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Off on a Technicality: Difference between revisions
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The criminal is caught, comes up for a trial--and then it turns out that he wasn't read his [[Miranda Warning]], or the [[Cowboy Cop]] forgot to get a search warrant, or the confession was obtained via [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique]]. The judge is forced to throw the case out and the (alleged) crook walks free.
Most prevalent back in the 1970s and 1980s with the vigilante justice fad in fiction, after several court decisions seeming to tip the balance of the legal system in favor of the accused. In [[Real Life]], police and other law enforcement personnel are carefully trained to avoid screwing up their cases like this, and the fictional versions have become rarer.
In a [[Police Procedural]], such as [[Law and Order]], this will usually come in at the first quarter-hour mark, when the initial case falls through, and the DA tells the cops to find some non-tainted evidence to replace the botched info.
In stories where a [[Vigilante Man]] or [[Cowboy Cop]] is the protagonist, the legal system is seen as more concerned about "procedure" than "justice," and [[Strawman Political]] bleeding heart judges will accept any half-baked excuse for letting criminals go free. (This is often a case of [[Did Not Do the Research]] where in [[Real Life]] the technicality wouldn't have been applicable.) If the accused person is the protagonist, then the "technicality" will actually be an albatross for them, because no one will believe they're actually innocent (until the end of the story/series when the actual criminal is found.)
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* The [[Magnificent Bastard]] [[Big Bad]] Gouda almost gets off with this in the second season of [[Ghost in the Shell]]. {{spoiler|Luckily, the Prime Minister has a technicality of her own; a piece of legislation which allows her to [[Screw the Rules, I Make Them|give Section 9 a great deal of "discretion"]] in detaining Gouda on the grounds that he's an important asset to the country.}} Something of a [[Chekhov's Gun]], since the same law was brought up in an earlier episode.
** The reason he nearly gets off? Apparently in [[Ghost in the Shell]]-world simply turning yourself in absolves you of all responsibility for your crimes, even when said crimes involve {{spoiler|conspiracy to nuke civilians and treason.}} [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ghost_in_the_Shell:_S.A.C._2nd_GIG_episodes\], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ghost_in_the_Shell:_Stand_Alone_Complex_episodes\]
*** Which would explain why the [[Ghost in the Shell]] world is a bit of a [[Crapsack World]]. In addition, there are multiple storylines involving a [[Treachery Cover-Up]].
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* In the ''[[Ultimate Spider-Man]]'' comics, being apprehended by the Web-Slinger (and possibly any costumed vigilante) is a violation of your civil rights and is the source of [[Joker Immunity]] for anyone he has a hand in bringing down, particularly the Shocker, who gets a [["Get Out of Jail Free" Card]] for breaking out of jail and his original crimes which Spidey had nothing to do with. As of Ultimatum, the DA's office has done absolutely nothing about this loophole, instead blaming Spider-Man for their cases getting tossed. The Punisher is listening when this is brought up at Ryker's-- a rapist says that he's free as a bird, because Daredevil beat the crap out of him as he was about to nail a thirteen-year old in a house he broke into-- and that's how the reader discovers that nesting the bowl of a spoon in your palm with the handle between your middle and ring fingers will enable you to ''[[Slashed Throat|slash open someone's throat]]''.
** The Kingpin was cleared of murder charges after his lawyer got the video of the murder ruled inadmissible. Even though news station played the video for all to see, the citizens of New York treat this as the same thing as him as being completely innocent.
*** Parker tries to bring it up during class, and the teacher ''gives him detention.'' The implication is that everybody knows he bought the cops off, and is therefore the de facto master of the city - and their lives are at risk if they bring it up.
== Film ==
* Scorpio in ''[[Dirty Harry]]'', who got off due to Harry Callahan illegally obtaining the evidence that would have convicted him and using the [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique]] to make him talk concerning where the girl Scorpio kidnapped was, since the DA said he "couldn't condone police torture." This would only invalidate evidence on that case, but certainly not for Scorpio's ''attempted murder of Callahan, assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a (likely illegal) automatic weapon, and kidnapping him'' which is enough for a life sentence by itself.
** Scorpio was wearing a balaclava when he attacked Harry. Harry searched his room without a warrant (because he thought he was running out of time to save the girl) invalidating the weapons found there.
* The Sally Field movie ''Eye For An Eye'' has this as its premise, as a woman who loses her daughter to a rapist tries to get him behind bars, but seeks her own kind of justice on him after he gets off on a technicality. The tagline of the movie is "What do you do when justice fails?" (become the star of ''[[Brothers and Sisters]]''?) In [[Real Life]], at the very least, the killer's constant making faces at Field would earn him a bunch of "contempt of court" charges.
** Also, in the film the killer got off because the prosecution didn't disclose some evidence -- before he got to trial! In [[Real Life]], it would probably mean a reprimand, them getting ordered to reveal that...and going on to trial.
*** Re-examine. The evidence in question is a small amount of blood - enough for the prosecution to identify the killer with their own tests, but not enough for the defense to run tests of their own. The defense was invited to have their own experts participate in testing the blood - they declined. It wasn't until the trial that they sprung the technicality. They ''purposefully'' refused to participate in the investigation so their killer rapist (who already had a record of stalking) could go free. Please tell me I missed something.
**** If they had a chance to examine it themselves and this was disclosed, that probably wouldn't be a violation.
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** ''[[Freddy Vs Jason Vs Ash The Nightmare Warriors]]'' also presents another possible reason for why Freddy managed to walk - a time displaced FBI agent (long story) impulsively tampered with his file and the paperwork within.
* The film ''[[The Star Chamber]]'' is about a group of vigilante judges tired of crooks getting let off on technicalities.
** Ironically, one of the two illegal searches highlighted in the movie (when police officers searched a trash can where a serial killer had stashed his gun) [[You Fail Law Forever|would actually have been legal]] because the suspect wouldn't have a "reasonable expectation of privacy" in its contents. (The other search, in which they searched a child murderer's van because the DMV incorrectly reported it as unregistered, became legal a year after the film's release when the Supreme Court codified the good-faith exception.)
* Played for laughs in ''[[Liar Liar]]'', {{spoiler|until the end.}}
* In the Al Pacino movie [[And Justice for All]], the character Jay has a nervous breakdown when a man he got off on murder kills a couple children.
* In the thriller ''Someone to Watch Over Me'', the villain is released after being arrested for murder because no one read him his rights, even though he was never interrogated and no statements made by him were used as evidence against him. Especially [[Face Palm]]-worthy, since the movie actually (apparently unwittingly) provided a legitimate reason for why he might be released: he isn't represented by counsel during a lineup, even though he requests it, tainting the resulting identification (which is the prosecution's whole case).
* In the movie "Carlito's Way", five years after drug dealer Carlito Brigante is sent to prison for murder, his lawyer gets him out because of [[Prosecutorial Misconduct]]. The judge that ordered Carlito's release made it quite clear the prosecutorial misconduct was the only reason he released him and deeply regrets having to do this.
* In ''[[Superman Returns]]'', [[Lex Luthor]] had his conviction from [[Superman (film)|the previous Superman movie]] overturned because [[Superman]] didn't show up to testify against him in the appeal. There is no testimony on criminal appeals; only the trial record is reviewed, making this a case of [[Did Not Do the Research]], as Luthor clearly said he got off because Superman didn't show up to testify at the latest appeal. The reason for this was that Superman had left Earth to follow a false lead regarding the remains of Krypton. The false lead was somehow engineered by Luthor himself exactly for the purpose of getting off on that technicality.
* ''[[There's Something About Mary]]'': Mary's architect friend, {{spoiler|who was actually a pizza delivery boy}}, claimed Pat was a murderer who stayed in prison for five years until a technicality got him off. {{spoiler|The claim was false}}.
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== Live-Action TV ==
* [[Babylon 5]]: legally gray/grey tactics are used for political and/or personal reasons. They are never used to promote justice.
* In an episode of ''[[All in The Family]]'' Archie Bunker is on trial after a policeman Archie called to report a mugging found a can of tear gas in Archie's home despite the latter not having the necessary license. During the trial, Archie asks what happened to the criminal who originally mugged him and the judge replies he was released due to him having had his Miranda rights read to him in English despite him not being a native English speaker. Gloria is then shocked at the thought of the criminal being released and her [[Soap Opera Justice|innocent father being jailed]]...until the discussion brings to light the fact that the officer who found the tear gas didn't have a warrant which causes the case to be dismissed. The judge then states the episode's Aesop that despite the justice system not being perfect and sometimes letting criminals go free, it ensures that everyone's rights are respected.
** This also shows ignorant use of the Miranda rights, as shown elsewhere in the page. Was the canister in plain sight when the officer presumably came inside? If so, that should be valid.
*** IIRC the canister was in a closet that the cop ''just happened'' to open. Silly, I know.
**** It was in a drawer in their living room and the officer only started looking for it after Archie told him about during his explanation of the mugging.
**** In which case he had him dead to rights.
* Judge Nicholas Marshall, the protagonist of [[Dark Justice]], became a vigilante when his wife and his daughter were murdered and their killer got off on a technicality.
* ''[[Dexter]]'' often hunts down killers who got off on a technicality, along with killers released from jail and ones the police never tracked down.
* The ABC series ''[[Hardcastle and McCormick]]'' featured a retired judge (Brian Keith) who set out to bring down criminals who were released on technicalities.
** From the judge's ''own court''--even though it is the [[Artistic License: Law|judge himself who rules on such technicalities.]] (While it could be argued that the judge was strictly following the letter of the law despite his personal misgivings, and/or the convictions were overturned on appeal, that's not what the show's [[Opening Narration]] implies.)
* In the final episode of ''[[Homicide: Life On the Street]]'', Bayliss discovers that Luke Ryland, a child molester he'd arrested earlier in the series, had been released because court backlogs had delayed his trial so long that the case was thrown out (On the basis that, at least prior to 9/11, you couldn't just detain someone indefinitely without trial). At the end of the episode, Bayliss quietly packs up his desk and leaves the department, just as two of the other detectives discover the body of Ryland.
* A whole episode of old cop show ''Hunter'' was based on this, when a group of kids spontaneously confessed to killing a girl at a party, before the cops even had a chance to read them their rights. This sparked a vigilante-kills-the-killers plot. In [[Real Life]], the technicality wouldn't have applied in the case of a spontaneous confession; likewise even if the confession were excluded, this would not have the ridiculous effect of letting the suspects go scot-free, or have any other effect.
* In an episode of ''[[The Practice]]'', a man was found with his wife's body in the trunk of his car. However, because the female cop in question was unable to give a reason to search the car's trunk, the search was ruled inadmissible, and the body (and all the evidence on it) was ruled fruits of the poisoned tree. {{spoiler|However, it turns out that the cop and the man had ''planned'' the improper search between them; they'd been having a relationship for some time. The "vigilante justice" aspect happens when the man's lawyer finds out about it, and "accidentally" lets it slip to the ADA, who happens to live in the same apartment as his partner. Since he gets the answering machine, and presumably knew his partner wasn't home and the ADA ''was''...}}
** In one episode, Lindsey uses a botched search to argue for the release of a nun-killer. {{spoiler|She gets him off, but feels awful about doing so}}.
* Mr. Chapel in ''[[Vengeance Unlimited]]'' often hunts down killers who got off on a technicality, along with killers released from jail and ones the police never tracked down, but his net is wider, he [[Technical Pacifist|doesn't kill his target]], and he only does it for a million...or a favor.
* In an episode of ''[[Frasier]]'', Martin tells Frasier about an incident where he was arresting a man with a long criminal record, and was attacked while reading him his rights, meaning that they weren't read in full. Martin says that when it came to testifying in court whether the man had his rights read in full, Martin lied that they were so he wouldn't get off on a technicality. He justifies it with the fact that the man had been arrested so many times that "he could have read me my rights" and that it was the right thing to do (since the man was a violent criminal).
** Even worse is that there would have been no reason for Martin to lie. The man ''assaulted a police officer''. The officer (just like anybody else) is legally perfectly able to testify about a crime if he's the victim, Miranda warning or no. Plus, the arrestee interrupting his Miranda rights by assaulting the reader and attempting to escape is his fault if they weren't read correctly. On top of everything else, Martin says ''he saw the suspect shoot someone.'' Miranda Rights or not, he can testify and convict the guy, except maybe if there were a confession involved--only then if they weren't read before that would it be excluded.
* On ''The Sopranos'', after Dr. Melfi is raped, her rapist is immediately arrested and then set free on a technicality. In the end, the doctor chooses to allow him to remain a [[Karma Houdini]] rather than call in some Soprano Justice.
* The gang from ''[[Angel]]'' actually deliberately sought this once for an obviously guilty human trafficker, as he threatened to mystically release a virus that would wipe out California if convicted. They succeeded by giving Gunn a large brain zap of legal information, allowing him to discover a potential conflict of interest involving the judge in the trial, forcing a mistrial.
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** "Juvenile": A suspect cannot be tried as an adult because the murder took place before the law allowing minors to be tried as adults was passed and she's way too old to be tried in Family Court.
** Just as frequently, L&O would invert the trope; getting damning evidence in under technicalities. One example would be a letter, written by the psychiatrist of the defendant to the victim warning her of danger, was ruled inadmissible due to spousal privilege (as the psychiatrist was counciling man and wife). But since they were legally separated at the time, Jack McCoy was able to argue that spousal privilege was void, making the wife a third party to the sessions, thus voiding Doctor/Patient privilege, thus letting the letter back in and nailing the defendant.
* ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit|SVU]]'' has a few:
** A sexsomniac mistook his fiancee's sister for his fiancee while "sleepwalking" and the DA can't charge him with rape because he wasn't conscious of what he was doing and he regularly had consensual sex with his fiancee in his unconscious state. It's both [[Hollywood Law]] since his culpability would still be a matter for a jury or judge to decide (the DA acted like his condition was a 'get out of jail free card') and [[Hollywood Psych]] as sexsomniacs cannot premeditate sexual encounters with a specific person; the condition is based on them being completely out of touch with whom they're having sex with.
** An alcoholic blacked out to find he'd killed the woman he had a one night stand with. The DA bungles the case, first by accidentally showing a reconstructed video of the crime with his face tacked on instead of the video with the faceless model, then by showing up hozed to the hearing to determine if the case should be thrown out on her misconduct. She has to suffer through having the drunk test performed on her ''in the courtroom'' and fails, which results in her dismissal and sanctions.
*** Realistically subverted, however; the murderer didn't get off entirely, but was granted a mistrial.
** A murderous schizophrenic nutcase got his case thrown out after the overenthusiastic lab tech [[The Scrappy|Dale Stuckey]] mis-labeled his DNA sample. The episode's plot leads into a whole other direction near the end before the audience finds out if the cops got him on {{spoiler|holding his lawyer hostage}}.
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* Happens in the backstory for ''[[Ace Attorney]] Investigations'', where Manny Coachen is cleared of murder due to the prosecution suspiciously lacking the evidence they used to arrest him. {{spoiler|And by suspiciously lacking we mean the smuggling ring stole it right before the trial.}}
** In the sequel, one killer happily admits the deed... after the statute of limitations on the case has run out.
* ''[[Hitman|Hitman: Contracts]]'', where the Meat King got off on a technicality for murdering your client's daughter. The "technicality" is implied to be some form of bribery.
== Western Animation ==
* [[Batman: The Animated Series|Batman the Animated Series]]: used by the weapons smugglers in the episode where Dent begins his slide into insanity. However, since this takes place in [[Wretched Hive|Gotham City]]; it is certainly a case of bribery and a corrupt judge.
* Inverted in an episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' which has Homer's mother sent to prison on a "technicality" (having committed petty crimes on top of those she'd been convicted and pardoned of), and Homer exclaims "People should only get sent ''out'' of jail on technicalities!"
** In "Stop or My Dog Will Shoot" Santa's Little Helper as a police dog catches Snake who then gets off on a technicality.
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== Real Life ==
* One UK lawyer makes a very nice living getting the rich and famous off traffic tickets, speeding, drunk driving etc, exactly on this.
* [[wikipedia:Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow|That whole Supreme Court case]] about whether it violates the separation of church and state to have kids saying "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance at school [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot|ended very boringly]] when the Court ruled that since the father who filed the lawsuit didn't have custody of his kid, he couldn't claim to be protecting her First Amendment rights.
** A great many cases the judges don't want to decide (that is, political cases) are dismissed when [[Take a Third Option|the judges rule that the person bringing the case doesn't have standing to sue]].
* If the US government has spied on you illegally and they classified the spying as secret, you can't sue. Because the fact that they spied on you is classified, you can't prove they spied on you. [[Catch-22|If you could prove it, you could sue, but the evidence is secret, so you can't]].
** Even if you can prove that the government illegally spied on you, the feds will try to have the entire case thrown out on "state secrecy" grounds. Even if some of the evidence you have isn't secret.
*** In evidence involving government spying, they can legally conceal the "sources and methods."
* The Scopes "[[wikipedia:Scopes Trial|Monkey Trial]]", over the teaching of evolution in schools. Scopes's conviction was set aside on appeal: The Butler Act, forbidding teaching of evolution, carried a mandatory fine of $100, which is what Scopes had been fined when convicted. However, Tennessee law of the time forbade judges from setting fines above $50, rendering the judgment invalid.
* An infamous political example: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." A US President (Clinton) lying under oath is clear grounds for impeachment, but because [[Spock Speak|the agreed-on legal wording during the deposition for "sexual relations" did not include oral sex]], that charge failed. The joke at the time was "this is how you [[A Worldwide Punomenon|get off]] on a technicality". (Clinton ''was'' impeached for obstructing justice and a separate perjury charge, but acquitted by the US Senate).
** The Clinton quote did not occur under oath, it occurred at a press conference. Also, the *dictionary definition* of "sexual relations" does not include oral sex. That said, IIRC the agreed-on legal wording allowed her to be having sex with him while he was not having sex with her.
* Very often, technicalities (for example, improperly collected evidence or confessions) will result in a retrial with said data excluded, not a defendant "getting off scot-free". Ernesto Miranda himself was convicted on retrial, and went to prison.
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