Legal Question

[MrCodeDude]

I was watching Double Jeopardy tonight on CBS (the movie sucked), but it got me thinking. What would happen if you were convicted of a crime, you escaped from prison and while police were looking for you, they discovered you were innocent.

Would there be any consequences for escaping prison? Seeing as you were innocent the whole time?

 

[KLin]

That describes "The Fugitive". The only difference is Richard Kimble didn't escape from a prison.

 

[Nomada]

Ha, gotta love syndication. Watched the same movie here on a different network. You'd probably be exonerated.

 

[Legendary]

I think they would engineer it so that any time you would get for escaping prison would be "time served" and your conviction would be dropped with the apologies of the court.

 

[MrCodeDude]

Originally posted by: KLin
That describes "The Fugitive". The only difference is Richard Kimble didn't escape from a prison.

That doesn't answer my question.

 

[chipy]

good question! sorry, don't know.

 

[z0mb13]

so what if you are innocent, get sent to prison, escaped but killed a few guards on the way (in accidents of course, not on purpose)

ARe you responsible for the deaths of these guards? if you are not put in prison the deaths wont happen.

 

[MrCodeDude]

Originally posted by: z0mb13
so what if you are innocent, get sent to prison, escaped but killed a few guards on the way (in accidents of course, not on purpose)

ARe you responsible for the deaths of these guards? if you are not put in prison the deaths wont happen.

I'm pretty sure that won't get you very far in court.

 

[narzy]

yes, because it's illegal to escape from prision, innocent or not, the judical system relys on peoples faith in it and for them to abide by it. if prisioners ever figured out that if they all worked together to break out of prision all across the country all at once, nothing could stop them.

incarceration is a choice....

 

[gocubs2k5]

if you really were innocent than you would a good shot on a habeus writ...since you didn't do it there would be no cause to hold you in prison...if you escaped, it really depended on how long you were out...what did you do when you were out...why did you escape? there have been somewhat successful arguments made by people who escaped prison because they were afraid that they would be murdered or raped by other inmates, and then turned themselves in...they didnt really add much to the sentence...did you turn yourself back in or were you captured? things like that could change it...

 

[Medea]

Originally posted by: gocubs2k5
if you really were innocent than you would a good shot on a habeus writ...since you didn't do it there would be no cause to hold you in prison..

Ahh, yes, grasshopper - then it must be so.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Hmm .. I think the worst consequences would come when they arrest you AFTER you are guilty of assault/murder of the person who framed you.

 

[TheLonelyPhoenix]

Two words: Resisting Arrest.

I imagine they'd fvck you up even worse for a getaway from prison, regardless of your guilt/innocence.

 

[myusername]

They would shoot you and bury the new evidence.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

That's very much like what happened to Michael Pardue. He was wrongfully convicted of a triple homicide (that conviction has been reversed on appeal), but was sentenced to life after escaping prison three times. He was eventually freed in 2001, after serving 28 years in an Alabama prison.