An RCMP sting caught Nicole Doucet (Ryan) trying to hire a hitman to kill her ex-husband. It was supposed to be an open-and-shut case. It wasn't. No Legal Way Out details the process, the media coverage, and the legal implications of R v Ryan, all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. The outcome of the case limited the legal options for women seeking to escape abuse and had a damaging impact on public perceptions of domestic violence. This unabashedly feminist analysis explains why the court, the police, and the media let down all women trapped by intimate partner terrorism.

An RCMP sting caught Nicole Doucet (Ryan) trying to hire a hitman to kill her ex-husband. It was supposed to be an open-and-shut case. It wasn't. No Legal Way Out details the process, the media coverage, and the legal implications of R v Ryan, all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. The outcome of the case limited the legal options for women seeking to escape abuse and had a damaging impact on public perceptions of domestic violence. This unabashedly feminist analysis explains why the court, the police, and the media let down all women trapped by intimate partner terrorism.