History FramingTheGuiltyParty / KnownGuiltyParties

* ''Series/DarkAngel'': A gangster commits murder by [[DestinationDefenestration throwing his victim out of a window]], thus making it look like suicide. Logan [[TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch conspires with the coroner]] to put a cap in the corpse's head, then plants the gun on said gangster as he attempts to board an international flight.

** Played with in the backstory for ''VisualNovel/TheGreatAceAttorney'', with [[spoiler:Tobias Gregson]] planting evidence to prove that the Professor, [[spoiler:or rather Genshin Asogi]] had killed Klint van Ziek. The reason that it was partial was that while [[spoiler:Genshin had killed Klint, he wasn't the true Professor as Gregson thought]].

* In the British case of the Towpath murders, when two girls were raped and murdered on a towpath in London in 1953, Alfred Ridgeway, the man hanged for the crime, always insisted that the confession that formed most of the case against him was faked and the police had tricked him into signing it. Most later commentators believed that this was true and the police had framed him because the actual evidence against him, while making it seem likely that he was guilty, was too circumstantial to convict him. The lead detective in the case later stated that detectives sometimes need to ignore the law to get justice, which lends credence to the theory that he did so in this case.

* In ''VideoGame/PAYDAY2'', this is the goal of the Framing Frame mission. The job involves framing a senator for drug possession by planting stacks of cocaine in his flat's hidden vault, but the senator already engages in shady, illegal deals across the globe, the most recent one involving gold, cocaine, and illegal weapons. If stealth fails, then this trope stops taking place, and you use footage of his actual crimes to finish the job instead.

* ''Fanfic/{{Fade}}'': [[spoiler:L plants fake evidence in Light's room just so he can be given an excuse to detain him]].

* ''Fanfic/GreatGrandUncleSchimmelhornsToolbox'': Sophia uses her {{Intangibility}} powers to frame [[Literature/{{Worm}} Taylor]] up for drug possession by planting drugs in her locker and calling in the police. Taylor, who has learned a trick to see and move objects through solid stuff, grabs the drugs and plants them into Sophia's pocket, which not only lets her do this, it also paints Sophia as too dumb to actually plant the drugs.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' fic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/48278212/chapters/121756006 Marinette Ocean]], after being forced out of the graduation trip she had single-handedly planned because of Lila's lies, Marinette (who knows that Lila has been scamming her classmates) and her new friends steal all the cash meant for the trip by moving it into one of Lila's bank accounts and then to one of their own. Lila gets arrested and sent to prison because the police got her not only for that, but for multiple other crimes she's been doing for a decade.

* In the ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' fanfic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7105611/1/Legend Legend]]", it is revealed that [[spoiler:police officer Anna Ramierez had been gathering and faking evidence against ''herself'', intending to take responsibility for the murders committed by Harvey Dent so that Batman's name will be cleared. She's ultimately forced into a public confession by the Joker when he tortures her on live television, but Ramierez sticks to her lie rather than reveal the truth as the Joker had wanted, and the incriminating evidence is found in her apartment]].
* In the ''Series/{{Victorious}}'' fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10678828/1/Double-Trouble Double Trouble]]" (focusing on a world where Jade and Tori are dating), after an alternate Jade and Tori visit their timeline, upon returning to their own reality the alternate Jade is attacked by the alternate Beck, who here is an abusive boyfriend who evidence suggests raped past girlfriends and has been abusing Jade for months. After the alternate Beck is [[spoiler:left trapped in another universe, the "prime" Beck agrees to assist the others in posing as his counterpart to create a fake trail of evidence suggesting that his counterpart died in a car accident while trying to run away, ensuring that nobody will question where the "local" Beck went and giving the others a solid alibi]].

* At the end of ''Film/BadLieutenantPortOfCallNewOrleans'', the protagonist goes into business with the drug kingpin whom he knows (but can't prove) committed the quintuple murder he's investigating, [[spoiler:tricks him into taking a hit off of a crack pipe, then plants the pipe (with the kingpin's DNA on it) at the crime scene and suggests the other cops search it again]].

* In ''ComicBook/{{Blacksad}}'', commissioner Smirnov not only covers for Blacksad's [[spoiler:execution of Statoc, a powerful businessman who successfully muzzled Smirnov and the police into not investigating his crimes]], he also uses the outrage of the henchmen who realized they have been set up as a reason to interrogate them about their crimes [[spoiler:making sure the public knows what Statoc did]].
* {{Discussed}} in ''ComicBook/BruceWayneFugitive''. Bruce has been framed for the brutal murder of his girlfriend, and in the course of trying to prove his innocence, the Bat-family discover evidence that he really did do it and his motive was that she had discovered that Bruce was Batman, and while Bruce denies his guilt he seems oddly indifferent to clear his name and is content to make Bruce Wayne "disappear" and become Batman 24/7, making him even more suspicious. This leads to the Bat-family questioning any evidence they find that proves Bruce is innocent, since they know is smart enough to have planted it for them to find. [[spoiler: They eventually discover that Bruce knew who the real killer was all along, but chose to be silent because it was David Cain, the father of the new Batgirl and someone who trained a young Bruce Wayne and figured out he was Batman. Bruce went along ''with his own frameup'' to protect his identity and moreso to protect Batgirl from her dangerous father.]]

* A variant happened in ''ComicBook/{{Diabolik}}''. A rich man has ended up paralyzed and unable to do more than blink after his wife and her lover attempt to murder him. When Diabolik steals a collection of jewels from him, they meet and the man manages to ask him to euthanize and avenge him by blinking in Morse code (Diabolik catches on to this only because he once did the same thing to give Eva a message while standing trial). Diabolik decides to do so, and, after stealing the jewels, waits for the wife and her lover to be out of the house to enter [[LatexPerfection masked as the lover]] and with Eva masked as the wife to murder him on camera, declaring they are doing it to complete the attempted murder that left him paralyzed. Then, as the wife and her lover are arrested, Altea, the fiancee of [[SympatheticInspectorAntagonist Inspector Ginko]] and a childhood friend of the deceased, finds evidence that they couldn't have done the murder, but, knowing they had attempted to kill her friend and unable to prove it, destroys the evidence.
* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' of all people does this. He knows the Mechanismo project is incredibly risky and has seen first-hand the danger that robot judges pose to the city. When tracking a rogue Mark I robojudge, Dredd is beaten to it by one of the new Mark II models. After the Mark II ignores Dredd's order to hold its fire, Dredd destroys the Mark II and persuades the only witness to say that the Mark I destroyed the Mark II and that Dredd destroyed the Mark I. It was noted as a rare OutOfCharacterMoment for Dredd, though his fears were later justified.
* In a variant on the theme in ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'', Wildcat reveals he once framed a man for the murder of his own family, because the man had, in retribution, killed the actual murderer and his innocent family, but there wasn't a way to get (or apparently plant) the evidence linking him to the crime of killing the other family. It's still played as being an act of MoralEventHorizon for Wildcat, and he pays for it with [[spoiler:all but the last of his supernatural nine lives]].
* During ''ComicBook/SpiderManIdentityCrisis'', Spider-Man was provoked into assaulting Norman Osborn on camera, unable to reveal that Osborn is actually the Green Goblin due to all the work his foe has put into establishing himself as a VillainWithGoodPublicity. Peter spent some time assuming a new series of costumed identities so that he could continue fighting crime, with one of these identities eventually providing fake evidence that the Spider-Man who actually attacked Osborn was either Jack O'Lantern or Conundrum, villains he had just recently defeated with a knack for illusion and deceit.

** Was also the case in the [=A6=] murder case of 1961, when James Hanratty was convicted and hanged (one of the last to be executed before the UK effectively abolished the death penalty) for a brutal attack on a couple which left the male victim, Michael Gregston, dead and the female victim, Valerie Storie, paralysed for life. Despite Storie's damning eyewitness testimony at the trial, the evidence was so weak that that a police inquiry decades later determined that Hanratty had been wrongfully convicted. However, when the case was sent back to the Court of Appeal, a DNA test conclusively proved that Hanratty was indeed the perpetrator.

** Was also the case in the [=A6=] murder case of 1961, when James Hanratty was convicted and hanged (one of the last to be executed before the UK effectively abolished the death penalty) for a brutal attack on a couple which left the male victim, Michael Gregston, dead and the female victim, Valerie Storie, paralysed for life. Despite Storie's damning eyewitness testimony at the trial, the evidence was so weak that that a police inquiry determined that Hanratty had been wrongfully convicted. However, when the case was sent back to the Court of Appeal, a DNA test conclusively proved that Hanratty was indeed the perpetrator.

* Mentioned in ''Film/LAConfidential''.
** Captain Smith tells Lt. Exley that Exley won't be able to handle being a detective precisely because he wouldn't be willing to frame a suspect he knew to be guilty. After murdering a gangbanger in cold blood for kidnapping and raping a girl, Bud White actually plants a gun on him to make the execution look like self-defense.
** After some black men are arrested for seemingly killing a bunch of cops, they "escape" custody and are eventually gunned down by Exley. Afterwards, he talks to a Mexican girl who gave evidence against them and she admits she knows they didn't do it, but they did rape ''her'' and the police wouldn't have bothered pursuing them for that since she's just a poor minority in a racist city. To get justice, she didn't hesitate to frame them for a crime the police ''would'' be interested in.

** In season 2, Wee-Bey is being harassed and bullied by Dwight Tilghman, a prison guard whose cousin Wee-Bey had confessed to murdering on Avon's orders a while back ([[ButForMeItWasTuesday far enough back that Avon doesn't remember it]]). Avon and Stringer know that Tilghman runs a side hustle smuggling heroin into the prison. Stringer pays Blind Butchie, Tilghman's supplier, to give him a tampered supply laced with rat poison. The bad drugs kill five inmates and put eight more in the infirmary. The authorities launch an investigation, aware that they'll have to offer the promise of reduced sentences to get cooperation from inmates willing to testify. Avon proceeds to come forward as an "informant" and names Tilghman as the culprit. The police then find drugs in Tilghman's car, corroborating Avon's "story", and arrest Tilghman despite his protests that the drugs were planted. Avon (through [[AmoralAttorney Maurice Levy]]) gets the prison officials to move his first parole hearing up a year in exchange for his "testimony", a deal which they reluctantly have to agree to.
** In season 4, Omar robs ruthless drug kingpin Marlo Stanfield at a poker game, and also robs one of Marlo's front men, Old Face Andre. Marlo responds by having Chris Partlow, his chief assassin, work with Old Face Andre to frame Omar for shooting and killing a deliverywoman at Andre's corner store. Marlo's scheme has a bit of a variation in that he doesn't intend for Omar to get ''convicted'', just for Omar to be thrown in jail to await trial with dozens of criminals that he's robbed over the years, and who naturally want revenge on Omar. If that isn't enough to get Omar killed, Marlo sweetens the deal by offering a large bounty on Omar's head. Even the cops who know/have worked with Omar in the past are reluctant to help him because they know perfectly well that he's gotten away with a multitude of crimes, which includes murder. Only Omar's reputation for [[NeverHurtAnInnocent refusing to harm innocents]] and Omar pointing out that if he goes down for this crime, then the real killer will get away with it prods Bunk into investigating further and finding evidence that Omar was framed.

* Happens completely by accident in ''WebComic/DumbingOfAge'' when Penny, who got caught having sex with a student and was getting fired, retaliated by accusing Jason of doing the same...not knowing he ''had'' slept with Sal.
-->"Wait, you actually ''were''?! Well damn, I only told them that for funsies."

* When a storyline saw ComicBook/SpiderMan being provoked into assaulting Norman Osborn on camera- Spidey unable to reveal that Osborn is actually the Green Goblin due to all the work his foe has put into establishing himself as a VillainWithGoodPublicity- Peter spent some time assuming a new series of costumed identities so that he could continue fighting crime, with one of these identities eventually providing fake evidence that the Spider-Man who actually attacked Osborn was either Jack O'Lantern or Conundrum, villains he had just recently defeated with a knack for illusion and deceit.

* ''Series/StrangerThings'': Part of Season 2. In an attempt to get justice for Barb, and give her family some closure. They can't just say that Hawkins was performing experiments that caused them to open a tunnel into an alternate dimension, unleashing a monster into our world that devoured Barb. Instead, they frame Hawkins for a [[GasLeakCoverUp toxic chemical leak]], telling everyone Barb was killed by it and they disposed of her body to cover it up.

* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'': [[spoiler:King Bradley]] is such a [[VillainWithGoodPublicity beloved politician]] that after the good guys win the day at the end of the manga, they elect to cover up his crimes. Instead, they pin the whole thing on the only two surviving members of the Military Conspiracy, even though [[spoiler:Bradley]] was a leading figure and these two were just pawns in the grand scheme of things.

** In season 2, Wee-Bey is being harassed and bullied by Dwight Tilghman, a prison guard whose cousin Wee-Bey had confessed to murdering on Avon's orders a while back. ([[ButForMeItWasTuesday Far enough back that Avon doesn't remember it.]]) Avon and Stringer know that Tilghman runs a side business smuggling heroin into the prison. So Stringer approaches Tilghman's supplier and pays him to give Tilghman a tampered supply laced with rat poison. The bad drugs kill several inmates and put more in the infirmary. The authorities launch an investigation, aware that they'll have to offer the promise of reduced sentences to get cooperation from inmates willing to testify. Avon proceeds to come forward as an "informant" and names Tilghman as the culprit. The police then find drugs in Tilghman's car, corroborating Avon's "story", and arrest Tilghman despite his protests that the drugs were planted. Avon (through [[AmoralAttorney Maurice Levy]]) gets the prison officials to move his hearing up a year in exchange for his "testimony", a deal which they reluctantly have to agree to.

* ''Literature/SageAdair'': In ''Dry Rot'', Earl Mackey's men plant evidence framing Leo Lockwood, because Mackey is wrongly convinced that Lockwood killed his father.

* During UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution, there was a whole climate of UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories and paranoia and wild accusations were flung and hurled against each other from various parties. One especially weird circumstance for historians is when later evidence emerges that partially vindicates the extreme accusations.

** "[[Recap/BurnNoticeS1E8WantedMan Wanted Man]]": The team plans to get a crooked real estate developer caught with a diamond brooch he stole to shore up his investments and [[ClearTheirName clear the name of their client]]. After Plan A falls through, they figure out which bank he's going to take the brooch to for storage, and then set things up to look like he's trying to ''rob'' the bank. The police find the brooch when he's arrested for the robbery and their client is exonerated.

* Michael Westen does this in almost every episode in ''Series/BurnNotice''. He's probably committed more crimes than many of the villains, but it's all for a good cause.

* ''Series/TheCapture'': [[spoiler: This is essentially the entire point of "correction," creating fake video evidence to secure convictions where admissible evidence is unavailable.]]

* At least two episodes of ''Series/{{Elementary}}'' have featured this on various occasions;

* In ''Series/Evil2019'', at one point Doctor Kristen Bouchard attempts to record twisted psychiatrist Townsend admitting to his motives in reversing her work for the D.A., but Townsend anticipated what she was going to do and uses a jammer so that the recording doesn't work. With the aid of her tech-savvy associate Ben Shakir, Kristen deep-fakes a recreation of Townsend's words, justifying it on the grounds that Townsend ''did'' say what she recorded and mean what he said, and it achieves her goal of preventing Townsend creating a scenario where a fifteen-year-old would be tried as an adult.