Hit or miss affair resulting in wrongful conviction? (5,3,5)
I believe the answer is:
trial and error
'wrongful conviction?' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'hit or miss affair' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'or' is found in the answer.
'miss' could be 'err' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'err' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'resulting in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for trial and error that I've seen before include "Experiment" , "Non-systematic way to discover solution" , "Random experimentation" , "testing process" , "Problem solving by experience" .)