Times where a criminal gets Off on a Technicality in Comic Books.
- A semi-regular occurrence in Batman comics, because it's Gotham.
- Happened thrice during Jason Todd's short tenure as Robin, which may explain why the kid became tempted to take the law into his own hands.
- The man who shot Commissioner Gordon during the Officer Down storyline walked free. His death isn't so much made to look like an accident as it is obvious that his old associates got the leak on his Witness Protection identity.
- It has even been played, at times, that confinement to Arkham Asylum is less the result of an Insanity Defense on the part of villains, but a legal technicality directly resultant from the fact that they were arrested and investigated by Batman rather than an agent of the law, which presumably would make evidence inadmissible if the cases went before a jury. In reality, the opposite is true — any evidence collected by a private citizen is always admissible, without exception; the exclusionary rule only covers evidence collected by government action. However, Batman might qualify as an agent of the police, since he works so closely with them (and has even been deputized), in which case the rule would apply. In any case, you can't just commit anyone to an institution anymore without grounds to believe they're a danger to themselves or others (committals are also subject to regular reviews by a judge).
- Batman Beyond: Ma Mayhem's sons were reported to have been "freed on technicalities from a 10-year sentence".
- In Doom Patrol #90, the previously-captured Madame Rouge is on the loose again because "A crafty lawyer had her freed on a technicality!" Handwaved by not revealing what the technicality was—and Madame Rouge was promptly deported.
- District Attorney Adrian Chase became The Vigilante, because he was tired of seeing "by the book" arrests being quashed on technicalities. As Bob Ingersoll pointed out, this strongly suggests he became a DA without actually knowing what "by the book" means.
- Laff-A-Lympics: In the special story "The Man Who Stole Thursday", a criminal arrested by Dog Wonder had to be released because his trial would take place on Thursday.
- Amoral Attorney Eli Gould cites a technicality as the means by which he was able to get child molester Theodore "Victor" Allen acquitted in the "Sloth" issue of the comic prequel/adaptation of Se7en.
- Spider-Men II: The adult Miles Morales had at least three years of prison, but don Rigoleto was grateful towards him. He found a technicality, and he was released in a pair of weeks, as soon as the paperwork was completed.
- Teen Titans Go!: In Issue #41, Killer Moth is free and says he paid his debt to society. Raven says he "got off on some pointless technicality".
- In the Ultimate Spider-Man comics, being apprehended by the web-slinger (and possibly any costumed vigilante) is a violation of your civil rights and is the source of Joker Immunity for anyone he has a hand in bringing down, particularly the Shocker, who gets a "Get Out of Jail Free" Card for breaking out of jail as well as for his original crimes which Spidey had nothing to do with. As of Ultimatum, the DA's office has done absolutely nothing about this loophole, instead blaming Spider-Man for their cases getting tossed.
- The Punisher is listening when this is brought up at Ryker's—a rapist says that he's free as a bird, because Daredevil beat the crap out of him as he was about to nail a thirteen-year old in a house he broke into and says that as soon as he's free he's going to finish what he started—aaand that's how the reader discovers that nesting the bowl of a spoon in your palm with the handle between your middle and ring fingers will enable you to slash open someone's throat.
- The Kingpin was cleared of murder charges after his lawyer got the video of the murder ruled inadmissible. Even though news station played the video for all to see, the citizens of New York treat this as the same thing as him as being completely innocent. Parker tries to bring it up during class, and the teacher gives him detention. The implication is that everybody knows he bought the cops off, and is therefore the de facto master of the city—and their lives are at risk if they bring it up.
