It's a well-known fact at this point that there was an alternate ending for 1999's American Beauty where Jane and Ricky are accused of Lester's murder, with Ricky's videos being used as key evidence (the fact that he and Jane were apparently trying to flee the state probably didn't help).
Now, the ostensible reason for excluding this ending is that an extra thirty minutes tacked on the the back end of the film would take the shine off of the perfect note that Lester's death and closing narration provide. Plus, a presumably dreary series of courtroom scenes leading to Frank getting away with murder AND pinning it on his own son and his victim's daughter would have left a terrible taste in the whole audience's mouth. An ending that needlessly cruel could have potentially cost DreamWorks the best picture Oscar that year.
HOWEVER, I think there's a second, more subtle, and MUCH more American problem that somebody must have considered. Between OJ, the Menendez Brothers, and every show that tried to draft behind Law and Order, the viewing audience of 1999 would have twigged onto a glaring detail of a potential Burnham murder case: the gun Frank used. Surely that was the weapon submitted into evidence against Ricky and Jane. However, we know that Ricky never held it. The gun MUST have been checked for prints, and the fact that Frank isn't already on trial suggests that he wiped the gun down. HOWEVER, that fact alone still plays to the accused's favor, because it goes to ability: if Ricky had the presence of mind to remove evidence from the murder weapon, why would he not first destroy the tape that apparently shows him suggesting they kill Frank in the first place?
In a culture that LOVES legal procedurals, PLUS with the burgeoning forum culture of the internet at the time, this would have become one of those nitpicks that follows a story for it's whole existence, like how anybody heard Kane say "Rosebud", or why Buzz in Toy Storystays inanimate around Andy despite not knowing he's a toy.
This has been another edition of me thinking way too hard about versions of the world that don't exist.
