Confess to a Lesser Crime: Difference between revisions

'''Homer's Brain''': ''Don't tell him you were at a bar! But what else is open at night?''

'''Homer''': ''It's a pornography store. I was buying pornography.''

 

Your crimes are catching up to you. The cops/your boss/your wife knows that you're hiding something, and they're no longer buying your lies. What are you to do?

 

Contrast [[False Confession]] and [[Taking the Heat]].

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* In the ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' manga, the murderer in the second case admits to setting the fire at Wolfe Manor because otherwise, Bobby, the defendant, would go free. Phoenix's defense had hinged on disproving that Bobby would have willingly burned up his spider and spider book collection, so he's at a loss for words until he realizes that just as the arsonist set a timed ignition device, he also set a timed device to kill the victim and create an alibi. Afterward, Phoenix thanks Edgeworth for calling for a recess and bringing the witness to the stand, thus enabling him to find the truth.

* In [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''If This Goes On...'', Lyle is advised to pretend to commit a lesser offense to help cover up his involvement in [[La Résistance]]. He's further told that faithfully adhering to all of the regime's many laws is unusual enough to get the regime's attention, so he should "never try to pretend lily-white innocence". Lyle leaves evidence of gambling, gets "caught" and lectured on it, and then is let go.

 

* ''[[Breaking Bad]]'': The seemingly-docile Walt, unbeknownst to his family, is actually in the business of cooking crystal meth with Jesse, a loud and crude drug dealer. In the first season, Skyler confronts Walt about his odd behavior and consorting with a drug dealer. He "confesses" that he's been buying marijuana from Jesse.

{{quote|'''Jesse:''' "And why'd you go and tell her I was selling you weed?"

* Frequently used in [[Burn Notice]] to maintain cover identities. In one memorable case, a drug dealer finds out Michael has been making phone calls to his would-be girlfriend (who's an undercover cop). The dealer assumes they're sleeping together and plans to kill her, until Michael "confesses" that he was asking around about the man because he wanted to do business with him. Thus confessing a minor violation of privacy to cover up a secret relationship which was itself a lie to cover up her being a cop.

 

* Inverted in the song ''Long Black Veil''. The narrator is executed for a murder he didn't commit, because {{spoiler|he refused to say where he was during the crime. He'd been in the arms of his best friends wife.}}

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** In ''[[Apollo Justice]]'', the true killer of case 2 admits to trespassing, burglary and property damage when they say they {{spoiler|broke into the murder victim's office too try and steal a medical chart}}. By that time she had already admitted {{spoiler|she only married a mob boss's son for his money, and that the chart she was trying to get proved she knew said boss's son's life was in major danger, thus she was trying to protect her life}}. She also later in the case admits {{spoiler|that she threatened someone with a gun}}. She does all this because is she did not admit to any of these smaller crimes, then it would mean she was guilty of a much bigger crime: murder.

 

 

{{reflist}}