Soap Opera Justice
Principally seen in soap operas, where the continuous narrative structure lends itself to this sort of shenanigans. An innocent is framed for a major crime (usually murder, of course), and you can bet your bottom dollar they will be found guilty, sent to jail and have a thoroughly rotten time for a few weeks before being found not guilty on appeal.
Out in the real world, this storyline will usually be used as part of a big publicity campaign for the soap opera in question.
Examples of Soap Opera Justice include:
Live-Action TV
- A spectacularly successful example was the wrongful imprisonment of Deidre Rachid in Coronation Street in 1997, with even the newly-elected Prime Minister Tony Blair speaking up for the "Free Deidre" campaign.
- Soap also used this for the first season-ending Cliff Hanger on network TV.
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