It’s a common trope on a cop show.

The good guys have caught the bad guy, but the bad guy gets off on a technicality. The good guys are then forced to watch their bad guy walk free to create more of their brand of mayhem, usually while giving an impassioned version of “I’m going to nail that guy if it’s the last thing I do,” a lyric that fits into almost any melody a fictional super cop wants to sing.

Naturally, since we’re on the side of our good guys, we’re incensed with them. The justice system is clearly flawed/broken if it would allow a bad guy to walk free, a bad guy that we know is a bad guy because our good guys said so. We’re confident that our cops will see that justice is done no matter what those fancy attorneys and incompetent judges do. And, of course, they do. Just as we knew they would.

It’s a clever trick of copaganda.

“Technicality”. It makes it sound like someone didn’t dot an I or cross a T. And while it is accurate -the defendant wasn’t found not guilty, they were released because of a technical error- it’s also deceptive. The shows tend to gloss over how these “technicalities” are part of due process.

Due process is that pesky part of the Constitution that guarantees a person is granted certain rights and protections when dealing with the legal system. These are guaranteed rights that apply to everyone, not just citizens, not just the innocent. Due process covers such things as habeas corpus, the right to remain silent, the right to counsel, the right to cross examine a witness, the right to a speedy trial, the right to access to the evidence, etc.

Cop shows love to make defense attorneys look morally questionable. After all, they’re defending the bad guys. They also love to make them look sneaky when they use these “technicality tricks”. While they gloss over the nature of the technicalities, they also gloss over the role of the defense attorney. Their job is to defend their client. Part of that defense is to make sure that their client’s rights aren’t being violated.

An episode of Hawaii Five-O deals with the consequences of due process in an interesting way.

In the sixth season episode “Mother’s Deadly Helper”, an accused man has his case dismissed because the prosecution can’t produce a needed witness to proceed with their case. The defense attorney asks for a dismissal based on the fact that the repeated continuations that the state’s attorney has asked for violates his client’s right to a speedy trial.

It feels like a miscarriage of justice because we learn later that this guy is a hitman. But it’s not because even hitmen are entitled to their rights.

His freedom is short-lived as a vigilante snipes him as soon as he leaves the courthouse. The disgruntled citizen in this episode is fed up with “soft-hearted judges” letting criminal walk. The “soft-hearted judges” in question are committing the unforgivable acts of upholding the rights of individuals.

In the context of cop shows, it feels egregious to allow these bad guys the same rights as the innocent folks because what we want to see is our good guys putting them behind bars for good.

I suppose it feels egregious in the context of the real world, too. Especially when it seems like those rights favor a select group of the population.

But we all have them.

Even fictional bad guys.