History Main / SympatheticMurderer

*** Chapter 1: [[spoiler:Leon Kuwata's victim ''[[AssholeVictim started it]]'' by luring him into a trap to kill him, although since he had to break a door down to kill his attacker the level of sympathy for him goes down slightly. The manga mitigates this by implying that Leon wasn't trying to kill Sayaka Maizono, but calm her down, then he ended up [[AccidentalMurder killing her by accident]]]]. [[spoiler:As for Sakaya, she only did it because [[FamilyOfChoice her bandmates]] were in danger]].
*** Chapter 2: [[spoiler:Mondo Owada did it by a loss of self-control after his BerserkButton was unintentionally triggered by Chihiro Fujisaki, not out of premeditated malice, and he immediately [[MyGodWhatHaveIGone regretted it afterward]]. He took the time to mess with the crime scene to cover up his victim's "[[DudeLooksLikeALady big]] [[WholesomeCrossdresser secret]]". That, and he makes no attempt to escape being tied to a motorcycle for Monokuma's execution, [[FaceDeathWithDiginity accepting the punishment for his crime]]]].

*** The murderer of Chapter 3, [[spoiler:Mikan Tsumiki]], is [[spoiler:the least sympathetic culprit of the game excluding the BigBad, having remorselessly killed Hiyoko Saionji and Ibuki Mioda in a bid to show her love to "her beloved" ([[BigBad Junko Enoshima]]), due to her strain of the Despair Disease (chapter 3's motive) reverting her back to her BrainwashedAndCrazy Ultimate Despair state]]. Still, [[spoiler:like Celeste, she has ''some'' sympathetic traits, like the fact that she had been viciously bullied all her life ([[TheDogBitesBack including by]] [[AssholeVictim one of her victims, Hiyoko]]) and implied that the other students standing by and not stopping this was part of the reason she turned out like she did]], the fact that [[spoiler: it was only because of the disease she picked up while caring for other sick people that drove her to this plus the fact that it's ''[[TheCorruptor Junko]]'' who is her "beloved"]], and [[spoiler:she's also more sympathetic in hindsight]] when we learn in ''Anime/Danganronpa3'' that [[spoiler:none of the students became Ultimate Despair willingly and were instead brainwashed into it (though this is a FanDislikedExplanation)]].
*** The culprit of Chapter 4, [[spoiler:Gundham Tanaka]], is heavily implied to have [[spoiler:made a mutual HeroicSacrifice together with his victim, Nekomaru Nidai, to save the entire class from starving to death when they were locked in a funhouse with no food until a murder occurred. Gundham and Nekomaru both willingly engaged in a fight to the death despite knowing that whoever won would be executed anyway once they were caught, and though Gundham did try to conceal his involvement (since his philosophy of never giving up on life meant that he couldn't just roll over and do nothing), once he was found out, he confessed easily and gave the other students a RousingSpeech urging them to always keep fighting to live. He's sympathetic enough that, as he lay dying after his execution, the spirits of his past pets carried him off to Heaven. Though given that this is ''[[CardCarryingVillain Gundham]]'' we're talking about here, [[HellOfAHeaven Heaven might be considered an]] IronicHell to him]].
*** In Chapter 5, [[spoiler:the [[GoodAllAlong so-called]] [[AccidentalMurder "killer"]] and [[TheMole "traitor"]], [[TheWoobie Chiaki Nanami]], is the most sympathetic culprit in the whole game, possibly even the whole ''series'', since the [[AssholeVictim "victim"]], Nagito Komaeda, was the true culprit. Having [[TomatoInTheMirror found out that the entire class including himself were formerly members of Ultimate Despair]], except for the traitor (whose identity he did not know), he decided that only the traitor deserved to live, and so planned his own death as an assisted suicide while relying on his [[BornLucky Ultimate Luck]] to make it so that the traitor would deal him the final blow, not only accidentally, but ''unknowingly'', in order to create a murder that the other students couldn't solve. Either they would rule it as a straight suicide and vote for him as the culprit, or realize that one of them unknowingly killed him but not know who and be forced to make a blind guess that would almost certainly be wrong. Chiaki, however, figured this out, realized that she was the one who accidentally killed him, and [[HeroicSacrifice sacrificed herself to save the others]]. Then Monokuma [[MoralEventHorizon kills both her and her friend Monomi, who killed nobody, just to twist the knife in]]. This trope is so much the case for her that it's easy to argue that Nagito was the true murderer and Chiaki was the true victim]]. And then it’s revealed in ''[[Anime/Danganronpa3TheEndOfHopesPeakHighSchool Danganronpa 3]]'' that [[spoiler:''this isn’t even the first time she’s died'']].

** Tyrion snaps and kills his former lover Shay after finding she'd betrayed him with his father. She seems to be the only woman he ever loved, and almost got him executed for a murder he didn't commit. Then he kills his father, who had showered his life with emotional and verbal abusive, blaming Tyrion for killing his own mother [[DeathByChildbirth while being born]]. That, plus being a dwarf, which he considers a divine punishment.

* The murderer in ''Series/{{Glue}}'' is this: [[spoiler:he killed his brother in a fit of rage, and it was definitely a MyGodWhatHaveIDone situation]]. It's evident that he feels deep remorse for his actions.

* ''Literature/InDeath'': The murderer in ''Witness In Death'' turns out to be this. The victim was a bastard in a number of ways. What pushed her into killing him was the fact that he deliberately had sex with their daughter, crowed about it, and threatened to have a threesome composed of him, her, and their daughter. The murderer's first kill gets full sympathy points. However, her ''second'' kill (that of a blackmailer who found out about her first crime) comes off as more cold-blooded and self-serving, and therefore less sympathetic.

* ''Series/WomensMurderClub'': "And the Truth Will (Sometimes) Set You Free" has a case where the murderer is [[spoiler:Kate Hammond, who killed one of the two frat boys who raped her and are attempting to gaslight her, after they sent her a mocking valentine. The character wastes no time noting that, while murder is never okay, none of them can really blame her after all the stuff the victim and his friend did to her]].

** A teenage girl accidentally kills her younger brother when he catches their uncle forcing himself on her (which results in a child) and threatens to tell their mom; as the unfavourite, she knows her mom would sooner believe she'd forced herself on her uncle than the other way around. Her mother later kills her husband who loudly tries to take the blame for killing her son. She even acknowledges that all this could have been avoided if she'd been a better mother so her daughter could feel like she could trust her.

* ''{{Series/Liar}}'': Laura is told by the police that they wholly understand if she murdered her rapist, and a jury will too. Privately many admit it was a public service, though nonetheless the murderer must be prosecuted.

*** Chapter 1: [[spoiler:Leon Kuwata's victim ''[[AssholeVictim started it]]'' by luring him into a trap to kill him, although since he had to break a door down to kill his attacker the level of sympathy for him goes down slightly. The manga mitigates this by implying that Leon wasn't trying to kill Sayaka Maizono, but calm her down, then he ended up [[AccidentalMurder killing her by accident]]]].

*** The culprit of the second case, [[spoiler:Mimi Miney, was overworked by her boss at a clinic where she worked as a nurse, which resulted in her accidentally killing 14 patients and getting in a car crash which killed her sister and burnt her face off. She thought the only thing to do was to start a new life as her sister Ini Miney (a college student). She handed over a picture of her sister for her face reconstruction surgery and became her sister. However, her boss wasn't doing so well with the impact she had left, so he tried to search her down to prove that the whole thing was her fault through a spirit medium (talks to the deceased). Her only options were to come out from hiding or erase her boss. Guess which one she chose]].

* Also done with most of the inmates in ''Literature/TheGreenMile''; while they probably weren't on the outside, on Death Row most are repentant and sympathetic. One inmate, a black woman, could be argued to be sympathetic both in and out of prison since she killed a two-timing husband. Averted with William Wharton and John Coffey; the former because he was thoroughly unrepentant, the latter because [[spoiler:he didn't kill anyone]].

See also ManslaughterProvocation, and IneffectualSympatheticVillain for those who put the "pathetic" in "sympathetic". If the character was introduced and fleshed out ''before'' he was revealed to be a murderer, it's SympatheticMurderBackstory. Often involves KillingInSelfDefense. See also AssholeVictim for cases where the murder is sympathetic primarily because the victim was so ''un''sympathetic. This can also be compared to the SerialKillerKiller, who is sympathetic mainly because he only targets people even worse than he is.

* ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' featured a sympathetic teen who had snapped and killed the JerkJock who was bullying him. [[JustForFun/JohnMunch Munch]] evidently identified with him.

* Most murderers featured on ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' were either [[SmugSnake disgustingly smug]] or [[StupidEvil total morons]], but some killers were occasionally treated sympathetically.
** Mitchell Forman from "A Many Splendored Thing". He murders a man over a pen that only costs $4.00, but it's made clear that it was caused by mental instability rather than malice and he tries to commit suicide out of guilt. He eventually turns himself in peacefully when Lewis talks him out of killing himself.
** Vaughn Perkins from "Bop Gun", one of the few perps to ever show regret for their crime. He's a sensitive teenager who shoots a woman during a botched mugging, and ultimately enters a guilty plea for a life sentence as penance. Howard finds him so sympathetic that she initially tries to prove he's taking the fall for his accomplices, only stopping when he confesses that he did it in front of her.
** Downplayed with Larry Biedron from "Subway". He's a PsychopathicManchild who pushed a man into the path of an oncoming subway train, and has done so before, but Bayliss points out he was institutionalized, but he was let out because of budget cuts even though he clearly still needed psychological help. That said, Pembleton and Bayliss are quick to mock him when he complains about being cold [[MoralMyopia while his victim, currently pinned between the train and the subway platform, is slowly and agonizingly dying from his injuries a few feet away from him.]]

** Sheila Harrison, the elder sister of a girl gang-raped and left for dead at a fraternity party, started targeting not only her sister's rapist but also their college football coach who bribed a medical examiner to get them off the hook.

* In ''Videogame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', a questline will have the player encounter Sindig, a [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolf]] imprisoned in the Falkreath jail for murdering a local child. Sindig explains that he is trying to control his transformations, and stole the Ring of Hircine, the artifact of the Daedric Prince Hircine, who is the Lord of the Hunt and creator of lycanthropes, for the Ring was said to be able to let someone control their transformations. Unfortunately, this angered Hircine and he cursed the Ring to make Sindig's transformations worse. The player can take the Ring, and thus themselves be subjected to uncontrolled transformations, but then Hircine will [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame demand that they hunt down and kill Sindig for his sport]]. The player can do so, or [[TheHunterBecomesTheHunted rescue Sindig from Hircine's other hunters]], and either way [[WorthyOpponent Hircine will be pleased and lift the curse]], as both hunting down the prey or the prey turning on the hunter are expressions of his sphere.

See also ManslaughterProvocation, and IneffectualSympatheticVillain for those who put the "pathetic" in "sympathetic". If the character was introduced and fleshed out ''before'' he was revealed to be a murderer, it's SympatheticMurderBackstory. See also AssholeVictim for cases where the murder is sympathetic primarily because the victim was so ''un''sympathetic. This can also be compared to the SerialKillerKiller, who is sympathetic mainly because he only targets people even worse than he is.

** "Blackout": a woman tries to seduce her 13-year-old grandson, after sexually abusing her son since he was 13. Her daughter (the boy's mother) finds out. Her mother has been emotionally abusing her for years. After berating her daughter for being ugly, the victim threatens that she still has power over her grandson, and the daughter drowns her.
** "Justice": a serial date rapist avoids punishment in 1982. The younger brother of one of the victims (who witnessed his sister's rape) follows the victims when they confront the rapist. They leave a gun at the scene. The brother picks it up and shoots the rapist. The rapist was so bad the detectives flat-out tell the brother to plead self-defense.
** "A Perfect Day": Not for the primary case, but it's revealed through the course of the investigation that an abusive husband[[spoiler:, who was also the doer in the primary case,]] was murdered by his battered wife's lover. Vera and Jeffries quickly decide there's no reason the lover's indirect but obvious confession needs to be on the record.

* ''ComicBook/TheHiketeia'' revolves around Franchise/WonderWoman having to protect a young woman named Danny who murdered four men. The men were responsible for raping and abusing Melody which drove her to drug addiction and suicide. The apathy from the cops made Danny believe that the only way to get justice for her sister was to kill the men who drove her to her death.

[[noreallife]] Although there is perhaps a degree of TruthInTelevision to this, [[MoralMyopia at least in criminals' own minds]], [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment for obvious reasons]] [[Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease it would be far too controversial to allow any real-life examples]].

* ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' seems to like having the murderer be a genuinely nice person put into an unfortunate circumstance, and the victim is such a complete {{Jerkass}} that you don't mind their death. One episode even has a staged kidnapping where [[spoiler: the "victim" didn't mind being kidnapped, and hugged the kidnapper over ''her own dad'']]. Harsh.

** In one episode, the aging actress who committed the murder has six months to live due to a brain tumor that also leads to her forgetting she committed the crime.