Basic Trope: The culprit speaks up in defence of someone they are planning to frame.
- Straight: After murdering Alice, Bob plants evidence framing Charles. When Charles is interrogated by police, Bob speaks up in his favour.
- Exaggerated:
- When Charles is arrested, Bob threatens or attempts to attack or bribe the police, getting himself arrested on a minor charge.
- As Charles is convicted and imprisoned for Alice's murder, Bob starts a campaign proclaiming his innocence and demanding his release.
- Bob frees Charles from prison after his conviction and helps him escape to Mexico.
- Bob gives a desperate "false" confession when Charles is about to be arrested.
- Bob sets himself up to be arrested, with fabricated evidence "proving" his innocence weeks later, when Charles is far away.
- Downplayed:
- Bob makes a comment on what a Nice Guy Charles is.
- Bob isn't trying to frame Charles and may even genuinely be trying to clear his name, but is still hiding his own involvement.
- Justified:
- Bob is known to have a vendetta against Charles and thinks being too eager in accusing Charles would draw suspicion on him.
- Bob likes Charles and doesn't want him to think that he betrayed him.
- Bob is Charles' younger brother and is playing up his Big Brother Worship of him to throw off investigators.
- Charles has a lot of enemies, by framing and then proving his innocence, Bob sends the police on a Wild Goose Chase against said persons.
- Bob's plan is to expose the local police's incompetence… this requires tricking them into focussing on an innocent (among other things), but he has to make sure that it doesn't go out of control before he has achieved his goal.
- Inverted:
- Charles helped Bob cover up his murder of Alice. To throw off investigators, Charles repeatedly and loudly accuses Bob of Alice's murder while offering no proof to discredit himself.
- Framing the Guilty Party.
- Played For Laughs: Bob proclaims that Charles is innocent while Bob himself is holding the knife.
- Played For Drama: Stressed out by the investigation, Charles is comforted by Bob's support, and is shocked and hurt when he realises that Bob was trying to frame him.
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