10 Movies Which Insult Your Intelligence
3. Double Jeopardy
1999's Double Jeopardy opens with Libby Parsons (Ashley Judd) convicted of the murder of her husband Nick (Bruce Greenwood).
It turns out that Nick wasn’t the doting hubby he appeared to be. He was actually under investigation for embezzlement, so faked his death and pinned it on his wife so he could dodge the charges. When Libby finds out he’s still alive, she’s understandably quite miffed.
This sounds like a pretty good set-up for a classic revenge thriller; Libby escapes from jail, hunts Nick down, and puts him away for good. Unfortunately, that’s not exactly how it plays out.
Libby’s main motivation is the advice of a former lawyer. He tells her that, due to the Double Jeopardy Clause in the US Constitution, she can’t be convicted of the same crime twice, so she can murder Nick for real and get away with it.
That is in no way how Double Jeopardy actually works.
Nobody would ever not convict Libby for actually killing her husband, that is blatantly obvious. This ex-lawyer is either really stupid, which would explain why he’s in prison, or is full-on messing with a vulnerable woman.
Either way, this was really stupid.