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Off on a Technicality: Difference between revisions
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* 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.
*** Scorpio can still be physically identified by Harry despite the balaclava (by voice, and by the fact that Scorpio has a knife wound identical to the one Harry inflicted on the kidnapper). Furthermore, Harry's warrantless search of Scorpio's room, although technically illegal by current law, ''would'' have been legal under case law at that time -- as a person unlawfully squatting in a business property (the stadium), by 1972 law Scorpio has no reasonable expectation of privacy, therefore a warrant is not required for search and seizure.
* 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.
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* 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}}.
== Literature ==
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