Miscarriages of Justice where an innocent person is falsely convicted of a crime in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- #8024
opens with Lila setting up Marinette as The Scapegoat for her own crimes, accusing her of working with Hawkmoth. The magical terrorist sends an akumatizing butterfly to Marinette's trial, making it perch on the judge's desk watching her; everyone takes this as evidence of her guilt, and she's shipped off to Arkham Ayslum. Marinette repeatedly notes the irony of how her fellow inmates at Arkham treat her with more kindness and respect than she received back in Paris. - Evolution (Worm):
- In order to avoid getting into trouble for causing Taylor to Trigger with her bullying, Sophia makes it appear that Taylor is a potential budding school shooter. Some PRT agents then jump the gun, further destroying Taylor's reputation.
- Canary was subjected to a Kangaroo Court that blatantly rolled over and ignored many of her rights. Even the judge delivering the verdict effectively admitted that the sentence was illegal. During an interview with Channel 6 News, Taylor points out all of the ways the system screwed her over, such as how she wasn't allowed to hire her own lawyer and was barred from being able to speak or communicate at all.
- Fall of Starfleet, Rebirth of Friendship: Starfleet has a policy of not holding trials if there is "more than enough proof", and arrogantly assume that their memory scanners are completely infallible, ignoring any evidence that their scanners might be able to modify memories or project fake ones. They also lack any kind of parole system, resulting in hundreds of thousands of innocents being stuck in jail with no way of proving themselves. Eventually, these travesties are brought to light, with real trials getting underway.
- If Wishes Were Ponies:
- As in canon, Headmaster Dippet had Hagrid stripped of his wand after insisting his pet Acromantula Araggog was responsible for causing Myrtle's death, as well as all the other incidents that were actually caused by Tom Riddle and the Basilisk. It takes the Cutie Mark Crusaders bringing Myrtle back to life and Twilight restoring her memories for the truth to be uncovered, enabling Hagrid to regain the ability to practice magic once more.
- Twilight also researches Sirius Black's case and brings up her concerns about how it was handled to Dumbledore, convincing him to go to the Ministry of Magic and perform a series of tests that help earn Sirius a new trial. Even after he's eventually exonerated, however, a few continue to dispute his innocence... mostly because of his family lineage or due to personally disliking him.
- In Mario in Animatronic Horror: Michael Afton is arrested for the murders of the missing children and is forced into hiding, and he is blamed for the murders while the real culprit, his father William, goes free. The only person who believes he is innocent is Henry.
- Referenced in My Hero Playthrough: Some criminals possess Quirks that make it impossible for them to be present for their trials, even remotely, without compromising the safety of everyone else involved. Jack Napier, for instance, has a Compelling Voice that drives everyone who hears it mad for roughly thirteen hours. This resulted in some special laws named after him that allow certain villains to be tried in absentia, including several safeguards meant to prevent these laws from being abused in this fashion.
- Silent Partner, Unfinished Business: While chatting with Misa, Naomi brings up the fact that one of Kira's victims had made a False Confession: they weren't actually responsible for the crime, but Kira killed them anyway. She also notes that this is just one example from a long list of people whom Kira executed for, effectively, winding up in prison for crimes they didn't commit... or simply being charged with crimes which he assumes they were guilty of. This starts chipping away at Misa's support for Kira.
- Naruto falls victim to one in The Untold Prophecy, resulting in him being expelled from the Order and the Galactic Republic. This forces him to build his own faction with the help of his friends and allies.
- With Pearl and Ruby Glowing: A few characters are criminally charged for False Rape Accusations and other crimes they did not commit.
- Bagheera and Danny were respectively accused of raping Weiss and Darla, and they were sent to prison where prisoners and the corrupt cops subjected them to Prison Rape. With Weiss, it was accidental because Bagheera resembled her actual assailant Shere Kahn, while Darla made the whole thing up because Danny took attention away from her. Thankfully, both accusations are eventually disproven.
- The Halloween special is based on the Gravedale High episode "Monster on Trial", but in this fic, Max Schneider and his class were shoved into a small solitary confinement cell for several months, suffering from various injuries and infections in the process and only being vindicated after Miss Fresno is caught in another lie. The authors' notes point out that this kind of thing is sadly Truth in Television, especially with non-white detainees, and provides links to charities which work for prison reform.
- Cuphead and Mugman, here 11-year-old black kids, were charged with breaking into an abandoned factory and put into a maximum security prison with a long sentence because Judge Hopkins, who hates non-whites and is the leader of the religious cult God's Will First, was the judge of their case. Cuphead was abused multiple times when the guards locked him up with child abusers for acting out, and he and his brother were only released when Hopkins was arrested for his own crimes.
- The Gangreen Gang were sentenced to six months at Camp Green Lake, but had no one on the outside, so the system forgot about them and they were left there for fifteen months, until the entire camp was shut down.
- 10-year-old Nimona went skinny dipping with Gloreth and no one minded at first, but when ne told Gloreth that ne was non-binary, Gloreth's parents got nem placed on the sex offender's registry.
- Susie was caught in the Satanic Panic due to being a queer Wiccan daycare owner and spent twenty years imprisoned for supposedly sexually abusing her own little sister before being exonerated.
- Iris Hawthorne: Ace Attorney is set in a world where Dahlia killed Phoenix several years ago. As a result of this, Miles Edgeworth was falsely convicted for the murder of Robert Hammond.
- I Don't Regret Saving You has Touma being sent to Academy City as a part of his rehabilitation after spending some time in the juvenile hall. In context, Touma was wrongly arrested after saving a girl from getting brutalized in his hometown. During the criminal justice court, the real culprits and, weirdly, the victim he saved, provided false testimony which incriminated Touma. Worse, his father did not even try to get a lawyer for him.
- I'd Trade My Life For Yours:
- The story kicks off with Shuichi Taking the Heat and getting wrongfully executed for the first murder.
- At the end of the fifth trial, nobody is able to prove whether or not Kokichi killed Maki, or if the death was a suicide. Despite this, Monokuma executes the supposed culprit anyway. Later, it turns out that Maki is still alive.
- Bloodlines: Lucy Sang was a rebellious kid due to her strict upbringing, but is completely innocent of her brother Leo's murder. She still gets sent to prison for it, while her Control Freak father and older sister both disown her, contributing to her Start of Darkness.
- Elemental Chess Trilogy: In The Game of Three Generals, Roy faces one of these when he is falsely accused of blowing up Fuhrer Grumman's office. It doesn't help that the prosecutor is an Amoral Attorney being paid off by Acheron, along with the judge.
- In 3 Slytherin Marauders, Scrimgeour has Snape and Lucius thrown into Azkaban without even bothering to charge them with any crime.
- Another Prisoner, Another Professor: One of the reasons why Remus was sent to Azkaban is because Lucius Malfoy exploited his clout and connections to get him locked up.
- Whitehaven Mansions Series: One occurred in Blood on the Tea Leaves, where Richards was hanged for the Hangman murders despite how he was only an accomplice, not the actual murderer.
- Here has Alya facing defamation charges for posting various false stories crafted by Lila on the LadyBlog. Lila successfully throws her under the bus by Playing the Victim Card, getting off scot-free while Alya is found guilty on all charges.
- Miraculous: The Phoenix Rises begins with protagonist Morgan trying to foil her classmate's attempted kidnapping. When she bungles it, he gives her half of a Glasgow Grin, and the next morning she learned that said classmate proceeded to frame her for stalking, sending a threatening letter, and even carrying a weapon. This ruins her reputation and gets her effectively exiled to Michigan.
- Midoriya, Plus Three-Sixty-Five: The Hero Commission has a bad tendency to neglect their upkeep of the Hero License Database; they also don't bother to warn newly licensed heroes that it may take time for everything to be properly processed and updated. As a result, it's unfortunately common for them to be falsely accused of vigilantism and Arrested for Heroism. When this happens to Izuku three days after his licensing exam, Principal Nedzu decides to take advantage of the incident to expose the Commission's lax attitude and steer public opinion firmly in Izuku's favor.
- Dandelions in the Wind: Shinsuke was arrested after a member of the Hero Commission was murdered; strands of his hair were found on the body, and he was shipped off to Tartarus for two years before it was eventually uncovered that he was completely innocent. Despite this exoneration, however, his reputation remained ruined, while the Commission ignored the role they'd played in his plight, doing nothing to repay or recompensate him for their mistake.
- Switchblade: The HPSC frequently makes wrongful arrests, even going so far as to stage extra-judicial executions. False Flag is wrongly arrested in an effort to cover up some dangerous information they possess, while Izuku is arrested simply because they suspect he might be a PLF sympathiser.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- Cheerilee's Garden: Between Twilight accidentally washing away all the evidence that proved her innocence and being caught in the act of revenge-killing Cheerilee, Twilight is blamed for all of Cheerilee's murders. When she realizes even Celestia thinks she did it, she throws herself off the roof to her death. Though in Twilight's final moments she realizes that Celestia realized she was innocent and dies happy. Celestia, however, crosses the Despair Event Horizon and vows to raze the land and form a Solar Empire to avenge the miscarriage of justice.
- Codex Equus: King Aspen accused Blue Suede Heartstrings of tainting the racial purity of the Alvslog Deer Herds and swaying them away from their "traditional birthright" with his music. Fortunately, Belyolen intervened in the trial and saved Blue Suede; however, as King Aspen was the god of Justice, this incident nearly caused him to Fall from grace.
- In A Gem of a Day, Rarity and Applejack get arrested for attempting to steal back a dress design that Suri Polomare stole from Rarity. When they ask the police why they're being punished instead of Suri, the officer replies that Suri didn't pull a breaking and entering.
- The Rise of Darth Vulcan: A group of handicapped pegasi endured a terrible one: a rogue tornado from the Everfree Forest was about to destroy the Earth pony town of Hilltop, so they flew into the storm and destroyed it. They did do some minor damage to the neighboring upper-class Pegasus town of Cirrus, but the town's officials, rather than thank them, threw charges at them to cover up for their own incompetence, gave them no legal representation or help from their families, and forced them into 5 years of community service in exchange for dropping the fallacious charges when the maximum time should have been 1 year. Their supervisor was a Social Darwinist pegasus who constantly abused them and lorded over their lives, and any complaints against him were ignored. And after the sentence was fulfilled, the supervisor revealed their criminal charges at their graduation, blacklisting them from any decent career, and causing one of the pegasi to have their filly taken away by the courts. Fortunately, they get their revenge on the towns with help from Darth Vulcan.
- Kitsune no Ken: Fist of the Fox: While studying to become a lawyer, Kato Dan found himself reading case after case where innocent people were wrongly convicted, only being exonerated after having spent years in prison... or worse yet, posthumously, with their names still smeared and Convicted by Public Opinion. This led him to become a defense attorney specifically in hopes of preventing this from happening to his clients.
- Its Just A Light Rain But The Storms Still Comin: Due to being found talking to Shiho before her suicide and rape under Kamoshida, the Phantom Thieves are under the impression that Akira is complicit to Shiho's suicide and sexual assault with Kamoshida when in reality, he was innocent. When Mishima later has the thieves target Akira, he becomes a victim of this from the group for a good portion of the story due to the Shujin enrolled thieves still believing that he was responsible to Shiho's suicide at the time on top of the leaked "criminal record" he has. It takes until the Phantom Thieves see in person that Akira's Shadow was the inmate, rather than the Overseer of the Palace, and meeting Akira's cognitive versions of them in the Palace for the Shujin enrolled thieves and Morgana to realize that they had contributed to Akira's Palace forming to start with and messed up royally, with Yusuke and Futaba both calling them out repetitively over how they badly treated Akira's case.
- Pokemon: The Origin of Species: Renegades are criminals who are willing to use pokémon to attack other humans. This makes them incredibly dangerous... and incredibly feared. So much so that anyone who gets branded a Renegade is put to death as quickly as possible. While it's acknowledged that somebody could be falsely accused, society has largely accepted the notion of an innocent person occasionally being executed now and then as an acceptable price to pay, as even a single Renegade is capable of taking many, many more innocent lives.
- In Laying Waste To Halloween, Sally Jackson is charged with a Crime of Self-Defense, accused of attempting to murder their assailant: Percy's abusive stepfather Gabe.
- Arcanum: The White Arcana operate under a code that is best summarized as "guilty until proven guilty", acting as Judge, Jury, and Executioner to any Wildmages or supposedly Rogue Arcanists. They are so hellbent upon preserving their system that they are willing to murder thousands for the sake of taking down a single Wildmage.
- Recoil: In the original timeline, Ned Hollows was wrongly convicted for a series of murders committed by the parahuman Night Terror. This led to Ned Triggering and transforming into Crawler.
