American court about to stop gangster getting discharge (9)
I believe the answer is:
acquittal
'discharge' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'american court about to stop gangster' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names).
'court' becomes 'ct' (abbreviation used in road names).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'to stop' becomes 'quit' (synonyms).
'gangster' becomes 'al' (Al Capone).
'ct' going around 'quit' is 'cquitt'.
'a'+'cquitt'+'al'='ACQUITTAL'
'getting' is the link.
(Other definitions for acquittal that I've seen before include "Not-guilty verdict" , "Verdict of Not Guilty" , "Absolution" , "Judgement of not guilty" , "A discharge from court, found not guilty" .)