History Main / LetOffByTheDetective

* ''Film/HoldBackTheDawn'': Inspector Hammock the immigration cop, having been convinced that George really does love Emmy, does not report the details of George's CitizenshipMarriage shenanigans to his superiors. George is allowed to rejoin Emmy in the United States.

* The ''Series/{{Columbo}}'' episode "[[Recap/ColumboS05E01 Forgotten Lady]]" has guest star Creator/JanetLeigh portraying an aging movie star who plans a comeback. Her physician husband refuses to fund it [[spoiler:because he knows she's dying of a brain disease]], and she kills him. There is some evidence that she has quickly forgotten what she did (along with other recent events), which Columbo confides to her dear friend and former co-star. She becomes distraught at Columbo's persistent investigations, and the friend confesses to the murder to soothe her. Columbo knows that she has no more than a month or so to live and assures the friend that he'll take his time disproving the false confession until she dies.

* ''Manga/CaseClosed'' tends to avert the trope, since to Conan and the major part of the cast, [[GreyAndGreyMorality a crime is always a crime no matter the reasons.]] When there ''are'' "softening" circumstances, however, Conan and others make very sure to let them be known so the SympatheticMurderer will get either the chance to be let go by the law (e.g., genuine self-defense cases) or have the lightest punishment possible (e.g., cases that don't qualify as self-defense but have good backing, like one Hell of an AssholeVictim, or the technicality of them not actually comitting the crime despite intending to).

* Episode 9 of ''Anime/SuperSonico'' is a LockedRoomMystery in which Sonico has been knocked unconscious during a practice session, and her guitar stolen. Ena, the amateur sleuth trying to solve it, is seemingly inept and keeps coming up with bizarre theories, and everyone leaves none the wiser... but in TheStinger, Ena reveals [[spoiler:she'd known the whole time, and had been ObfuscatingStupidity in order to cover it up. The culprit had accidentally spilled water on Sonico's amplifier, and had knocked her out so she wouldn't be able to practice and wouldn't realise the amp was broken; Ena didn't want her to be fired over a genuine mistake.]]

* As usual with mystery tropes, Literature/SherlockHolmes did it first.

** One more Sherlock one, "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot". The AssholeVictim murdered several people, including his own sister, with a horrific psychotropic drug, and is subsequently subjected to the same drug by a man who was in love with the murdered sister. Holmes doesn't hesitate to let the SympatheticMurderer go, commenting that were he in the man's shoes, he might very well have done the exact same thing.
** And "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton", which pits Holmes against the titular villain, whom he knows by reputation as a notorious blackmailer who always gets away with his crimes, and who Holmes has long regarded as actually worse than most of the murderers he has put away as he has ruined so many lives. Holmes and Watson actually resort to breaking into Milverton's house to steal incriminating evidence, and end up witnessing Milverton being murdered by one of his other victims; they take the opportunity to destroy as much blackmail evidence as they can get their hands on. They are spotted fleeing the scene, but not recognized, so when the police come to Holmes to consult they think that Milverton was killed by the two mystery men. Holmes declines both to tell the police the truth or even to take the case, flat-out stating that Milverton was an AssholeVictim and that his sympathy is with the "killers".

** In another episode, after solving the main mystery (who killed the treasure hunter who'd tracked down an old diamond necklace using a private eye's journal), Castle realizes they also have enough information to solve one of the mysteries raised ''within'' the journal. [[spoiler: It turns out that the seemingly unrelated witness they were talking to was the supposedly-dead private eye, his wife was the supposedly-dead moll, and they had killed her mobster boyfriend after stealing the necklace]]. After Castle and Beckett confirm their suspicions, they decide that A) the situation sounds like self-defense, and B) it was such a long time ago, they probably couldn't get a conviction anyway.

** "A Perfect Day" focuses on the murder of a child. It revolves around a family of four, parents and twin girls. The father was a cop and a domestic abuser. The mother tried to take her daughters and leave with her boyfriend, a good man and also a cop. Her husband intercepted them, tried to kill them all, and ''did'' kill one of his daughters. The mom left her remaining daughter in a church and hid, the boyfriend didn't know exactly what had happened but was pretty sure the husband/father was responsible and had done something terrible. The father died in a shootout shortly after, and the boyfriend all but admits to taking advantage of the chaos to kill him. The detectives decide there's no need to put that particular statement on the record. (In a final TakeThat to the father, they also have his picture removed from a wall of officers killed in the line of duty at a cop bar, because the father didn't deserve to be remembered as a hero.)

** In "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventure_of_the_Abbey_Grange The Adventure of The Abbey Grange]]", after subjecting the perp to a SecretTestOfCharacter, Holmes "appoints" Watson as jury, and they declare him not guilty by reason of self-defence. (This ''might'' be how an actual court would see it, but it would embroil the lady concerned in scandal.)

** ''Literature/MurderOnTheOrientExpress'' is the most famous example. A man let off on a technicality after kidnapping and murdering a young girl is found dead on the Orient Express, and after investigating, Poirot announces that there are two possible solutions. The first is that an unknown assassin crept onto the train, killed the man, then slipped away again. The second is that [[spoiler:EverybodyDidIt - all the passengers on the train murdered him together, since they're all friends or employees of the murdered girl's family, looking for revenge.]] Although the first solution is full of holes, Poirot agrees to tell the police that that is what happened, since he believes that justice has been done by the murder.\\\

* ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}'' features this idea, with Castle halfheartedly trying to argue this point with Detective Beckett. It occurred when the victim's father found out that she had been murdered and took out the killer themselves. [[spoiler:Beckett points out that it might work out that way in a novel, but not in real life and she arrests the guilty party anyway.]]
** In another episode, after solving the main mystery (who killed the treasure hunter who'd tracked down an old diamond necklace using a private eye's journal), Castle realizes they also have enough information to solve one of the mysteries raised ''within'' the journal. [[spoiler: It turns out that the seemingly unrelated witness they were talking to was the supposedly-dead private eye, his wife was the supposedly-dead moll, and they had killed her mobster boyfriend after stealing the necklace.]] After Castle and Beckett confirm their suspicions, they decide that A) the situation sounds like self-defense, and B) it was such a long time ago, they probably couldn't get a conviction anyway.

* Played with in ''Series/{{Elementary}}''. [[spoiler:Captain Gregson's daughter murders a serial killer who's been stalking Sherlock. Sherlock figures this out but rather than turning her in (which would also get Gregson charged as an accessory), opts to confess to the crime himself using his connections to [=MI6=] to escape punishment (other than being unable to [[PersonaNonGrata return to the US]]). Amusingly, the FBI officer guesses that he's not actually the murderer but believes that he's doing it to cover for [[RightForTheWrongReasons Watson instead]]]].

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'' features this idea, with Castle halfheartedly trying to argue this point with Detective Beckett. It occurred when the victim's father found out that she had been murdered and took out the killer themselves. [[spoiler:Beckett points out that it might work out that way in a novel, but not in real life and she arrests the guilty party anyway.]]

* In ''Literature/TheMirrorCrackdFromSideToSide'', it is subtly implied that the main murderer was poisoned by [[spoiler:her husband to save her from public disgrace and prevent more murders]]. Miss Marple suspects this is the case but keeps quiet.

The [[Series/{{Poirot}} 2010 adaptation]] raises some of the issues that have been associated with this solution -- for one, Poirot is much more reluctant to let the killers off, because he is revolted by the crime and its motivation even though he admits that the victim [[AssholeVictim had it coming like no other]], and in other stories, he has not let such a thing get in the way of the law. The other is that, given the circumstances he and the killers find themselves in, it would be perfectly possible for them to just kill ''him'' before the authorities arrive and pass the killer off as a third party; the book glosses over the fact that even if Poirot ''did'' want to turn them in, he wasn't in much of a position to do so anyway as the killers had him at their mercy. In the end, he still lets them off and the killers agree prior to that that murdering Poirot (and the train manager, his friend) would be a MoralEventHorizon none of them are willing to cross, so the original ending still plays out, albeit with more angst.

* ''Manga/CaseClosed'' tends to avert the trope, since to Conan and the major part of the cast, [[GreyAndGreyMorality a crime is always a crime no matter the reasons.]] When there ''are'' "softening" circumstances, however, Conan and others make very sure to let them be known so the SympatheticMurderer will get either the chance to be let go by the law (e.g., genuine self-defense cases) or have the lightest punishment possible (e.g., cases that don't qualify as self-defense but have good backing, like one Hell of an AssholeVictim).

* ''Manga/KaitouSaintTail'' has SympatheticInspectorAntagonist Asuka Jr. consider Saint Tail to be his WorthyOpponent from the get-go, and he's even willing to set up a private conversation to negotiate with her and make sure [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou he gets the exclusive right to catch her]] for the sake of satisfying his pride... or at least that's how it starts, but things get complicated when he starts suspecting Saint Tail to actually be Meimi, his classmate whom he's been falling in love with lately. On top of that, he finds himself starting to actually agree with her work as a [[JustLikeRobinHood vigilante hero]] and can't even bring himself to arrest her anymore. All this does is make him more insistent that [[ControlFreak nobody is allowed to get to the bottom of this before he does]], and he pulls an EnemyMine with her at one point and even quietly ''enables'' one of her heists during another to ensure this. On the flip side, Meimi/Saint Tail actually has no idea any of this is happening and still assumes he must be really passionate about (or perhaps even [[LovesMyAlterEgo romantically interested]] in) his WorthyOpponent. [[spoiler:At the end of the series, she's ready for him to despise and condemn her once he learns her identity, but he instead "arrests" her [[MetaphoricallyTrue purely symbolically]], helps [[SecretKeeper keep her secret to the world]] while she retires, and even openly speaks of her as someone who protected the city.]]

* ''Manga/KaitouSaintTail'' has SympatheticInspectorAntagonist Asuka Jr. consider Saint Tail to be his WorthyOpponent from the get-go, and he's even willing to set up a private conversation to negotiate with her and make sure [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou he gets the exclusive right to catch her]] for the sake of satisfying his pride... or at least that's how it starts, but things get complicated when he starts suspecting Saint Tail to actually be Meimi, his classmate whom he's been falling in love with lately. On top of that, he finds himself starting to actually agree with her work as a [[JustLikeRobinHood vigilante hero]] and can't even bring himself to arrest her anymore. All this does is make him more insistent that [[ControlFreak nobody is allowed to get to the bottom of this before he does]], and he pulls an EnemyMine with her at one point and even quietly ''enables'' one of her heists during another to ensure this. On the flip side, Meimi/Saint Tail actually has no idea any of this is happening and still assumes he must be really passionate about (or perhaps even [[LovesMyAlterEgo romantically interested]] in) his WorthyOpponent. [[spoiler:At the end of the series, she's ready for him to despise and condemn him for learning her identity, but he instead "arrests" her [[MetaphoricallyTrue purely symbolically]], helps [[SecretKeeper keep her secret to the world]] while she retires, and even openly speaks of her as someone who protected the city.]]