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Well, I can’t see last week’s complaints about the Prize being too easy being repeated this week. Quite a challenge from Jack, with a variety of clues and plenty of misdirection along the way.
FOI: had to go all the way down to 22a, then the SE corner came together nicely.
LOI 13a, because I spent too long trying to make a wrong solution work. But the last to parse correctly was 1a, which also vies with a number of others (11a and 16a) for two, for COD.
Many thanks to Jack for the entertaining workout.

Oh how did I forget 26 in the list of CsOD?

A most enjoyable Prize by Jack, not too difficult but, that said, some deviously tricky wordplay to keep us on our toes.

Actually, I say not too difficult but there is one clue (11a) which, apart from a 3 letter "crime" at the start, I can't parse at all and another where two answers seem to fit (8d), depending on whether the definition is "bill" or "Dawn's name".

I did wonder if the numerous mentions of terms such as police, courts, con artist, suspect in custody, material witness, prisoner etc. in the clues might be some sort of theme but, if there is, I can't see it.

Thanks to Jack for a good puzzle to kick off the weekend:-)

Morning, Brendan.
For 11a you need to look at the cases of the last three words.
As for 8d, I think the clue makes sense only if the first word is the definition. I’d add it to my ever-lengthening list of CsOD in fact.

To be clearer re 8, you need to substitute one letter in a synonym for Dawn.

Thanks Rog,

The "right taking "Dawn's name" is a clear instruction that I obviously missed.

With 11a, I'd convinced myself that some famous novelist being "repulsed" would form part of the wordplay - why I always seem to overcomplicate these things I'll never know!

I think the "crime" is a UK specific term so it will be interesting to see how Geeker and our other overseas solvers fare.

I spent too long thinking of novelists too, brendan. And I think Jack meant us to: an example of the misdirection I mentioned in my first post!

Found this one pretty challenging, though fair in its clueing (even the at first baffling 11a). Probably the ideal difficulty level for a Prize puzzle.

Thanks to Jack, who I enjoy but generally find on the difficult side.
Tougher than Prize norm: I finished in about 133% of median solving time, although I just got in and am quite tired.

Wrote in a solution for 11 but only parsed after reading the thread (Brendan, I am not familiar with the crime).
FOI 3, LOI 13 (not indicative of the clue's difficulty, that's just the way the grid progressed).

Too tired to think much of about COD, but offhand 26, 23, 12, 16 and 8 made good impressions. Should also praise 11 now that I see the light, and 1a is also excellent (and I also parsed it only after filling the grid).

Jack's alter ego Serpent (Indy) is fond of Ninas, but I don't see anything at first pass.

Perhaps there is some kind of [11, 13]? Several solutions could pertain to the recent US election results.