Plot
Libby (Ashely Judd) and Nick (Bruce Greenwood) are happily married; Matty, their four year old son, completes the picture-perfect family. During a fateful romantic sailing weekend, Libby wakes up covered in blood and her husband is nowhere to be found. Nick is officially declared dead. The police conclude that it was a wrongful death and Libby is charged with murder. She is denied bail. Even though Nick’s body was never found, the evidence piles up against Libby – the blood, a potential murder weapon with her fingerprints, an emergency call by her husband... It’s also suspicious that she is the beneficiary to his 2 million dollar life insurance policy. Libby is convicted of murder, and her son is adopted by a close friend so that he doesn’t become a warden of the State.
After a month has passed, Libby’s friend and her son have vanished. Determined to find her son, Libby uses her resourcefulness and tracks them down from prison. When Matty suddenly exclaims “Daddy!” on the phone, the call disconnects – and Libby is left with the realisation that her husband had framed her to escape a lawsuit for embezzlement and start a new life with his affair. However, apart from a few other inmates she has befriended, no one believes Libby. After six years in prison, she is granted a conditional parole. However, soon after, she is caught violating her parole in order to find her family. Now on the run, Libby pursues every possible lead whilst being chased by parole officer Travis Lehman (Tommy Lee Jones).
Double Jeopardy
During her time in prison, Libby befriends another inmate who used to be a lawyer, disbarred by a murder conviction. She tells Libby about the double jeopardy clause set out in the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution: “Nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb.” She further advises Libby that she could kill her husband because she already served time for this murder. In the following, this article will explain why you should take legal advice from a disbarred, murderous lawyer with a grain of salt as this interpretation of the double jeopardy clause is extremely flawed.
The double jeopardy clause prevents anyone from being prosecuted again after a legitimate acquittal or conviction for substantially the same crime. For example, a person is accused of killing someone. They are charged with manslaughter and subsequently either convicted or acquitted. After trial it would then be impossible under the double jeopardy clause to charge the same person for the same death with murder.
However, this clause is not a “get-out-of-jail-free card” to commit the same crime again. Whilst Libby was wrongfully convicted of murder – her husband is still alive after all – it would be a completely separate crime if she were to kill her husband after release from prison as it would be committed at a different time and place as well as in a different jurisdiction.
Whilst the film is set in the US, it should be noted for UK readers that the law relating to double jeopardy has been reformed under the Criminal Justice Act 2003, allowing retrials where new and compelling evidence has come to life.
Final Thoughts
Whilst Double Jeopardy is quite implausible and, arguably, “one of the worst offenders when it comes to misrepresenting the law in film”, the film’s engaging storytelling definitely makes up for it.
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