Double Jeopardy (movie)
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Double Jeopardy is a movie made in 1999 starring Tommy Lee Jones and Ashley Judd, about an innocent woman who is framed by her husband for his murder. She serves several years in prison and then emerges bent on revenge.
The movie explores the ramifications of a misinterpretation of the legal doctrine of double jeopardy, which is a constitutional right in the United States granted by the Fifth Amendment. One trailer for the movie shows someone advising the woman that she could kill her husband in the middle of Times Square and the police would be powerless to do anything about it because of double jeopardy—because she had already been convicted once for his murder and served time.
- Note: This advice in the film is actually a misrepresentation of the legal doctrine, as the homicide being committed would be an entirely different crime from the subject of the first trial. Therefore, it is possible for the woman to be tried and convicted a second time without encountering any constitutional infirmity. The same error has been made in a short story by Jeffrey Archer.