Clear My Name

The hero has been falsely accused of a crime he did not commit.

Maybe he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time—in line at the bank when it got robbed, or riding in the same subway car as a murder is committed and happens to look exactly like the guy who did it. Maybe the series' Big Bad has deliberately framed him to get him out of the way. Maybe it's a Government Conspiracy to silence him because He Knows Too Much.

Whatever the root cause, the phony evidence is so convincing, or the convergence of bad luck that makes him look guilty is so unlikely, our hero finds himself struggling to convince anyone that he is an innocent man. Even his own friends seem ready to write him off guilty as charged. (With this belief sometimes persisting to the point of What an Idiot!.)

The only way he can set this Miscarriage of Justice straight is to find the real criminal and bring him to justice. This can take an episode or two, or it can be the premise behind an ongoing arc.

Sometimes this can be resolved while the hero is out on bail, or perhaps it has to wait until he completes his sentence. If he's supposed to be in jail, then it also becomes a Stern Chase. If they're in jail and put in a Deadly Game or Blood Sport, they become a Condemned Contestant.

If the protagonist actually commits some crimes in the course of trying to clear his name, then he will likely benefit from Wrongful Accusation Insurance—though most of them obey Would Not Shoot a Good Guy. Selective Condemnation is an extremely contrived Video Game variant. If the injured party (or a relation of theirs) won't stop blaming the character despite the new evidence, they're usually clinging to an Irrational Hatred.

If the hero has to clear someone else who has been wrongfully accused of a crime, it's Clear Their Name. When the hero accuses the (innocent) villain of wrongdoing, it's Not Me This Time.

Examples of Clear My Name include:


Anime and Manga

  • Subverted in Fist of the North Star; Rei has been looking for "the man with the seven scars" who kidnapped his Ill Girl sister. The only person who fits that description that we've met so far is Kenshiro, but we know for a fact he didn't do it. His sister is eventually found and cured of her blindness by Ken, but when Rei finds out about Ken's seven scars, he laughs it off, saying that he knows Ken is too nice a guy to ever do something like that. Turns out the real culprit is Jagi, who has been trying to frame Ken the whole time.
  • Spoofed early in Love Hina, when Keitaro resolves to "clear his name" with Shinobu. Naru immediately points out that there's nothing to clear up - he really did do the things that made Shinobu upset with him.
  • Happens to the True Companions in Mahou Sensei Negima when Arch Enemy Fate Averruncus destroys the gate port from Magical Land to the Muggle side, finding a way to alter the video footage so that it appears the heroes did it. Odd in that the Magitek cameras probably should've been able to pick up on that, seeing as A Wizard Did It (while several figures who actually witnessed the event clearly saw the True Companions trying to defend against Fate and his minions). Needless to say, the entire group is on the lam (and on top of it, scattered around the magic world).
    • Amusingly his father is in the nearly same situation in the flashback.
    • Apparently he got this problem from his parents: His mother Arika has it worse than Nagi or Negi ever did; she was framed for attempted genocide and generally turned into a scapegoat for everything bad that happened as a result of the war. As of now (20 years later), she still hasn't been officially exonerated; however, she was saved from execution by Nagi and his True Companions, so it's almost a safe bet that SHe's Just Hiding.
  • Averted in Glass Mask. Maya Kitajima is pretty much kicked out of entertainment industry when Suzuko Tashiro aka Norie Otobe frames her for a scandal, yet she presses forward and starts back in theater, regaining her spot in the industry in few time. Ayumi does punish Suzuko with an Humiliation Conga, though.
  • Subverted in Death Note - Villain Protagonist Light gives up his memories of being the mass-murderer Kira and proceeds to spend the next few months attempting to clear his name by catching the 'real' Kira. On doing so, he reverts to his original personality and proceeds to spend the next five years on a killing spree.
  • Subverted in Monster. Everyone assumes that Tenma is trying to clear his name, but he just has other things on his mind.
  • Miki Hosokawa from Hell Teacher Nube is addicted to gossips, but makes a point about not spreading downright mean ones. Well, at one point she was framed by a demon who impersonated her and made her friends believe she was spreading Malicious Slander, deserting her. Miki has a brief Heroic BSOD, but then she decides to prove her innocence and find out who did this to her. She's succesful and the demon almost kills her, but her Badass Teacher Nube saves her.
  • Happens in Cardcaptor Sakura, where the Mirror card frames Sakura by taking up her appearance and causing havoc around Tomoeda. When Sakura's brother Touya unmasks her and gets hurt, but still offers her his friendship, The Mirror has a Heel Face Turn and lets Sakura seal her.
  • In the Vampire Princess Miyu TV series, a Shinma with shapeshifting powers frames the titular Dark Magical Girl in an attempt to lure her out. She has to fight and seal him.
  • The Soul Eater manga has Dr. Stein accused of the murder of Marie's boyfriend BJ, but his friends allow him to leave the city in order to clear his name. He succeeds, with the reveal of the true killer coming as a complete surprise. It was Justin Law, who had been The Mole until then.
  • Horribly inverted in Getter Robo Armageddon: In the beginning of the series, Ryouma Nagare's been in prison for the death of Professor Saotome, a crime he never committed. When it turns out Saotome's alive and armed with an army of Getter Robo Gs, the Japanese Government frees him, gives him a Getter Robo and tells him to go kill him. At this point, Ryouma wants Saotome dead just so he can get revenge for ruining his life with the Getters.
  • D.Gray-man: After the entire arc involving Kanda and Alma, Allen still gets in a lot of trouble for turning into a Noah, and now he's stuck in a prison.
  • In Mai-Otome, Arika leaves her uniform in the laundry room, and Miya, acting on Tomoe's orders steals it and sells it to frame her, as Arika had no source of paying tuition until her anonymous benefactor started paying it. She works to prove that she's not responsible for doing so, and while she and her friends incorrectly identify Mashiro's cat Mikoto as the culprit, the matter is solved and her punishment is lifted.
  • In Detective Conan's "Ghost Ship" case, Kogoro goes give some lectures in an island. When the people who invited him appear dead, all the hints point to Kogoro, so Conan has to help him clear his name.
  • Lupin III outright subverts this: whenever Lupin is accused for a theft he never committed, it usually leads to Lupin tricking the bastard who put the blame on him... and committing that theft for real.
  • Taken to extremes in the last few episodes of Tiger and Bunny: Wild Tiger, aka Kotetsu, is framed for the murder of Samantha, his partner Barnaby's housekeeper and mother figure, while having his Alter Ego wiped from his fellow Heroes and coworkers' minds and replaced with a fake android Wild Tiger. To make it worse, the man behind all of this is Mr. Maverick who owns Hero TV and practically the city of Sternbild itself and has almost direct control of Barnaby.
  • The entire plot to the second half of Tenchi Universe: Kagato had somehow ascended to the throne and framed Ayeka and Sasami for treason. Ryoko, already a criminal, was tossed into the mix for just being there; Tenchi, his father, grandfather and Washu were dragged in for breaking the girls out; and Mihoshi and Kiyone were dragged in for trying to help them.


Comics

  • Happens regularly in Batman titles:
    • An entire storyline was devoted to Bruce Wayne: Murderer? and its follow-up, Bruce Wayne: Fugitive. Notable because the Batfamily members were the ones doing the clearing up, while Batman considered that "Bruce Wayne" had just become a burden to be abandoned, even saying that "Bruce Wayne doesn't exist".
    • Dick Grayson was once accused of murder and had to fight to prove he was innocent.
    • Renee Montoya is accused of murder in a storyline of Gotham Central when a criminal she has history with and a private detective hired to follow her are both murdered. She is being set up by her Stalker with a Crush Two-Face, who believes that by completely ruining her life she will have nowhere to go except into his arms. On that occasion, her colleagues try to prove she is innocent, Batman investigates the case, and everybody in the cast is confused (but grateful) when Bruce Wayne pays for her lawyer. Two-Face eventually has to resort outright kidnapping once the lawyer manages to get her released on bail, since he knows that once she is free she inevitably will be able to find enough evidence to clear herself. Of course, the whole debacle would have been unnecessary if Two-Face understood their Incompatible Orientation; Renee was a Lesbian Cop in the first place.
    • In a bizarre reversal, Batman races against time to clear the Joker's name in The Joker: Devil's Advocate, as his insanity defense finally fails and he's sentenced to death, but for a murder he didn't actually commit.
  • For decades, this is how Spider-Man stayed a regular guy without a support network, all thanks to J. Jonah Jameson. And now Spidey is a frickin' Avenger? Sigh.
    • And now Jameson is the mayor of New York, who runs the office just like he does the Bugle (what with the spider-slander, and sending Spider-slayers after Spidey).
      • If you didn't figure out that he was never going to ease up on Spidey after Captain America (comics) basically told him "look dumbass, this man is out there every day helping people no matter how much shit you dump on him, ease off already and we'll give you an exclusivity deal with the New Avengers", and this didn't help... no-one here can help you.
    • Jameson just makes sure everyone knows about it when there's the slightest possibility that Spidey may have committed a crime. Other cast members are the ones doing the framing, which they do with disturbing regularity. In the newspaper comics, Spider-man has averaged one frame job a year for decades. You'd think that by now the NYPD would get Genre Savvy about the whole thing and just ignore the reports of him allegedly committing another burglary.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog had this happen to him twice in the span of a year! The first incident was the "Mecha Madness" epilogue: Sonic's arrested for becoming Mecha Sonic, disobeying a royal order from Sally. After outwitting an overzealous Antoine into realizing that the one who got him that way, Nack the Weasel, was missing and evidence was pointing towards him, Sally ordered Sonic to bring Nack back by sunrise or be exiled. Needless to say, Sonic did it.
    • The big one, however, was "EndGame". Sonic's framed from the supposed death of Princess Sally, in a manner befitting of The Fugitive, Sonic breaks free and is able to prove his innocence through Dulcy the Dragon. In short order, the true suspect is captured, Robotnik is utterly defeated and Sonic's reunited happily with Sally.
  • Recently, Batgirl (Stephanie Brown) was framed for murdering a fellow collegiate she'd actually tried to help before his death.
  • Averted all over the place in Sin City. Both Marv and John Hartigan are accused of crimes they didn't commit, but both realize that the system is so corrupt that there would be no point in trying to fight the accusations.
  • The origin story for Luke Cage is him being framed for the crime of heroin possession. The lightness of this crime is required as the possibility of parole is also part of his origin story.

Fan Fiction

  • In Christian Humber Reloaded, Vash, the main character tends to go on killing sprees for little to no reason, but there are a few cases in which he really isn't responsible. In one case toward the end of Part 1, his "corrupted side" kills many people, and while the judge doesn't believe Vash was waiting for his next mission, he kills his corrupted self (again) and clears the charges. Later on, Kekanu frames him for destroying a few city blocks after transforming into him, but this plot never gets resolved.
  • Calvin and Hobbes The Series has a Lighter and Softer variation in "The Case of the Rogue Water Balloon"; for once, he actually didn't throw the titular balloon, and he sets out as Tracer Bullet to find the culprit. It turns out to have been Hobbes.


Film

  • Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps. And The Wrong Man. And North by Northwest, Strangers on a Train, I Confess, Dial M for Murder and To Catch a Thief, and The Lodger. Subverted in Stage Fright, where it turns out the man whose name the heroine has been trying to clear really WAS guilty.
  • The Fugitive.
  • The Star Chamber starring Michael Douglas explores the theme of vigilante justice, with a group of judges re-examining cases and 'executing' those they find guilty by means of a contract killer. It later turns out that two petty crooks 'sentenced' in this manner didn't commit the crime they were accused of (a child killing). Michael Douglas is faced with the question of whether he should try and save two 'innocent' criminals, who he finds are PCP dealers.
  • The Avengers 1998. Sir August frames Mrs. Peel for the destruction of the Prospero lab by having her Evil Twin clone do the job. Mother gives Mrs. Peel a chance to prove her innocence by finding out who was behind it.
  • Inception: The reason that Cobb can't return to his children is that he is wanted as the primary suspect for the murder of his wife. Subverted by the fact that Saito will arrange for the arrest warrant being lifted and Cobb never mentioning that he wants to clear his name, as he actually did accidentally drive his wife into suicide.
  • Eddie Brock's photoshopping of one of Peter's old Spidey pics in Spider Man 3, which had a quick resolution (though it was meant as one of many catalysts for his transformation into Venom).
  • Inverted in The Dark Knight. After Harvey Dent ends up killing up to five people, two of them cops (one of whom definitely deserved his demise) before being killed, Batman was the one who came up with the idea of pinning the blame on himself.
  • The Negotiator
  • The Parole Officer's plot is basically driven by this, as Simon Garden recruits a Caper Crew and breaks into a bank to steal the security tape that will clear his name (and indict the real killer).
  • Call Northside 777, loosely based on a real case, stars Jimmy Stewart as a newspaper reporter trying to find evidence that a man in prison for killing a policeman is innocent. It was made in 1948, and showcased all sorts of post-WWII shiny new technology, like miniature cameras and photograph wire transfers. It was like CSI of its time. Now it's just amazing that Stewart managed to get the evidence he needed with such primitive stuff. Good movie all the same, and very suspenseful.


Literature

  • Happens to Dmitri in The Brothers Karamazov. He doesn't end up clearing his name, however, and the main characters are hatching a plan for an escape attempt out of prison as the novel ends.
  • "Devil Asteroid" from the Mighty Orbots, but subverted a bit when Rondu tells Ohno and Rob that SHADOW has control of the asteroid.
  • This happens to Finn and Uncle Stoppard in the fifth Finnegan Zwake novel.
  • In Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn novel Malleus revolved about Eisenhorn's revealing that another inquisitor had really gone rogue, and framed him for it. (Cherubael, who set it up, was shocked that Eisenhorn was annoyed by it.)
  • In the Matt Helm novel The Retaliators, $20,000 is deposited in Matt's bank account to frame him for treason.
  • In Sophie Kinsella's book "Undomestic Goddess" the main character Samantha makes a mistake that causes her client to lose 50 million pounds. Actually,Arnold is trying to scam the company and put the article on Samantha's desk after the deadline to frame her and get her fired. Samantha then has to gain evidence that she didn't do anything wrong
  • In the Spellman Files novel The Spellmans Strike Again, sisters Rae and Isabelle both try to clear wrongfully convicted prisoners. This results in many people wearing tee shirts reading "Free Schmidt".
  • In the novel Primal Fear, Martin Vail is trying to clear the name of his client Aaron Stampler, and prove his innocence untill the twist ending.
  • At the climax of Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, it's revealed Sirius Black, the "dangerous" fugitive, was actually following a clue to the whereabouts of Peter Pettigrew, who framed him.


Live Action TV

  • The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. ("Crystal Hawks")
  • Andromeda:
    • In "All Great Neptune's Ocean" Tyr Anasazi is found standing over the dead body with the smoking gun (well, force lance) in his hand. His friends find out that the weapon has been manipulated to fire on a signal tone. Only then did Tyr draw it to get it under control.
    • Beka Valentine refers to this incidence, when in "Shards of Rimni" Dylan Hunt is found with the murder weapon in his hand standing next to the killer and arrested for murder. It turns out, Dylan has been set up.
  • The premise of The A-Team has a variation; they actually did commit the crime they're wanted for, but it was part of a secret military operation. Unfortunately their commander died shortly thereafter without explaining this to anyone...
  • The Battlestar Galactica Classic episode "Murder On The Rising Star" has Starbuck accused of murder and Apollo struggling to find the evidence to clear him.
  • The entire premise of Burn Notice (for the first few seasons) is Michael trying to clear his name and find out why he was burned.
  • The protagonist of Day Break is framed for a murder and must use a Groundhog Day Loop to figure out who's doing it and why.
  • Sgt. Doakes in Dexter comes under suspicion of being the Bay Harbor Butcher, while he is actually the only one in the department who sees the Devil in Plain Sight, and tries to clear his name while on the run. Brutally subverted when the blood slides he took from Dexter's apartment are mistaken for his property, and when he tries to catch Dexter in the act, Dexter overpowers him, and frames him. Also, Lila kills Doakes by blowing up the cabin he's in, which wasn't in Dexter's plan; he doesn't kill innocents.
  • This is the driving premise of Farscape. John Crichton spends most of the entire span of the show (including the miniseries finale) running from the current Big Bad, each one wanting his head on a platter for something he didn't do (or doesn't know he can do) until he gets sick and tired of it and decides to stop running.
  • This happened to Will and Carlton one time in a Season 1 episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
  • The Fugitive
  • The Incredible Hulk: Wrongly accused of murdering David Banner, who is actually the hulk, and Dr. Banner's assistant, Elena Marks. This is ironic because Jack McGee was actually the one who, accidentally, caused the explosion that killed Elena.
  • This has happened at least once to Inspector Morse.
  • In the Season 6 two-parter finale of Monk, Monk is framed for murder and escapes custody to try and look for the real murderer.
    • Clear My Name tropes were also used for several episodes of Monk. In Mr. Monk Goes to the Carnival, where Monk, under secret orders from Stottlemeyer, has to covertly find evidence that Adam Kirk was actually framed for murder of a confidential informant, Gitomer. Another episode of Monk dealt with Monk having to prove that a Chimp was actually framed for shooting his owner. He also has to prove that a Rapper, Murderuss, was innocent of the murder of his rival in the Rapping Industry via car bombing. He also had to clear Willie Nelson's name. Monk also had to clear Sharona's sister Gail's name in murdering a fellow actor during a play. He also had to clear an entire union's involvement in a murder (and near murder of Stottlemeyer's wife). He also had to clear the names of the Mob when it became apparent that someone from the minting press was involved, and at least once had to clear a dead guy's name when evidence was pointing to him for the recent murder. He even once had to prove that Dale Biederbeck III was innocent of murdering or even arranging to murder a death-row inmate.
  • Ned falls victim to this in one episode of Pushing Daisies.
  • The title character of La Femme Nikita (the series only) spends very little time trying to clear her name, but the wrongful accusation is an important point in the series setup. She's an innocent accused of murder, forced into government service as a disposable killer.
  • Apparently contractually obligated for members of the main NCIS team, given that aside from possibly Gibbs and Abby, each of them has had a Clear My Name episode: "Frame-Up" for Tony, "Probie" for McGee, both "Jeopardy" and "Shalom" for Ziva, and "Broken Bird" for Ducky.
    • Subverted for Gibbs, who actually did commit (no matter how justified) murder, and wasn't caught
    • When Tony is briefly implicated for a murder in the episode "Bounce", his response is a dry "And to think I almost made it an entire year without being accused of murder."
    • Poor Agent Langer; he gets his name cleared posthumously.
  • A plot point in Twenty Four has Jack Bauer on the run from the FBI, after a Starkwood assassin frames him for the murders of 2 government officials.
    • And further complicating matters? Jack ends up killing the assassin (in self defense) before he can get himself cleared. With a bulldozer. And an armor-piercing screwdriver. And a 2 by 4.
      • And since that still wasn't enough Jack-Bauer-level-badassness, he takes the screwdriver from the body, inserts said screwdriver into a pickup truck's ignition, starts it up, and drives away. Damn, Jack.
  • In the first season of Heroes, Peter Petrelli is arrested for the murder of Jackie Wilcox, when in fact it was Sylar.
  • On Bones, Booth has to do this after a guy he was seen arguing with at a hockey game turns up dead.
  • Quite popular in CSI and the spinoffs. In CSI:NY Danny has been accused of murder twice, once the victim was an undercover cop and once a gang victim, as well as a kid who had been dealing drugs to support his family. Later, he's accused of asking one of his rookies to lie for him during his stint as sergeant. Mac is accused of leaking sensitive information several times, and, on one occasion, of murdering a "helpless" serial killer, and Hawkes is framed for murdering a bartender as revenge for what the mastermind believes is a false guilty verdict. In the standard CSI, just offhand, Nick, Warrick, Ray, Greg and Jim are all accused of murder. Ray actually did it, but got away with it, quitting the job.
    • Subverted with Greg, as everyone knew that he had killed the boy who died. The main question was whether or not he was justified in killing him, and whether or not the boy was part of a murderous mob.
  • Harrison Ford has said that he spent much of the first decade of his acting career in small guest roles on police shows, playing a character he calls "the guy who didn't do it".
  • The Season 7 finale of Law & Order: Criminal Intent has Det. Goren being framed for the murder of his brother by his Arch Nemesis Nicole Wallace and mentor Declan Gage .
  • In the first season finale of Profiler, Samantha is framed by her nemesis, Jack, for the murder of an unknown woman. Her colleagues manage to clear her in the second season premiere, though. Also, John has been suspected by being in cahoots with the Mafia, since his father's Family.
  • Matlock is based on this trope. Virtually every episode involves the eponymous attorney defending an innocent man and his investigation inevitably uncovers the real crook.
    • Of course this was done decades earlier with Perry Mason
  • In the Nip Tuck episode "Granville Trapp," Christian was hauled into jail on suspicion of being the Carver—a hypothesis which would have demanded truly frightening devotion on his part, as both he and his partner had been Carver victims. The frame-up was, of course, perpetrated by the actual Carver team: Dr. Quentin Costa, aided by Det. Kit McGraw.
  • Nowhere Man incorporated some of this in its core concept.
  • Prison Break
  • The whole plot of the TV series Renegade.
  • In Stargate SG-1, Colonel O'Neill is framed for the murder of Senator Kinsey and the rest of his team must clear his name.
    • So very subverted in an early episode. Teal'c is put on trial for a murder. Which he actually did commit prior to his Heel Face Turn. And he is willing to be executed to atone for it. Daniel ends up defending him arguing that even though Teal'c DID it, he was following orders (with his own family's life at stake for disobedience) and chose a victim based on saving as many of the other prisoners' lives as possible.
    • In another episode, Daniel is accused of sabotaging a bomb on an alien planet, because the government wanted to go ahead with producing it, even though the fact that it went off randomly made it way too dangerous to use. The rest of the team tried to clear his name, although it was implied that Daniel didn't really care one way or another. Jack eventually convinced Jonas Quinn to support them, Jonas got pretty much exiled for it, Daniel died anyway, then recovered after a season of having Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence, and the whole debacle was never mentioned again.
  • Occurs about once a series in the Star Trek franchise. Usually, a senior officer is accused of committing a crime under alien law, the evidence at the trial looks pretty damning, and then at the end the heroes present The Real Cause.
    • In Star Trek: The Original Series:
      • In the episode "Journey to Babel": Ambassador Sarek was suspected of murdering the Tellarite ambassador. In fact, an Orion posing as the Andorian ambassador had done so.
      • In the episode "Wolf in the Fold": Jack the Ripper in energy-being form.
      • In "Court Martial", Kirk is accused of causing the death of one of his crewmembers.
    • In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
      • "Dax": Dax's previous host is a suspect in a thirty-year-old murder case.
  • Starsky and Hutch: In "Hutchison for Murder One", Hutch is accused of murdering his ex-wife with his gun in his home. It was his ex-wife's associate Wheeler that did it, and Hutch would have been convicted if it wasn't for Huggy Bear hiding in a coffin while recording Wheeler's confession.
  • Veronica Mars spends a lot of her time doing this. Usually it's either her or Eli being accused, but other people get their turns occasionally.
  • Premise of The Cape.
  • In The Rockford Files, Jim Rockford deals with this frequently. In one such episode, “Pastoria Prime Pick,” it turns out that the entire crime was set up by the county in an attempt to force him to plea bargain and pay a large fine
  • In Angel Harmony's Day in The Limelight focuses on her attempt to find evidence that she didn't murder the ambassador to a pair of warring demon tribes. However no one actually accuses her, she just realizes it's going to happen and takes preemptive action as a result of him showing up dead in her bed with his blood drained.
  • Angela Dede in Tinsel Season 3, after being wrongfully accused of murdering Reginald Okoh.
  • A Mash two-parter saw Klinger accused of stealing items around the encampment, and faced a court martial as a result.
  • Family Matters had an episode where a school lab accident was blamed on Urkel. Through some convenient lawyer skills on Laura's part, she discovered the true culprit.
  • In similar fashion to the above Family Matters example, Drake from Drake and Josh was accused of somehow fitting a teacher's car into the classroom as a prank.
  • Happens in the Criminal Minds episode "Profiler, Profiled" to Morgan.
  • The ongoing plot of Just Cause, a short-lived legal drama about a woman framed for insurance fraud who is trying to gain a pardon so she can practice law.
  • Jack has to do this in the second episode of Wild Boys after he is accused of murdering the Ryans and burning their farm to the ground. Jack may be a bushranger, but he is no murderer.


Music


Traditional Games

  • The whole point of Clue.


Video Games

  • Batman: Vengeance would have this when the titular character is accused of hitting Commissioner Gordon with a batarang when in face it was Harley who did it.
  • The story mode of WWE Day of Reckoning 2 sees the main character framed for stealing the WWE Championship belt, and thus banned from Monday Night Raw; he must then prove his innocence while rebuilding his wrestling career as a member of the Smackdown roster.
    • Which is kind of odd since stealing the belt is a wrestling trope of its own. Usually the thief parades around with the belt and no officials ever order him to return it. The rightful champ usually has to steal it or win it back.
  • Sonic is captured in Sonic Adventure 2 because everyone mistakes Shadow for him. You'd think people would have noticed the fact they're completely different colors. Then again, how many anthropomorphic hedgehogs with super-speed do you see running around?
  • Lynne has to do this in Ghost Trick after the police recover security footage of her shooting the man found in the junkyard.
  • Happened to Link in The Legend of Zelda a Link To T He Past. After the evil wizard in residence does away with Princess Zelda, his minions get the word out (with surprising speed) that Link has kidnapped her. Signs are posted in his hometown and if they spot him, his neighbors will yell for the palace guards to come and kill him.
  • The Gamecube remake of Skies of Arcadia features a Bonus Boss like this - the three main characters have impersonators they can go after for a bounty. This has no bearing on the plot, but does affect the player character's ingame title; he goes from his title marking him as a well-liked hero to "Vyse the Fallen Pirate" until the imposers are taken care of.
  • The plot of Condemned: Criminal Origins is based on this. At the end of the first mission, the killer who has stolen main character Ethan's gun shoots two police officers. Ethan's goal for the rest of the game is catching him..
  • This is part of the basis of the plots of both the Max Payne computer games. In the first He witnesses his partner's murder, which he is framed for. His motive for uncovering the V conspiracy is both to avenge his slain wife, and to find his partner's true murderer. In the second he is again framed for the murder of his partner, although in this case the partner turns out to be working for the Big Bad. After killing a legion of gangsters and junkies (admittedly in self defense), he benefits from Wrongful Accusation Insurance, as he gets off scot free and even ends up working back in the Police under the man who was hunting him in the first game!
  • Mega Man 9 starts off with a variant of this trope - the robots that attack at the start of the game are designed by Dr. Light, and Wily further stains Light's reputation with a video recording and his Swiss Bank Account number for donations. The goal is, obviously, to clear Dr. Light. The truth is a bit more complicated. Anyone who's played a Mega Man game before has reason to believe Wily's behind it all, and they're absolutely right.
    • Before that is in Mega Man 5, where Mega Man has to clear his brother Proto Man's name.
  • The basis of Super Mario Sunshine has Mario having to clear his name after Shadow Mario/Bowser Jr. frames him for polluting the island.
  • This is a plot point used in a late-game story arc in City of Heroes—in the course of your investigating the Corrupt Corporate Executive Countess Crey, she manages to fabricate charges against you, placing you on the top 10 wanted list and issuing an APB for your arrest. This being a memorpuger, of course, there's very little influence on your actual gameplay routine, aside from a couple of post-mission ambushes from villain groups looking to get the reward. The solution, of course, is to finally expose the Big Bad as the Villain with Good Publicity that she is, but again, successfully doing so won't change your gameplay routine for the better or anything.
  • Used... in some form... in Modern Warfare 2. Shepherd frames Soap and Captain Price for crimes against the United States and manages to link them to a global terrorist group. Both Price and Soap realize that they're drastically outgunned, outmanned, etc., and decide to commit said crimes in their quest for revenge.
    • Specifically, averted. Soap and Price both realize it's too late to stop Shepard's plan, and the best they can do is kill him so he doesn't go down in history as a hero. They succeed, but their names are most definitely NOT cleared: They are both still considered extremely dangerous terrorists and traitors.
  • In the PC game Secrets of Da Vinci: The Forbidden Manuscript, protagonist Valdo goes overnight—almost literally—from undertaking a simple errand for an unknown employer to being suspected of treason. His only hope of avoiding execution is to solve da Vinci's mystery and throw himself on the King's mercy.
  • In Tales of Symphonia the party is soon marked as traitors for trying to destroy Tethe'alla despite them only wanting to go back to Sylvarant to have a dwarf help get Collet's soul back. For the large part of the game, the party must use the sewer entrance to enter the capital city.
    • Justified, as one of your team members is an ex-con having been in prison for murder.
  • In Tales of Vesperia, Rita Mordio is accused by Yuri Lowell (the game's protagonist) of being a blastia thief. She takes them to Shaikos Ruins stating that she'd "clear her name"—and use the the rest of the party for help in completing her formula, naturally, though this isn't stated (by Karol!) until after the battle with Goliath.
  • In the very first Command & Conquer, this happens to GDI because of Nod's forged video footage about a village being burned to the ground.
    • Another case in a more recent game is in Red Alert 3, where Soviet General Krukov is branded a traitor by Premier Cherdenko. Krukov then believes the commander (the player) is a traitor instead. Neither of them expects that Cherdenko himself is the traitor. The result is the death of both Cherdenko and Krukov with the commander going on to destroy New York.
  • Averted in Dragon Age Origins. While the Grey Wardens are wanted for betraying King Cailan at Ostagar, you have more important things to do than clear your name, such as gathering the army you need to fight the Darkspawn horde. It also helps that, thanks to the near mythic reputation of the Grey Wardens and the unpopularity of the current regent, almost nobody believes the accusation anyway. When people do try to bring you in it's not out of a genuine belief in your guilt but rather a desire for the bounty on your head.
  • Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops had this as pretty much the entire reason for the plotline, as Naked Snake has to quell the FOX revolt and capture the person who instigated the revolt dead or alive in order to prove his, Major Zero's, Paramedic, and Sigint's innocence.
  • In Dead Rising 2, Chuck Greene is accused of releasing the zombies leading to the Fortune City outbreak, but in reality TK, the host of the zombie killing show Terror Is Reality did it so he could loot the casinos around the area.
  • Roughly one-third of Breath of Fire II is spent clearing the good name of Bow, Ryu's childhood friend. Halfway through that quest, you've got to clear the good name of another character.
  • Roughly the first half of Act II in Neverwinter Nights 2 is spent in an effort to prove the PC innocent of massacring a village.
  • A significantly less serious version than most opens Kingdom Hearts II, as Roxas has to clear his name over stealing a few photographs.
  • Fahrenheit is an interesting case. While Lucas, the main character actually killed the man at the beginning of the game, he was possessed while doing so and still have to clear his name.
  • Silent Hill: Downpour: Early in development, protagonist Murphy Pendleton was originally a tragic hero—a man falsely incarcerated for a crime he didn't commit. However, after Vatra Games reevaluated what Silent Hill was, they decided that the location of Silent Hill was alive and that it could make your fears and sins manifest. Therefore, Murphy needed to be a little less innocent and was changed to a flawed but sympathetic protagonist. He's now a man on the run from his captors, his past, and himself—and that path has led him to Silent Hill.
  • Subverted and played straight in Street Fighter Alpha III, when Arrogant Kung Fu Guy Fei Long is accused of collaborating with drug trades directed by Shadaloo. In a subversion, this deal isn't necessarily the focus of his story-mode, though Fei Long mid-boss battles have him fighting off Shadaloo attempts to recruit him. It's then played straight in fellow HK-native Yun's path, as he and his twin Yang take the the rumors at face value so they chase after Fei Long to capture him and protect Hong Kong. Fei Long is Yun's path's last mid-boss, and if Yun wins the fight there's a short talk in which he explains what happened and Yun realizes his mistake. Then Bison shows up, and he's not alone...
  • Burakh is accused of killing his father from the beginning in Pathologic. He redeems himself by the end of Day One, with Dankovsky's help.


Visual Novels

  • Phoenix Wright had this happen to him in the second case of Ace Attorney, forcing him to represent himself in court. Also, more or less in Apollo Justice Ace Attorney.
    • And Edgeworth does this in Investigations when he's accused (amazingly randomly) of murder. The first half of the case is clearing his name, the rest is looking for the true killer and clearing Rhoda's name.
      • To be far on the accusation against Edgeworth, he WAS the only person in the place where the victim was found. He was also holding the victim's wallet, was the only person without an alibi and was the person who found was found standing over the dead victim's body holding an item which, too be far, WAS dripping with a red substance that could VERY easily have been blood. It's not hard too think why he was accused.
  • In the Murder Mystery Visual Novel Jisei, the main character is found next to the victim's body and is automatically accused of committing the murder. The protagonist tries to convince the detective at the scene that he is not guilty by questioning other suspects to gather more information and clear his name.


Webcomics

  • Main point of second Energize adventures.
  • Acrobat has to worry about this when Kid Laser frames him for Blackhawk's murder.
  • In Kevin and Kell, Kevin's ex-wife Angelique goes on a date with R.L., head of the predator corporation Herd Thinners, and sells him secrets about the rabbit evasion techniques. Since Kevin is married to Kell, a wolf, the Rabbit Council assumes that he did it and takes away his rabbit license until Fenton, using sonar, identifies R.L. as Angelique's new husband. Later on, R.L. and Angelique are accused of falsifying Herd Thinners' earnings, and Kell manages to find out that Vin cloned previously caught prey species.
  • In General Protection Fault, when Trent tries to frame Trudy for attempting to drop a safe on Dwayne, as she had on several of GPF's competitors, she enlists the help of Fooker and Nick to clear her name, and after obtaining the evidence that indicates Trent's responsibility, destroys the evidence that would have incriminated her in the other incidents. Later on, Fooker and Dwayne get convicted of going on a shooting spree and burning down GPF for insurance, (actually caused by the "Fookinator" and Trudy, respectively), and Fooker convinces Dwayne to flee after their prison bus crashes in order to clear their names.


Web Original

  • In The Gamers Alliance, Marcus is framed when Yamatians masquerading as him and his followers massacre various Remonian villagers. The Yamatians do this in order to make Marcus look like an omnicidal would-be-tyrant and turn the people of Remon against him, which would make Marcus's campaign for becoming the rightful king of the kingdom, uniting the bickering races under one banner and driving the Yamatian occupiers out of the country impossible. Marcus and his allies spend a lot of time and effort trying to undo the damage and convince Remoners that he is not responsible for the massacres.
  • This is Veldron's primary motivation for finding the person abducting superheores in Super Stories.


Western Animation

  • Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy, "If It Smells Like An Ed": The Eds are framed for wrecking the other kids' "Friendship Day" celebration, and try to find out who set them up.
    • It was Jimmy.
      • Unfortunately, in what could be considered one of the lowest points of the series, Jimmy gets away and the Eds get the punishment from the kids and Kanker sisters.
  • The South Park episode "Mystery of the Urinal Deuce" has Kyle try to clear his name with Stan's help after Cartman accuses Kyle of being involved in September 11 during show-and-tell, claiming that "1/4 of the population is retarded". Earlier, Kyle's mother Sheila tried to help, saying that "our kids are confused", but it didn't go anywhere. As Stan and Kyle try to solve the mystery, they get into more and more trouble along the way, until they get captured by the government and President George W. Bush tells the truth, which leads to a more confusing predicament where Stan confesses that he's responsible... for taking a dump in a urinal in the boys' restroom at school.
  • An uncommon variation of Clear My Name is a Reincarnation being accused of crimes committed in a past life. Avatar: The Last Airbender put Aang through one of these, when the citizens of a town accused Avatar Kyoshi, one of Aang's past lives, of murdering their leader 370 years earlier. Of course, it was subverted when Kyoshi herself confessed to the murder.
  • In Justice League Unlimited, the whole League is framed when Lex Luthor seizes control of their headquarters' Kill Sat to destroy a government base and half of a city. While six of the senior Leaguers turn themselves in as an act of good faith, Batman calls that a stupid move, refuses to cooperate and does the hard investigative work to save the day instead. Once cleared, the rest get to be his Big Damn Heroes.
    • In Justice League, the Flash himself was arrested for robbing some isotopes from a Police Impound. Though he did do it, it was under influence of a brainwashing ray via Dr. Corwin, an agent of Dr. Grodd.
      • Green Lantern manages to clear Flash's name quite easily, though, simply by pointing out that if Flash was guilty, there would be no way the police could hold him.
    • In the first season, John Stewart was framed for accidentally destroying an entire planet, and even he was convinced he did it, forcing the rest of the team to clear his name.
  • Happened on Batman: The Animated Series, episode "Feat of Clay", where Matt Hagen (prior to becoming Clayface) impersonates Bruce Wayne and gets him framed for an attempted murder—the man was saved by Batman, of course. Since his only alibi is being Batman, he's faced with having to clear his name some other way.
    • Also happened in the "On Leather Wings" episode of Batman: The Animated Series and the movie Mask of the Phantasm when the police assume Batman has gone rogue after vaguely bat-like figures are seen leaving the scene of violent crimes.
  • Jem plays this trope straight in "One Jem Too Many" in which Misfits fan Clash disguises herself as a rude version of Jem. The ploy falls apart when she's challenged to sing by Jem, which reveals Clash to be a member in good standing of Hollywood Tone Deaf.
  • In The Spectacular Spider-Man, this happens to Spider-Man when Master of Disguise the Chameleon impersonates him in a series of robberies. Though he clears his name, the damage to his reputation has been done.
    • And again when Venom returns. Subverted when Captain Stacy notes that, not only does Venom have a different build than Spider-Man (when he was wearing the black suit), but that he has a different fighting style, prompting Stacy to see Venom as an imitator.
    • One of the first things that happened to Spider-Man after he became a hero was being framed by the Chameleon in the original comics. More specifically he disguised himself as Spider-Man and lured him to the roof of a building (with the promise of an opportunity to make some money) where he was making his escape for a robbery (of secret plans to sell to the Russians. It's quickly cleared up when Spider-Man chases him down and brings him back (possibly making this one of the quickest resolutions of Clear My Name in comics). Then it happens again (with the Chameleon dropping some smoke bombs and donning a policeman disguise) before being cleared up even more quickly (with Spidey fleeing up a wall and letting them sort it out on their own, which they do since he tore his uniform revealing his Spider-Man disguise). The real issue of... that issue is how upset he is at being subject to All of the Other Reindeer
    • In the 90's cartoon, Mysterio attempted to pose as a hero against the "evil" Spider-Man, done so by committing robberies in a customized costume identical to Spidey's own. This was all revenge for the web-head bringing Quentin Beck to justice for using illegal materials as special effects.
  • An ongoing Arc in Danny Phantom is the hero himself having to clear his name and prove he's the good guy to his Untrusting Community due to an elaborate plan by a disgruntled ghostly sheriff. It takes him several episodes and a near sacrifice, but he succeeds.
  • In an episode of The Fairly OddParents, Timmy ends up getting blamed for a wave of shoplifting when he can't explain how he got everything he wished for. He ends up having to escape from the police to prove his innocence.
  • Happened in an episode of Timon and Pumbaa. With a subversion of Wrongful Accusation Insurance, no less.
  • An episode of Sheep in The Big City had Sheep getting accused of a string of burglaries. He's eventually arrested, put on trial in a Kangaroo Court, found guilty, and broken out...at which point the police just let him go, because they figure he's learned his lesson and won't do it again.
  • Strawberry Shortcake: Pets on Parade (1982) has her judging a pet show; the Purple Pieman and Sour Grapes frame her for taking a bribe from them so she'll be disgraced. She ultimately forces the Pieman to admit the truth by threatening to torment him with her "berry talk" if he doesn't.
  • An episode of Scooby Doo Mystery Inc has the title character being accused of going on a rampage caused by a robotic dog created by the idiot bad guy of the week so that Mister E can tell the gang that the Team Pet of the previous set of meddling kids is somehow the focus of the Curse of Crystal Cove.
  • In the Christmas Episode of My Life as a Teenage Robot, Jenny is hijacked by a Puppet Master into ruining all of the holidays in Tremorton for a year before snapping out of it, all while not knowing what she's done. It's up to her and Sheldon to clear her name.
  • The Simpsons episode "Krusty Gets Busted"'s entire plotline dealt with this, because Krusty the Clown was arrested for a heist at the Kwik-e-Mart, and Bart has to find out who framed him. Turns out it was his disgruntled assistant, Sideshow Bob, who was guilty, who Bart had Bob wear the shoe that fits (literally, as he whacked his foot to prove his large feet) on the air.
    • Homer was once accused of sexual harrassment, when all he really sought was an unfortunately placed gummi.
    • "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" Homer, again. Other characters are suspected, but not accused as he was. Smithers fits; he even thought himself guilty.
  • Hawkeye, after being framed by The Black Widow in Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes.
  • The entire plot of G.I. Joe: Renegades.
    • And now a major sub-plot, as Snake Eyes' back-story reveals that he stands accused of a grievous crime against his clan.
  • Halfway through Batman the Brave And The Bold, the Dark Knight is framed for a rash of robberies by an interdimensional Evil Twin wearing his original costume.
  • Becomes a plot point during Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo.
  • It's the entire premise for the Teletoon show Detentionaire where Lee Ping gets framed for the biggest prank ever done in his school. While it does give him popularity he is sent to detention for a year and spends every day in detention by sneaking out and trying to collect more information on the real culprit in order to clear his name.
  • The Galaxy Rangers episode "Mindnet" has Shane's fellow Supertrooper turned Psycho for Hire Killbane using a cross of his shapeshifting and biodefense abilities to steal a top-secret device from Longshot labs. The rest of the team rallies around him and goes rogue to clear him.
  • Tiny Toon Adventures: Montana Max once framed Buster Bunny with the theft of an ice cream machine.

Real Life

  • David Milgaard was accused of raping and murdering a nursing student in 1969 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He would spend 21 years in prison even escaping and turning himself back in so he could clear his name legally before being freed. The Tragically Hip song "Wheat Kings" references Milgaard's story, and a TV movie was also made about his life.
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