'The Flash': What Went Wrong During Barry Allan's Trial

The Flash returned from its winter hiatus tonight, ushering in Barry's trial for the supposed murder of Clifford DeVoe. And while I love The Flash, this episode had more issues than Time Magazine.

In one episode, the trial took place along with the jury verdict and the sentencing, and that's not all the writers got wrong in "The Trial of The Flash".

1. Captain Singh's testimony indicated he granted a restraining order. A captain doesn't have that authority. Only a judge can grant a restraining order. Though this is a minor issue (and perhaps things are different in Central City when it comes to justice), it speaks to a larger problem this episode had with the entire trial and testimony.
2. Cecille did not call any witnesses on Barry's behalf. At the very least, she could have called character witnesses, those who were with Barry the night of the murder as it would go to the defendant's state of mind, and even Iris to explain about the knife they received as a wedding gift, which they both questioned. Some type of defense should have been presented.
3. The bail for murder would be high, but there was no mention of how Barry would have gotten that kind of money. When Oliver Queen was granted bail, he had to come up with half a million dollars. Felicity put up seed money she had gotten for her company with Curtis. The Flash writers completely skipped over this part to allow Barry to be out of police custody for no apparent reason.
4. A person who is on bail is not on house arrest. Therefore, Barry's ankle monitor was not necessary, and since it was easy for Cisco to work around it, it served little purpose.
5. Cecille did not call Dominic Lance to testify to corroborate Marlize's testimony. She just took her word for it. No attorney would do that, especially not one who is a prosecuting attorney ordinarily. The fact that she didn't call Lance is a glaring oversight on the part of the writers and made the trial appear as nothing more than a shoehorn job.
6. The prosecuting attorney only called Captain Singh and Marlize, obviously because the writers didn't want to extend the trial, but, in reality, others should have been called. Where was the medical examiner to testify that the stab wound did cause the victim's death? That would have been enough to prove that DeVoe wasn't killed by the knife. In addition, why wasn't the team trying to get a copy of the autopsy report? Why didn't Cecille ask for a copy of it? There were so many other ways to go for Barry's defense, and she took none of them because of the writers.
7. The judge told Barry that he would need to return for sentencing, but the jury had not yet convicted Barry. So, in essence, the judge let viewers know Barry was going to be found guilty even though there was never any doubt in our minds that this was the direction the show was taking.
8. And the timing of the trial itself was an impossibility. Cecille is pregnant, but she wasn't showing at the trial, which tells us the trial moved at a pace faster than The Flash. In the space of approximately 42 minutes, a jury was impaneled, the prosecution presented its case, the defense rested, the jury deliberated, a verdict was announced, and a sentence was imposed.

Viewers suspend reality when watching a superhero show, but they shouldn't be expected to completely halt all belief simply because writers want to rush a trial. Other shows have been guilty of the rapid trials and convictions, but this had to be one of the fastest I saw on television, as well as one of the sloppiest.

I understand the need to move a story line along to get to the real action, so to speak, but this poorly-written trial was more of an afterthought than part of an plot. If they were going to make a mockery of the trial, the writers should have come up with another way to get Barry out of the way for the length of time Davoe needs to complete his dastardly plan.