History Main / LetOffByTheDetective

* ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' 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).

** In "Justice," everyone questions why they're even trying to solve the murder of a serial rapist at least once, and sure enough, they coach the SympatheticMurderer into claiming it was self-defense.
** Another episode has the investigators looking into the gone-cold murder of a university athlete... who the investigation eventually reveals to have been a JerkJock serial rapist, who was confronted by a group of his victims at gunpoint and pretended to be sorry so they would go away (and then the brother of one of said rape victims picked up the gun that the group had tossed into the trash and shot the [[AssholeVictim unrepentant a-hole]] while he was still laughing off the tension and gloating about it). The investigators told the brother ''while they are still interrogating him'' on how to make his confession sound like he had shot the jock in self-defense (which the evidence was circumstantial enough to support).

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* Subverted in ''ComicBook/SpiderMan.'' In TheNineties, Spider-Man repeatedly ran into an elderly [[ClassyCatBurglar cat burglar]] called the Black Fox, who kept feeding Spidey sob stories about how he was just a pitiful, lonely old man who was about to retire from crime anyway, etc. etc. This would inspire Peter's sympathy, and if he didn't let the Fox go right away, his story would at least distract Spidey long enough for the Fox to slip away. Inevitably, Peter would realize a moment later that he'd let the old coot fast talk him ''again'' and be furious at himself. It was a RunningGag.

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

** ''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.
*** 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.
** And then there's a much more controversial case of Countess Vera Rossakoff in ''The Double Clue'' short story. True, she's only guilty of robbery, not murder, and Poirot makes her return what she had stolen, but otherwise she was let off scott-free - for the sole reason that the famous detective fell for her.

* ''Literature/TheDivide2005:'' Sheriff Riggs discovers that Josh and Ty killed Rolf but chooses not to arrest them for it, feeling it was self-defense but that they'd be ConvictedByPublicOpinion and have already suffered enough. The fact that he's in love with Josh's mother helps.

* In Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/TheNakedSun'', Elijah Baley calls a SummationGathering and reveals that the murder victim's neighbor, a roboticist named Jothan Leebig, was planning to subvert the ThreeLawsOfRobotics to create an army of {{Killer Robot}}s, and had masterminded the victim's murder to keep him from interfering. Leebig commits suicide rather than being arrested, and no one notices the fact that Leebig couldn't possibly have carried out the physical deed due to his intense fear of human contact. Baley admits later that, [[TheUntwist as initially suspected]], the victim's wife Gladia was the one who killed her husband, having been manipulated into it by Leebig. Since he sympathized with her circumstances, he felt she didn't deserve to be punished.

* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'': The very first episode "Payback" has a downplayed example. The victim is actually a wanted [[AssholeVictim war criminal]] guilty of the rape of over fifty women, and he was killed by two of his victims. One of the killers commits suicide, the other (married with a young son) is arrested. While they don't let her off, the detectives and ADA go out of their way to give her the lightest sentence possible and don't even ask for bail.

** Alison solves the murder in the episode ''A Taste of Her Own Medicine'' because as the title suggests it was an AssholeVictim. [[spoiler:An elderly lady poisons her daughter because she was a sociopath who was poisoning her child stepdaughter for getting her money and had already successfully murdered the child's mother to take her place. The murderer was completely unrepentant and her mother took the SadisticChoice of [[OffingTheOffspring poisoning her]].]]
** In ''Jury, Judge, Executioner'', [[spoiler: the killer is a vile GoldDigger who killed his wife in a sadistic hunting game when she was no longer useful for his career. His father-in-law was fooled for years by his respectable façade and defended him. When the father found out he was guilty after all, he kidnapped the killer and did the same hunting game with ''him'' as a target. It is mentioned at the end of the episode that the father will suffer little-to-no prosecution due to his old age and very sympathetic motive.]]

* ''Series/ThePunisher2017'': After defeating Billy Russo and killing the other members of Operation Cerberus, Frank Castle is officially let off the hook by CIA Deputy Director Marion James and his records are expunged, with Frank now free to live his life under the new name 'Pete Castiglione'.

* In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'', the NonStandardGameOver in the final case involves you being blackmailed into doing this. In this case, though, your assistant has been kidnapped by an assassin hired by the culprit, who'll kill her if the culprit is found guilty. To get the GoldenEnding, [[spoiler:you need to show the assassin that he was going to be betrayed by the murderer]].

[[folder:Web Novel]]
* ''Literature/CanYouSpareAQuarter'': The police apparently suspect that Frank beat Jamie's father up but they choose to not follow it up, since he's an AssholeVictim [[spoiler:who almost raped his son to death]].

* In many jurisdictions, police have the right to use [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enforcement_discretion Enforcement Discretion]] for lesser crimes (generally so they aren't bogged down [[LawfulStupid chasing every single offense]]).\\
\\
In the United States, this is actually ''expected'' of prosecutors; the reason that federal grand juries and many state grand juries almost always indict anyone who is brought before them is because prosecutors are expected to only go forward in cases where they think they can prove beyond reasonable doubt that someone committed a crime - a much higher standard than is required for indictment. This is because prosecutors have limited funding to go after everyone, so they only go after the cases they think they can most easily win. States where this is not the expectation have significantly lower rates of indictment by grand juries due to more very weak cases being brought before them.\\
\\
This trope is averted in many states for police officers, where any case brought by a county-prosecutor is required to go before a grand jury. Grand juries determine whether the prosecution has enough evidence (probable cause) of a case for a criminal indictment. It may be hard to secure a criminal indictment on police because many police departments have statutes authorizing "reasonable use of force" by their officers in order to cause an arrest or if the officer believes the person a danger to society. This is backed by ruling of the Supreme Court (Tennessee v. Garner 1985) which has deemed that police can use lethal force if they have a “reasonable belief” they are facing danger to their life.

* ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' 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)

* Averted in an episode of ''Anime/CowboyBebop'', where Jet stops off to see his ex, Alissa. Before leaving, he learns that Alissa's current boyfriend, Rhint, has a bounty on him for [[SympatheticMurderer killing a loan shark in self-defense]]. When Alissa and Rhint try to flee, Jet stops his partner Spike from going after the two of them, and Spike asks if Jet is actually going to capture the pair or let them get away. Jet ''does'' take them down, explaining to the two of them that if he let them go, someone else who might hurt them far worse in the course of collecting the bounty might be after them tomorrow, and by then Alissa will officially be an accomplice and wanted as well. Instead he encourages Rhint to face the charges and get it over with properly, later telling Alissa that Rhint has a good chance of being able to successfully plead self-defense at trial.

* Subverted in ''ComicBook/SpiderMan.'' In TheNineties, Spider-Man repeatedly ran into an elderly [[ClassyCatBurglar cat burglar]] called the Black Fox, who kept feeding Spidey sob stories about how he was just a pitiful, lonely old man who was about to retire from crime anyway, etc. etc. This would inspire Peter's sympathy, and if he didn't let the Fox go right away, his story would at least distract Spidey long enough for the Fox to slip away. Inevitably, Peter would realize a moment later that he'd let the old coot fast talk him ''again'' and be furious at himself. It was a RunningGag.

* In another vigilante movie ''Film/TheBraveOne'', the detective lets the female vigilante escape, apparently just out of personal sympathy.
* In ''Film/{{Chinatown}}'', Jake Gittes lets Evelyn Mulwray take the girl and make a run for Mexico. [[DownerEnding It doesn't work though]].
* Subverted in [[MultipleEndings one of the endings]] of ''{{Film/Clue}}''. In this one, Wadsworth deduces that [[spoiler:Mrs. Peacock]] is the killer, but since the victims were [[AssholeVictim an odious blackmailer and his informants]], the killer should be allowed to escape. However [[spoiler:Wadsworth is an FBI agent in this ending, and Peacock is arrested as soon as she steps outside]].

* In ''Film/SuddenImpact'', Inspector Harry Callahan is on the trail of a woman named Jennifer Spencer, who is [[RapeAndRevenge hunting down and killing the men who gangraped her.]] At the climax of the story, one of her would-be victims, Mick holds her hostage with her own gun and Harry kills the man to save her. When the police show up to investigate, Harry shows them the gun in the man's hand and convinces them that he was responsible for all the killings (in truth, the only one of the murders that Mick was responsible for was killing the police chief).
* Creator/CharlieChaplin film ''Film/ThePilgrim'' features TheTramp as an escaped convict masquerading as a minister. After Charlie retrieves the money another hoodlum stole from Charlie's girlfriend, and returns it, the sheriff arrests him. The sheriff then lets Charlie escape to Mexico.
* [[SympatheticInspectorAntagonist Detective Finch]] in ''Film/VForVendetta'' takes it one step further. Not only does he let Evee go, but he [[HeelFaceTurn ends up going with her]] to watch the fireworks.
* During the gunfight at the climax of ''2 Days in the Valley'', a detective's life is saved by a semi-retired hitman. After the shootout the hitman starts to gather up the money from his [[OneLastJob Last Job]] but hesitates when he sees the cop watching him. The cop thinks about it for a minute, then signals the hitman to take his money and go before more police arrive.

* In ''Film/MurderOnTheOrientExpress1974'', Poirot allows the murderers to go free because the murder victim had hurt all of the people who committed the murder with his own crimes.
* ''Film/MissMeadows'': Mike discovers that Miss Meadows is the vigilante. He lets her go free, letting a criminal take the blame. Of course, they were about to be married, so he's already greatly sympathetic. Aside from which, the [[PaedoHunt utterly foul]] [[LeaveNoSurvivors and depraved]] nature of her "victims" already makes Mike willing to let her off the hook (the first legitimately was KillingInSelfDefense anyway, though he doesn't know that for certain).

* In ''Film/AsianSchoolGirls'', Jack, the detective investigating the girls' vigilante killings, offers to destroy all the evidence against them if they help him nail the head of TheSyndicate.
* ''Film/{{Peppermint}}'': At the end, [[spoiler:Beltran gives Riley a handcuff key when she's under arrest in the hospital, allowing her to escape, since he agrees with her vigilante killings.]]
* ''Film/AssaultOnWallStreet'': Jim's cop friends clearly realize or at least strongly suspect he was involved with the murders at the end, but still let him go (presumably from sympathy due to his losses).

* 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.
* In Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/TheNakedSun'', Elijah Baley calls a SummationGathering and reveals that the murder victim's neighbor, a roboticist named Jothan Leebig, was planning to subvert the ThreeLawsOfRobotics to create an army of {{Killer Robot}}s, and had masterminded the victim's murder to keep him from interfering. Leebig commits suicide rather than being arrested, and no one notices the fact that Leebig couldn't possibly have carried out the physical deed due to his intense fear of human contact. Baley admits later that, [[TheUntwist as initially suspected]], the victim's wife Gladia was the one who killed her husband, having been manipulated into it by Leebig. Since he sympathized with her circumstances, he felt she didn't deserve to be punished.
* ''The Finishing Stroke'' is an Creator/ElleryQueen novel wherein the author/detective hero is stumped by the murder for a couple of decades. When he does finally solve the case the killer, who was an older man when he committed the murder, is truly elderly and infirm. Since Ellery doesn't want to see him spend the last few years of his life in prison, he keeps his identity secret.

* In "Murder Mysteries" by Creator/NeilGaiman, a detective tells the story of his first case, in which the killer had a sympathetic motivation but paid the ultimate price. It's implied that he's telling the story at this time and in this place because the case has parallels to the murder he's currently working -- and that he's decided this time to let the killer off.

* In the Creator/OHenry short story, "A Retrieved Reformation," a notorious safecracker is deliberately ignored by the detective who has been tracking him, even though he has just revealed himself by opening a safe, because the thief is on his way to a better life (and the safe he just opened contained a trapped and terrified little girl).

* In the Literature/DrThorndyke novel ''Mr. Pottermack's Oversight'', Dr. Thorndyke is the only person who realizes that Mr. Pottermack has anything to do with the death of James Lewson (due to noticing the one detail Mr. Pottermack overlooked), and starts his own investigation. After establishing that Pottermack killed Lewson in something like self-defence following years of persecution, he chooses to keep his discoveries to himself.
* In ''The Thursday Murder Club'', it turns out [[spoiler: there were three murderers. Two were [[PayEvilUntoEvil Paying Evil Unto Evil]], and one was trying to protect one of the others, who is now in a coma. Elizabeth tells the protector that she has to report the whole situation to the police, but not until morning, knowing this gives him enough time to MercyKill the person he was protecting and commmit suicide himself. The unrelated case, which the police have pinned on someone who will never be found, she chooses to keep to herself.]]
* ''Literature/TalionRevenant'': Despite chasing him all throughout the book (and before its events) for banditry, Nolan lets off Morai in the end, grateful due to his help with exposing the Hamisian plot. Plus Morai's simply just that charming, even Nolan comes to like him.
* ''Literature/TheDivide2005:'' Sheriff Riggs discovers that Josh and Ty killed Rolf but chooses not to arrest them for it, feeling it was self-defense but that they'd be ConvictedByPublicOpinion and have already suffered enough. The fact that he's in love with Josh's mother helps.

* ''Series/JonathanCreek'':
** In the episode "The Scented Room", a theatre critic who gave his act a bad review and his violent wife have a priceless painting of theirs [[LockedRoomMystery vanish from a locked room]], stolen by [[spoiler:a nanny concerned that they were distant and abusive to their son]]. The painting is returned, but Jonathan refuses to tell them where it went or who took it, partly because he sympathises with the culprit, and partly just to annoy the critic.
** In "Danse Macabre" meanwhile, it turns out [[SuicideNotMurder the murder was actually an elaborate suicide]]. Although this means that the "murderers" were still accomplices to suicide -- a crime in the UK -- Jonathan doesn't turn them in to the police out of obvious sympathy. It's not clear if he turns in [[spoiler:the stalker who stole the corpse's head for a ALoveToDismember. Although it's strongly implied that the head's previous owner, an Expy of Creators/{{Elvira}}, would have taken it in the spirit in which it was intended anyway.]]
* ''Series/VeronicaMars'': In season two, gay students are blackmailed into giving someone money or risk getting outed. When Veronica solves the mystery, she doesn't bother calling the crook out since the student in question [[spoiler:didn't actually collect any blackmail money and was gay herself, she just wanted to be out with her girlfriend.]]
* ''Series/ColdCase'': In "Justice," everyone questions why they're even trying to solve the murder of a serial rapist at least once, and sure enough, they coach the SympatheticMurderer into claiming it was self-defense.

* In the ''Series/LawAndOrder'' episode "Deadbeat" [=McCoy=] and Ross realize that a woman killed her child support dodging ex-husband to [[spoiler:keep him from finding out that "his" son wasn't his]]. Because she's the mother of a terminally ill boy, Jack decides to indefinitely delay her prosecution.
* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'': The very first episode "Payback" has a downplayed example. The victim is actually a wanted [[AssholeVictim war criminal]] guilty of the rape of over fifty women, and he was killed by two of his victims. One of the killers commits suicide, the other (married with a young son) is arrested. While they don't let her off, the detectives and ADA go out of their way to give her the lightest sentence possible and don't even ask for bail.
** In "Fight" the two brothers actually ''are'' innocent of almost every crime, but Casey points out there's nothing she can do about the gun charge one of them is facing. Fin replies that the gun was "lost" coming back from the crime scene. Casey (and Cragen) sees it for the lie it is, but goes along with it. With that charge gone too, the brothers get to walk away free.

* A non-murder version occurs in ''Series/TheMentalist'' in "Black Cherry". The sister of a victim of the week pulls a gun on some gang-bangers who she thought knew who her brother's killer was. Even though she's caught red-handed for assault by Lisbon, she's dissuaded from prosecuting her by Jane, who reminds her that if the sister goes off to prison, her brother's young son would likely end up in foster care and eventually in the very gang that the sister pulled a gun on. Eventually, Lisbon is able to talk Sarah (the ADA who wants to prosecute) out of it by playing on her brand-new motherly instincts.

* An episode of ''Series/ColdCase'' has the investigators looking into the gone-cold murder of a university athlete... who the investigation eventually reveals to have been a JerkJock serial rapist, who was confronted by a group of his victims at gunpoint and pretended to be sorry so they would go away (and then the brother of one of said rape victims picked up the gun that the group had tossed into the trash and shot the [[AssholeVictim unrepentant a-hole]] while he was still laughing off the tension and gloating about it). The investigators told the brother ''while they are still interrogating him'' on how to make his confession sound like he had shot the jock in self-defense (which the evidence was circumstantial enough to support).
** "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.)
* ''Series/{{Castle}}'' features this idea, with Castle halfheartedly trying to argue this point with Detective Beckett. It occurred when the victim's family 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.

* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': Karen Page gets her brother Kevin killed in a car accident when she gets distracted while arguing with him, after she had to save him from being beaten to death by her drug-dealing boyfriend. The local sheriff lets Karen off the hook and alters the accident report to claim that Kevin was alone, out of sympathy for the Pages due to the death of Karen's mother from cancer only a few years earlier and their subsequent financial struggles. However, Karen gets branded as a pariah and is forced to leave Fagan Corners. What happened to Kevin doesn't come back to hurt her until season 3 when Wilson Fisk begins digging, finds out what really happened, and his fixer Felix Manning threatens Karen with public exposure of this information when she tries to talk to him about the dirty work he's doing for Fisk.
* ''Series/ThePunisher2017'': After defeating Billy Russo and killing the other members of Operation Cerberus, Frank Castle is officially let off the hook by CIA Deputy Director Marion James and his records are expunged, with Frank now free to live his life under the new name 'Pete Castiglione'.
* ''Series/{{Medium}}'':
** Alison solves the murder in the episode ''A Taste of Her Own Medicine'' because as the title suggests it was an AssholeVictim. [[spoiler: An elderly lady poisons her daughter because she was a sociopath who was poisoning her child stepdaughter for getting her money and had already successfully murdered the child's mother to take her place. The murderer was completely unrepentant and her mother took the SadisticChoice of [[OffingTheOffspring poisoning her]].]]
** In ''Jury, Judge, Executioner'', [[spoiler: the killer is a vile GoldDigger who killed his wife in a sadistic hunting game when she was no longer useful for his career. His father-in-law was fooled for years by his respectable façade and defended him. When the father found out he was guilty after all, he kidnapped the killer and did the same hunting game with ''him'' as a target. It is mentioned at the end of the episode that the father will suffer little-to-no prosecution due to his old age and very sympathetic motive.]]
* 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]]]].

* In many juristictions, police have the right to use [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enforcement_discretion Enforcement Discretion]] for lesser crimes (generally so they aren't bogged down [[LawfulStupid chasing every single offense]]).\\

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'' features this idea, with Castle halfheartedly trying to argue this point with Detective Beckett. It occurred when the victim's family found out that she had been murdered and took care of the killer themselves. [[spoiler:It doesn't work and she arrests the guilty party anyway.]]

-->-- '''SherlockHolmes''', "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle"

* In Creator/TheBBC Radio 4 adaptation of the Violet Strange whodunnit "An Intangible Clue" by Anna Katherine Green for ''The Rivals'', which adds [[SherlockHolmes Inspector Lestrade]] to the story, Lestrade mentions that the file on the murder of the man who killed Violet's husband was "lost", and as far as he's concerned will remain so. None of this is in the original story.
* In the ''SherlockHolmes'' radio drama "The Singular Inheritance of Miss Gloria Wilson", Holmes chooses to keep silent when he realizes that a repentant and long-retired thief is about to escape police custody.

*** The 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.

* ''Series/{{Medium}}:

* The ''Series/{{Columbo}}'' episode "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.

** This also occurs in "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventure_of_the_Priory_School#Synopsis The Adventure of the Priory School]]". James Wilder, the illegitimate older son of the Duke of Holdernesse, plans to kidnap the Duke's younger son from his school in order to force the Duke to change his will in Wilder's favor. Wilder hires a man called Reuben Hayes to perform the kidnapping, but Hayes murders an innocent teacher who tried to prevent it. Wilder's horror at the event leads him to confess everything to the Duke. Even though Wilder is guilty of kidnapping an innocent boy, conspiracy to commit kidnapping and partial responsibility for the murder, Holmes only turns in Hayes to the police, allowing Wilder to be sent to Australia to seek his fortune.
*** This is notably subverted in the Granada adaptation where Wilder does not get off. Instead he kidnaps the boy himself in a futile attempt to still make the scheme work and dies while hiding in a cave.

** In the first season Omar Little, a [[KarmicThief stickup artist]] who only robs drug dealers and other criminals, kills Stinkum, a hitman for the [[TheSyndicate Barksdale Organization]] that had participated in torturing and murdering Omar's boyfriend. However, the Major Crimes Unit investigating the Barksdale gang needs Omar, who has pledged to testify against the Barksdales, (something not many people will do due to [[TheMobBossIsScarier the way the Barksdales react to witnesses]]) and as a result, Jimmy [=McNulty=] and Bunk Moreland have to mislead Cole, the detective investigating Stinkum's death, away from catching Omar. [=McNulty=] feels bad about misleading Cole and looking the other way, to the point that he and the rest of the MCU question if they can even still really consider themselves police.

* ''Film/MissMeadows'': Mike discovers that Miss Meadows is the vigilante. He lets her go free, letting a criminal take the blame. Of course, they were about to be married, so he's already greatly sympathetic.

** "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 indignity, they also have the father's 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.)

** "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 meanwhile thought the father killed all three. The father died a shootout shortly after, and the boyfriend all but admits to taking advantage of the chaos to kill him. Not only do the detectives not charge him, they take the father's picture off the memorial wall at the local cop bar.