History Main / JusticeByOtherLegalMeans

** In 2007 Simpson argued that his current conviction and sentence for armed robbery and kidnapping is this for his acquittal for murder. Granted, the possibility was pointed out by the judge, who warned the jury that they could get removed from the bench if they used the murder trial as a prior prejudice. Though the general public thought he was all but convicted the moment he was arrested. It is also unlikely that many have sympathy for him about this. In an interesting contrast to his last trail, many believed he was both poorly defended and the authorities actually did have an agenda this time around.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''Film/TheCampaign'': [[spoiler:Congressman]] Marty Huggins can't jail the Motch Brothers for their unethical campaign practices, because a lot of what they did was made illegal Citizen's United. [[spoiler: They instead go to jail for harboring Tim Wattley, who was really an international fugitive.]]

* PlayedForLaughs in ''The/Campaign'': [[spoiler:Congressman]] Marty Huggins can't jail the Motch Brothers for their unethical campaign practices, because a lot of what they did was made illegal Citizen's United. [[spoiler: They instead go to jail for harboring Tim Wattley, who was really an international fugitive.]]

** After being declared not guilty for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman in 1995 through a combination of incompetence on the part of the authorities and his lawyers making the very public argument he was the victim of racism. He was later sued by the Goldman family in a civil lawsuit, who were awarded damages in excess of 30 million. However, he's paid only a tiny fraction of this. The rights to a failed book deal concerning ''If I Did It'' passed to the Goldman family. It was a book were Simpson presented the scenario of how the murders would have taken place if he had committed the crimes and public outcry ensured it never got publication. In 2007 the Goldman family republished the book with the new name ''If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer'' with the "if" so small as to be unnoticeable.

** After being declared not guilty for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman in 1995 through a combination of incompetence on the part of the authorities and his lawyers making the very public argument he was the victim of racism. He was later sued by the Goldman family in a civil lawsuit, who were awarded damages in excess of 30 million. However, he's paid only a tiny fraction of this. The rights to a failed book deal concerning ''If I Did It'' passed to the Goldman family. It was a book were Simpson presented the scenario of how the murders would have taken place if he had committed the crimes and public outcry ensured it never got publication. In 2007 the Goldman family republished the book with the new name ''If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer'' with the if so small as to be unnoticeable.

* Edgeworth does this unwittingly in ''AceAttorney Investigations''. He gets Ernest Amano arrested for helping Lance cover up a murder, to the great delight of Agent Lang. Lang had been previously unable to prove he was tied to a smuggling ring and now had a reason to take him in.
** Phoenix and Edgeworth work together to pull this off in the last trial of ''Justice For All.'' The defendant was guilty of hiring someone to kill a rival, but they had only circumstantial evidence on him, and he could have walked. So Phoenix mentioned to the hired assassin (who was communicating via radio) that the defendant had kept blackmail material on him for insurance. [[{{CrowningMomentofAwesome}} The defendant ends up in fear for his life and goes to jail rather than get killed in his sleep.]]

*** Another good example is when the police are in pursuit of a pair of thugs who killed an off-duty cop and kidnapped a limo driver. They catch one of the pair, but with no idea if the limo driver is dead or alive [=McCoy=] is forced to give him a very advantageous plea deal (including any "related crimes") in exchange for the whereabouts of the driver. Of course, the driver was already dead and the police later find the guy's partner also dead. [=McCoy=] can't get out of the deal, so he charges the living perp with murdering his partner on the slippery theory that the partner's murder was a completely unrelated crime. This leads to the quote at the top of the page, the plea means the original perp essentially walks for killing a cop, but ends up drawing a lengthy prison sentence anyway, for killing his accomplice.

* Most serial killers are not convicted of all crimes they are believed to have committed, or even of all the crimes they claim to have done.

* In ''ShamansTears'', Joshua Brand is unable to arrest the CorruptCorporateExecutive for various crimes because the victims (genetically engineered lifeforms) are not technically human. So he instead arrests him for violating the Endangered Species Act after he realizes one of the genetically engineered constructs was created using the DNA of a black-footed ferret.

** ''CSI: Miami'' had Horatio unable to arrest a murderer because he had diplomatic immunity. However, one of the victims was a Canadian citizen, and Canada did not recognize the guy's diplomatic status. When the guy's yacht ends up in international waters, Horatio alerts the authorities.

** In one of the few original ''[=CSI=]'' episodes not involving murder, an exhibit of valuable Japanese historical items is robbed, with the perps making off with several items and millions of dollars in cash from the vault. The team finds out that all the items were fake. The perps, including the supposed owner of the items, a wealthy Japanese businessman, turn out to be employees of the guy hosting the exhibit (the pretender was also [[InterchangeableAsianCultures Chinese]]). Grissom confronts him with the evidence, but the guy points out that there's not enough to press charges. Grissom agrees but says he will send the evidence to the guy's insurance company to expose his scam.

** In a classic Law and Order episode, the show's resident expert psychologist, Dr. Olivet, accused a gynecologist of raping her, but the court was forced to withdraw the charges when the defense attorney claimed that Dr. Olivet had visited the OB-GYN when one of her patients claimed he had raped her, and therefore claimed entrapment. ADA Stone then publicly announced that the city of New York would attempt to prosecute the OB-GYN again. When the doctor gloated that they couldn't touch him for Olivet's rape, Stone revealed that after his public announcement, some fifty-plus former patients stepped forward with rape charges of their own. As Stone then said when discussing a reduced sentence, Stone answered, "In a perfect world, I would leave you in a room with your former patients for an hour. I'll settle for you spending the rest of your life in jail."

* In one episode of ThePractice, a man kills his wife. His son, trying to protect him, claims he attacked his dad and the gun went off accidentally. When the man is acquitted, the DA has the son arrested for felony murder. The dad then confesses to the killing but is protected by double jeopardy, so the judge puts them both away for 20 years for perjury.

<<|CrimeAndPunishmentTropes|>>

* As mentioned above, AlCapone. To elaborate, his sentence of 11 years imprisonment for tax evasion was, at the time, the longest sentence ever given for the crime.

* ''TheCloser'', "Good Housekeeping"; a spoiled rich youth, Austin Philips, fled south of the border to avoid prosecution for killing the daughter of a Hispanic immigrant. Knowing she couldn't get him extradited, Brenda went to Mexico to get the full story from him, and he refuses to come back to the US no matter what she tried, even letting Brenda charge his parents, which would cut him off. Brenda asks him for the story so she can close the case, and offers to drop the charges against his parents. The killer, confident he's beyond the reach of American law enforcement, tearfully confesses that he did it by accident, at which point, Brenda reveals that the murdered girl ''hadn't'' been born in the U.S., as her mother had claimed. Bad move, confessing that you've killed a Mexican citizen when you just ''fled'' to Mexico! The Mexican cops lay hands on him, and Brenda is noticeably disturbed right afterwards, breaking out the booze she bought to bribe the Federales if needed; you ''don't'' want to be a white prettyboy in a Mexican prison. [[http://www.tv.com/the-closer/good-housekeeping/episode/410670/recap.html?tag=episode_recap;recap More detail here]].

* ''TheLincolnLawyer'' [[DiscussedTrope discussed the trope]] with a client charged with attempted rape. The eponymous lawyer was worried that, even if his client isn't convicted, his victim would be able to sue him. In the end, [[spoiler:the client got away when the prison snitch called by the prosecutor to testify wasn't a reliable witness, forcing a mistrial, but the police decided to investigate his claims that the client had previously raped and killed another girl and framed an innocent man. It turns out to be true and he was convicted for that. ''Just as planned''.]]

* ''TheLincolnLawyer'' [[DiscussedTrope discussed the trope]] with a client charged with attempted rape. The eponymous lawyer was worried that, even if his client isn't convicted, his victim would be able to sue him. In the end, the client got away when the prison snitch called by the prosecutor to testify wasn't a reliable witness but the police decided to investigate his claims that the client had previously raped and killed another girl and framed an innocent man. It turns out to be true and he was convicted for that.

** In one of the few original ''[=CSI=]'' episodes not involving murder, an exhibit of valuable Japanese historical items is robbed, with the perps making off with several items and millions of dollars in cash from the vault. The team finds out that all the items were fake. The perps, including the supposed owner of the items, a wealthy Japanese businessman, turn out to be employees of the guy hosting the exhibit (the pretender was also [[AllAsiansAreAlike Chinese]]). Grissom confronts him with the evidence, but the guy points out that there's not enough to press charges. Grissom agrees but says he will send the evidence to the guy's insurance company to expose his scam.

*** Another good example is when the police are in pursuit of a pair of thugs who killed an off-duty cop and kidnapped a limo driver. They catch one of the pair, but with no idea if the limo driver is dead or alive [=McCoy=] is forced to give him a very advantageous plea deal (including any "related crimes") in exchange for the whereabouts of the driver. Of course, the driver was already dead. Later, the police find the guy's partner dead. [=McCoy=] can't get out of the deal, so he charges the living perp with murdering the other on the theory that it was a completely unrelated crime.

* O.J. Simpson has argued that his current conviction and sentence for armed robbery and kidnapping is this for his acquittal for murder. It is quite likely. It is also likely that no one has any sympathy for him about this.
** Much earlier he also lost a civil suit for the deaths to the Goldman family, who were awarded damages in excess of 30 million. However, he's paid only a tiny fraction of this.
** And granted, the possibility was pointed out by the judge, who warned the jury that they could get removed from the bench if they used the murder trial as a prior prejudice.

* This is also a fairly common tactic on ''LawAndOrder'', as is threatening suspects' friends and acquaintances with accessory charges to get them to testify--or to get the criminal to confess.
** For example, an episode of ''LawAndOrderUK'' has a man get off for manslaughter and drug running after a witness changes his statement. After the trial, Steel has a EurekaMoment and asks his boss to "pull a Capone" on him and get him for tax evasion (which they do).

* ''{{Batman}} with Robin the Boy Wonder'': In one episode, the Joker and his thugs, disguised as a filming crew, were looking for a treasure. It was later revealed the only treasure was a fake. The Joker thought he'd get off because he couldn't be convicted for looking for a false treasure he never found. He was then told he could be nailed for making a film without proper authorization.

*** One of the better ones involves a pair of conspirators who shot a man just for the thrill. Their defense tactic is to have both of them point fingers at the other, only one person actually shot the victim and the evidence proving conspiracy was thrown out. The jury can't convict them both, and since they're unsure who did it, they would likely acquit both. However, [=McCoy=] tricks one of the lawyers into getting the trials severed. The result, both defendants will now face separate trials for the ''same'' crime, where attempting to blame their co-conspirator is a defense the jury can choose to believe or not. And given the heinousness of the crime, they probably won't. We don't see it play out though, one of the defendants confesses out of guilt before his case can go to the jury, and his testimony hangs his partner. D.A. Schiff even remarks on how [=McCoy=] got the justice system to legally recognize a physical impossibility ( Both men fired the same bullet from the same gun ).

-->-- ''Franchise/LawAndOrder''

* On ''BlueHeelers'', Tom goes after a suspected gangster (played by Gary Sweet) in this fashion, even bringing up Al Capone at one point.