Basic Trope: A criminal gets released from prison because of a legal technicality.
- Straight: Burglar Bob beat the rap because Officer Alice didn't get a search warrant before breaking into his house.
- Exaggerated: Serial Killer Bob beat the rap because Officer Alice misplaced a comma in her arrest report.
- Downplayed:
- Bob gets a new trial because of a legal problem.
- Bob gets acquitted of the more serious offences, but is convicted of lesser crimes.
- Justified:
- Officer Alice is a Cowboy Cop who doesn't always follow the correct procedures, and this time she got caught.
- This legal problem was about the interpretation of the law, i.e. the deposition describing the offense was badly written.
- Bob is known to be a prominent gangsters brother, so the judge was eager to find any reason to dismiss the case and not have a hit taken out on him.
- The evidence other than that obtained illegally was not strong enough to justify a conviction.
- Inverted: Innocent Bob gets sent to prison because of an obscure twist of the law. "Turns out that under an 1846 statute that was never repealed, lending your car to Mass Murderer Mike when he went to buy the guns makes you guilty of mass murder yourself, even if he lied to you about what he was doing."
- Subverted: Errors of law are discovered and, in appeals, the judges don't deem them sufficiently serious to justify an overturning...
- Double Subverted: ..but the higher court judges deem these errors as justifying Bob's release.
- Parodied: Bob gets freed and moreover obtains a lifelong pension because Judge Alice wore the wrong dress at his trial.
- Zig Zagged: During the course of the story, we see several cases involving technicalities. Some get the accused off, others don't, and a few get appealed.
- Averted:
- Even though a legal problem was found in a Court of Appeals, this error was deemed harmless and Bob must stay in jail.
- There Is No Higher Court
- Enforced: "Bob must be freed so that Vic can dispense street justice!" "But how?" "Make the judge make a blunder!"
- Lampshaded: "Bob, I'm amazed your lawyer was able to find that obscure ruling in time to get you off."
- Invoked: Officer Alice deliberately fluffs the arrest so Bob will be freed on a technicality, and her boyfriend Vic can kill him.
- Exploited: Bob's lawyer puts forth utmost effort so that Judge Alice notices legal blunders enabling the release of his client.
- Defied:
- A technicality gets some evidence thrown out, but the prosecution's case is solid enough to convict Bob without it.
- Discussed:"Why is Bob free?"
"Because he wasn't read his rights by the cops." - Conversed: "That's not a valid technicality!" "Back when this movie was written, it was. Congress passed a law plugging that hole two years later."
- Deconstructed: The public becomes outraged that Bob walked away a free man. One of three things happen.
- Protests are held, demanding that Bob is given another trial.
- A 1992 LA-style riot breaks out.
- Vic deals with him.
- Officer Alice blames the system for letting Bob walk free, despite the fact her actions caused the technicality in the first place.
This damn criminal got Off on a Technicality!
