Also called
Wrongly Accused. The hero of the series has been falsely accused of a crime he did not commit.
Maybe he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time -- in line at the bank when it got robbed, or riding in the same subway car as a murder is committed. Maybe the series'
Big Bad has deliberately sent an
Evil Twin to frame him. Maybe it's a
Government Conspiracy to silence him because he knows too much.
Whatever the root cause, the phony evidence is so convincing, or the convergence of bad luck that
makes him look guilty is so unlikely, our hero finds himself struggling to convince anyone that he is an innocent man. Even his own friends seem ready to write him off guilty as charged. (With this belief sometimes persisting to the point of
What An Idiot.)
The only way he can set this miscarriage of justice straight is to find the real criminal and bring him to justice. This can take an episode or two, or it can be the premise behind an ongoing arc.
Sometimes this can be resolved while the hero is out on bail, or perhaps it has to wait until he completes his sentence. If he's supposed to be in jail, then it also becomes a
Stern Chase.
If the protagonist
actually commits some crimes in the course of trying to clear his name, then he will likely benefit from
Wrongful Accusation Insurance.
Examples:
- The ultimate example is, of course, The Fugitive.
- And all of its parodies, such as Wrongfully Accused.
- Nowhere Man incorporated some of this in its core concept.
- Prison Break
- The Adventures Of Brisco County Jr. ("Crystal Hawks")
- The protagonist of Day Break is framed for a murder and must use his GroundhogDays to figure out who's doing it and why.
- Ed Edd N Eddy, "If It Smells Like An Ed": The Eds are framed for wrecking the other kids' "Friendship Day" celebration, and try to find out who set them up.
- An uncommon variation of Clear My Name is a Reincarnation being accused of crimes committed in a past life. Avatar The Last Airbender put Aang through one of these turning out to be guilty, and Star Trek Deep Space Nine subjected Dax to one.
- In Justice League Unlimited, the whole League is framed when Lex Luthor seizes control of their headquarters' main energy cannon to make it look like it attacked Project Cadmus with massive collateral damage on the city. While most of the senior Leaguers decide to turn themselves in as an act of good faith, Batman calls that a stupid move, refuses to cooperate and does the hard investigative work to save the day instead. However, you could say that Batman would have had a harder time convincing Amanda Waller of the League's innocence if they hadn't done that to boost their credibility.
- The story mode of the video game WWE Day of Reckoning 2 sees the main character framed for stealing the WWE Championship belt, and thus banned from Monday Night Raw; he must then prove his innocence while rebuilding his wrestling career as a member of the Smackdown roster.
- In the Nip Tuck episode "Granville Trapp," Christian was hauled into jail on suspicion of being the Carver -- a hypothesis which would have demanded truly frightening devotion on his part, as both he and his partner had been Carver victims. The frame-up was, of course, perpetrated by the actual Carver team: Dr. Quentin Costa, aided by Det. Kit Mc Graw.
- Happened on Batman The Animated Series, episode "Feat of Clay", where Matt Hagen (prior to becomming Clayface) impersonates Bruce Wayne and gets him framed for an attempted murder -- the man was saved by Batman, of course. Hence, he's faced with having to clear his name, without revealing his Secret Identity in the process...
- Sonic is captured in Sonic Adventure 2 because everyone mistakes Shadow for him. You'd think people would have noticed the fact they're completely different colors. Then again, how many anthropomorphic hedgehogs with super-speed do you see running around?
- In StargateSG-1, Colonel O'Neill is framed for the murder of Senator Kinsey and the rest of his team must clear his name.
- This has happened at least once to Inspector Morse.
- The whole plot of the TV series Renegade.
- Occurs about once a series in the Star Trek franchise. Usually, a senior officer is accused of committing a crime under alien law, the evidence at the trial looks pretty damning, and then at the end the heroes present The Real Cause- which ranges from inadvertent suicide by the supposed victim to Jack the Ripper in energy-being form.
- Happens to Dmitri in The Brothers Karamazov. He doesn't end up clearing his name, however, and the main characters are hatching a plan for an escape attempt out of prison as the novel ends.
- In the Season 6 finale of Monk, Monk is framed for murder and escapes custody to try and look for the real murderer.
- Spoofed early in Love Hina, when Keitaro resolves to "clear his name" with Shinobu. Naru immediately points out that there's nothing to clear up - he really did do the things that made Shinobu upset with him.
- Why has no one bothered to mention Super Mario Sunshine?
- How Did We Miss This One? "Devil Asteroid" from the Mighty Orbots, but subverted a bit when Rondu tells Ohno and Rob that SHADOW has control of the asteroid.
- In The Spectacular Spider Man, this happens to Spider-Man when Master Of Disguise the Chameleon impersonates him in a series of robberies. Though he clears his name, the damage to his reputation has been done.
- Happens to the Nakama in Mahou Sensei Negima when Arch Enemy Fate Averruncus destroys the gate port from The magic world to the Muggle side, finding a way to alter the video footage so that it appears the heroes did it. Odd in that the Magitek cameras probably should've been able to pick up on that, seeing as A Wizard Did It (While several figures who actually witnessed the event clearly saw the Nakama trying to defend against Fate and his minions). Needless to say, the entire well-separated group is on the lamb.
- The premise of The A Team has a variation; they actually did commit the crime they're wanted for, but it was part of a secret military operation. Unfortunately their commander died shortly thereafter without explaining this to anyone...
- Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps. And The Wrong Man. And North By Northwest...
- Andromeda:
- In "All Great Neptune's Ocean" Tyr Anasazi is found standing over the dead body with the smoking gun (well, force lance) in his hand. His friends find out that the weapon has been manipulated to fire on a signal tone. Only then did Tyr draw it to get it under controll.
- Beka Valentine refers to this incidence, when in "Shards of Rimni" Dylan Hunt is found with the murder weapon in his hand standing next to the kille and arrested for murder. It turns out, Dylan has been set up.
- Ned falls victim to this in one episode of Pushing Daisies.
- Phoenix Wright had this happen to him, forcing him to represent himself in court.
