Corrected entry: At the beginning of the movie, Clyde and Rice are disusing the deal. Rice states that there is not enough evidence to send the offenders to prison, and that his "eye-witness identification" is not enough to convict. So they're cutting a deal with Darby to testify against Ames. This would never happen. Since Clyde could identify the perpetrators BEFORE he blacked out. His testimony and ID would be more than sufficient.
RareJewel
1st Mar 2011
Correction: It would happen with a lawyer like Rice, who's more concerned with his conviction record than he is with justice. The fact that the encounter began with Clyde being clubbed over the head is enough for any decent defense attorney to have Clyde's identification testimony disregarded by the court. Rice won't risk this, because that would make it that much harder for him to win an already tough case. So he cuts a deal for a sure thing.
Phixius ★