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At the end of the film when Harrison Ford is working on the fence, it would have been at least a month since the murder took place. But when he discovers the murder weapon, the blood is still fresh and shows no signs of coagulation. See more...

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Presumed Innocent (1990) - 4 corrections

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Genres: Crime, Drama, Thriller

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When Rusty is first charged with the murder, the police obtain a search warrant for his house and they do what appears to be a thorough search. Near the end of the movie, it is revealed that the murder weapon was a roofing hatchet/hammer, kept in a tool crib, stored in the basement of Rusty's house. Given that the police knew the nature of the murder weapon, it is inconceivable that the basement of the house would not have been searched for such a weapon. When Barbara confesses to the murder, we learn how detailed and thorough her plot was. Given her attention to detail, it is hard to understand why she would have not washed the blood and hair from the hatchet/hammer before it was returned to the tool crib. [Helen has the hammer hidden elsewhere - not in the house - during the search, and after the trial and Rusty's exoneration, knowing the house won't be searched again, she puts it where Rusty will find it. She WANTS him to know that she killed the woman he was having an affair with.]

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Correction Edit text Duplicate X

When Carolyn Polhemus is questioning a young witness on the stand, she commits several legal errors that would certainly have led to objections from the defense. For example, she asks, "Did someone put your head in the vise?" That's called a leading question, and is generally not allowed during direct examination, even if the witness is a child. Then when the child doesn't answer, she asks "What did you say when someone put your head in the vise?" You can't legally ask the follow-up question when the first question has not been answered. Even if the defense lawyer allowed the leading question, which is unlikely, he would certainly have objected to the follow-up question. [I am taking a class called procedures of the criminal justice system and in my class I have learned about this precise thing. The lawyer that calls the witness is only allowed to do direct examination. The definition of this is non-leading questions that do not suggest an answer. However, there are exceptions to this, and one of these exceptions, is one that Carolyn used. You can usually lead a child victim/witness.]

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Correction Edit text Duplicate X

They found seminal fluid left in Caroline Polhemus. Why didn't they subject it to DNA testing, which would have been a powerful indicator of Sabich's guilt? (DNA testing was first used in a criminal case in 1985 and was in fairly common use by 1988.) [The Medical Examiner originally says that the man that deposited the semen was not fertil then he changed his report to say that the semen was dead. Dead semen or infertil semen cannot be tested for DNA. Either way, whichever report was correct, the semen could not be tested for DNA.]

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Correction Edit text Duplicate X

Harrison Ford takes the ferry home across the Detroit River - which is doubly problematic: There is no ferry service across the Detroit River, and it would mean that he lived in Canada, which is across from the Detroit River. City employees have to reside in the city, and county and state employees have to live in the state. [The story is set in Kindle County, which is fictional. Its geography, therefore, is also fictional.]

Edit Corrected by K.C. Sierra

Correction Edit text Duplicate X