With a certain awesome TV show debuting tomorrow, the Internet is going crazy for Daredevil stuff. I myself had a one-two Daredevil punch yesterday. Well the fine folks at Screen Junkies have whipped together an Honest Trailer for the original Daredevil movie! I believe I’ve gone on record before that I like that movie, and I stand by that assessment. But hopefully the TV show will just rock all of our socks.

As for the one thing that’s always bugged me about the Daredevil movie, that would be the opening courtroom scene, where Matt Murdock is questioning that rapist on the stand. Matt loses the case and the guy goes free, despite clearly being guilty. And then Daredevil goes after him and throws the guy onto the train tracks to get run over by a subway.

My problem is this: what exactly is Matt Murdock’s role in that trial?

This is one that even the Screen Junkies missed.

The rapist is the one on trial, and there are references made to the guy getting ‘acquitted’ and being allowed to go free, so it definitely sounds like this is a criminal trial. And the scene clearly makes reference to Matt Murdock representing the rape victim. She’s sitting with him at his table.

But that’s not how the criminal justice system works! On any level!

When a criminal goes to court, there are two attorneys: the defense attorney, who represents the defendant, and the district attorney, who represents the government. NOBODY represents the victim in a criminal trial. Victims can hire an attorney if they want, to protect their interests, but that attorney does not participate in the trial.

District attorneys and defense attorneys do not inter-mingle. District attorneys are always district attorneys, and defense attorneys are always defense attorneys. In fact, a district attorney is an elected position. He or she is elected by the people to prosecute criminals.

So a private defense attorney, like Matt Murdock, is not randomly going to be assigned to prosecute a rapist.

The only way this trial scene makes sense is if this was a civil trial, and the rape victim was suing the rapist…except there are several clues that point towards this being a criminal trial. Like I said earlier, there are references to the rapist getting ‘acquitted’ and being allowed to go free. You don’t get ‘acquitted’ in a civil trial, and you’re most likely already free if you’re being sued in a civil trial.

I’d say that was a pretty big screw-up. I hope somebody got fired for it!

Also, if you’re interested, Cinema Sins tackled Daredevil a few years ago! They also missed the obvious sin of that trail scene.

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