]'', the prosecutor brings up the defendant's previous visit to a sex shop where he examined sadistic looking wrist restraints, and holds up a pair for the witness to identify. The defense objects that there's no evidence that any restraints were used in the murder, but we're left to surmise that the purpose of this tangent was simply for the jury to see the restraints, and see the defendant as the kind of person who would use them.

* In ''[[Community]]'' ''Basic Lupine Urology'' Annie and Lt. Colonel Archwood do this by making a wildly loaded question then saying "withdrawn", using this to call someone respectively a wife-beating, drug-using virgin, and a Holocaust-denying, 9/11 pedophile. They get away this this because they aren't really in a courtroom, but rather a bizarre faux-trial presided over by the biology teacher to determine who ruined a school project.

 

== Video Games ==

* Pulled at least once in The ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' games, when Franziska von Karma shows off an illegally acquired photograph, not as formal evidence (since that would ruin her Perfect Record, after all), but just to give the judge and audience something to think about. Too bad for her [[Cloudcuckoolander|the implications fly completely over the Judge's head.]]

 

* Pulled in a [[Kangaroo Court]] in ''[[Looking for Group]]'', when the prosecutor brings up Richard saving the life of a small child (it ''is'' a trial of demons, after all), then [http://www.lfgcomic.com/page/155 immediately withdraws the question].

 

== Western Animation ==

* Parodied in ''[[Futurama]]'', where the jury (a DOOP war-crimes tribunal) were all witnesses (to the destruction of DOOP headquarters). The rival lawyer asks the jury to point out the person they saw committing the act, and are told by the judge to disregard their own statements.

* Hilariously parodied in ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'', where Batman is being held on trial by a [[Joker Jury]].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Artistic License Law]]

[[Category:Courtroom Antic Tropes]]