I watched this last night, God Almighty. I had an idea that they took some liberties with the idea of double jeopardy itself, but it was so much worse than I thought.
It's 25 years old, but massive spoilers abound anyway.
A woman is framed by her husband for his murder. It happens out in the ocean, she's prosecuted by the state of Washington. That might or might not be accurate depending on how far out the boat was, I guess.
When she's in prison an ex-lawyer inmate tells her that the double jeopardy rule means she could shoot her husband in Times Square and there would be nothing anyone could do about it. This is the centrepiece of the film, and it's doubly inaccurate, since Times Square is in a different state and it would be a different murder.
She's up for parole for murder after 6 years (???) and confesses to killing her husband.
Immediately after leaving prison she embarks on a crime spree across multiple states, breaking into buildings, resisting arrest, fraud, she destroys several cars, nearly kills her probation officer.
Eventually she catches up with her husband in New Orleans. With the film having set up that she can murder him in front of a crowd of people, you're expecting her to do that. Instead she has a catty conversation with him to blackmail him into handing over her son, presumably so she can live a life on the lam with the kid. This plan fails. The evil husband bonks her over the head, locks her in a coffin
In the mean time her probation officer has found out that she's actually innocent of the initial murder and the guy is still alive. Rather than telling the police and exposing that she never committed the crime in the first place, he decides to team up with her. At this point her plan isn't to kill him, but to frame him for her murder while she goes on the run with her son.
As a former law professor, the parole officer assures both parties that she can legally kill him with no problem (which she can't).
After informing him of the plan they turn their backs on him, he pulls out a gun, and she ends up shooting him to stop him murdering the parole officer anyway, which would be perfectly legal regardless of double jeopardy, so the central premise of the film didn't even make any difference!
She's then taken back to Washington where her parole officer assures her he will recommend a full pardon. She gets it, seemingly instantly, is back in Louisiana in no time and the film ends with her free as a bird.
