Am I the only one who was bothered by this not-so-obvious fact?!

>>HE TOOK HOSTAGES AND TURNED HALF OF DOWNTOWN CHICAGO INTO A BATTLEFIELD!! And not to mention the property damage.

He didn't do that. DOWNTOWN CHICAGO IS A BATTLEFIELD. The movie would have been more realistic if they had a massive police riot for a few days and brought in United Nations troops - Syrians, North Koreans, Iranians, Sudanese, Cubans, Somolians, Pakistanis... to restore order.

It's a matter of principle. He was cleared of what he did NOT do. He made his transgressors pay for their crimes that they attempted to pin on him. That's the point

Would the state, federal government (building) like to TRY Danny?

"No."

Case closed. Someone has to press charges. That said, even if they did charge him good luck getting a jury to convict after what he did. You'd have to pick the most screwed up jury of all time to get Danny convicted lolz... "He exposed fraud, saved himself, found out who killed another cop/friend, but he's guilty?" LOL. You'd have to somehow pay off the jury lolz.

If you steal a car from someone and they don't press charges, you're not going to court and dealing with jail time. Technically you're not charged with anything. Case in point my mom and dad had some punk kid steal jewelry from them (was working with Dad on house) in excess of the amount to be charged as a felony and they did not press charges, so nothing happened to him.

Even if you murder someone, it's the state that puts through the charge. OBVIOUSLY if you do something that severe you're going to get tried due to the seriousness of the event. But the state and family members could LITERALLY say, "Nope, it's fine that he murdered him." And the guy could walk. LOL course that would cause mass riots from citizens and HUGE political issues, which is of course why that doesn't happen =P

He would most likely serve some prison time just to keep the people in check that they can't cause mayhem and get away with it.

However his sentence will most likely be very short. Things you have to consider in this situation:

1. More good came out of this at the cost of some minor damage and two dead corrupted suspects.

2. The jury would examine the case and side with Danny 100%.

3. Nobody will really press charges against Danny except maybe the city which might be obligated to do so just for mandatory purposes.

4. The Governor will most likely pardon him anyways.

5. The Judge will most likely reduce his sentence by more than 1/3.

6. There would be huge public outcries and backlash if Danny is imprisoned for a duration longer than say six to twelve months. All the money spent on the prosecution, trial etc.. just to put him in prison for a few months would not be worth the case.

7. It's not like he took 50 or 100 people hostage. It was a just a few of the office staff members and after the events, none of them would be willing to testify or press charges against Danny.

Sorry if this was already mentioned, but if this happened in real life, Danny would WITHOUT QUESTION be indicted of several charges. Whether or not he would be convicted or acquitted of the charges is another question all together. Regardless, the charges MUST be filed. You also have to factor that Danny would be able to sue up the wazoo the city, and the Department of Justice, and perhaps some other officials as well, which he would have as leverage when decisions about penalty are imposed.

I am not a lawyer, so I can't say what would happen, but I can guess that Danny would likely get a pretty decent settlement and wouldn't do much time - if any at all.

- The General has spoken.

As some others have mentioned, in reality he would probably be charged but it's kind of implied that he would have all around support from his colleagues and possibly the public. Plus, the jury would have to convict him after hearing the testimony of Chris, the cops and the hostages, who would most likely paint a pretty good portrait of his case. So while I don't know much about the legal process, I'm pretty sure it'd be hard for a judge and jury to send Danny to jail, not without a good campaign in his support.

You could probably make a good courtroom sequel to this film.

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If the choices were to go to jail for life for something you didn't do or go to jail for a long time for something you did to prove your innocence what would you do? I'd take the less time in jail or life in jail. Just because we don't get to see what happens to him afterward doesn't mean he got off scot free.