I genuinely don’t understand what a technicality is, and I really want to know.
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In an ideal world, we’d like the operation of justice to be about “Was a crime committed?” and “Did this person commit a crime?” However the real life justice system operates on procedures.
A technicality typically refers to these procedures. For example, there may be ample evidence gathered that a crime was committed but if that evidence was gathered in an inadmissible process, eg an illegal search by the police, then that evidence will usually be excluded and in extreme situations the case is dismissed. There may be little doubt that the perpetrator did the crime they were charged with but the case cannot proceed because of tainted evidence.
Just because they are called technicalities does NOT mean they are not important. Many of these technicalities serve to protect citizens. For example, the government cannot spy on the discussions between a lawyer and their client. Or law enforcement cannot beat a confession out of a suspect. These technicalities may be at the service of higher societal principles.
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