Off on a Technicality: Difference between revisions

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** Happened ''thrice'' during [[Street Urchin|Jason Todd]]'s short tenure as Robin, which may explain why the kid became tempted to take the law in his own hands.

** The man who shot Commissioner Gordon during the ''Officer Down'' storyline walked free. His [[The Killer Becomes the Killed|death]] isn't so much made [[Make It Look Like an Accident|look like an accident]] as like his [[The Mafia|old associates]] got the leak on his [[Witness Protection]] identity.

** It has even been played, at times, that confinement to [[Cardboard Prison|Arkham Asylum]] is less the result of an [[Insanity Defense]] on the part of villains, but a legal technicality directly resultant from the fact that they were arrested and investigated by Batman rather than an agent of the law, which presumably would make evidence inadmissible if the cases went before a jury. In reality, of course, the opposite is true -- ''any'' evidence collected by a private citizen is always admissible, without exception; the exclusionary rule only covers evidence collected by government action.

** It has even been played, at times, that confinement to [[Cardboard Prison|Arkham Asylum]] is less the result of an [[Insanity Defense]] on the part of villains, but a legal technicality directly resultant from the fact that they were arrested and investigated by Batman rather than an agent of the law, which presumably would make evidence inadmissible if the cases went before a jury. In reality, of course, the opposite is true -- ''any'' evidence collected by a private citizen is always admissible, without exception; the exclusionary rule only covers evidence collected by government action. Even if the private citizen broke actual laws in the process of obtaining the evidence, the evidence is still useable in any court; the only effect of said illegality is that the evidence-obtainer is himself liable on his own set of criminal charges.

* In ''[[Doom Patrol]]'' #90, the previously-captured Madame Rouge is on the loose again because "A crafty lawyer had her freed on a technicality!" Handwaved by not revealing what the technicality was—and Madame Rouge was promptly deported.

* District Attorney Adrian Chase became [[Vigilante Man|The Vigilante]], because he was tired of seeing "by the book" arrests being quashed on technicalities. As Bob Ingersoll pointed out, this strongly suggests he became a DA without actually knowing what "by the book" ''means''.

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** 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 ==