Lying to the Perp: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

'''Carrie Eldridge''': (to Olivia) You lying bitch! I hate you!|A [[Self-Made Orphan|girl who killed her mother]] learns about this trope the hard way on [[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]}}

** In "Profiler, Profiled", Morgan believes that the cops accusing him of murder is using this trick when they were interviewing him, even claim "We (FBI) invented this!"

** Also notable for using this to rule ''out'' [[False Confession|False Confessors]].

(The victim had, in fact, been stabbed in the head) }}

* Also <s>happens all the time</s> [[Once an Episode]] (if not more) on ''[[The Closer]]''. Perhaps the ultimate example was when Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson told the perp that [[Refuge in Audacity|she was the public defender assigned to him]].

* [[QI]] described an Elizabethan mathematician, John Napier, who "[[Freud Was Right|encouraged his servants to stroke his cock]]" - one of them had been stealing, and he got them all together and told them his pet cockerel [[Too Dumb to Live|could tell when someone who touched it was lying]]. He sent them into a dark room and told them to stroke it, while unbeknownst to them it was covered in soot - the guilty servant was the only one not to have soot on his hands.

* Done in ''[[Jonathan Creek]]'', when Maddy tells the suspect she's been incriminated by skin cells left in Jonathan's shoulders when [[It Makes Sense in Context|she gave him a massage]], and once she gives a full confession:

* ''[[Castle]]'' does the "divide and conquer" ploy in "The Double Down" to break the beta of the [[Strangers on a Train Plot Murder]] pair.

* Non- [[Crime Drama]] example: In ''[[Three's Company]]'', Janet exposes a crooked health inspector who demanded a bribe in order to keep Jacks' perfectly acceptable restaurant open:

'''Janet:''' See? }}

* On ''[[Without a Trace]]'' this came back to bite {{spoiler|Elena's old partner: she told a murderous drug dealer that a neighborhood woman saw him kill one of his rivals. The dealer never cracked and instead put out a hit on the woman from jail and was never charged with either murder.}}

* In a ''[[Babylon 5]]'' episode, psychic [[Magnificent Bastard]] Bester is allowed on board the station only if he agrees to take telepathy-blocking drugs. He then sits in on an important interrogation. After spending a while looking bored, he blurts out, "He's lying." The perp immediately confesses everything. Garibaldi suspects that the blocking drugs have failed, but they haven't; Bester was just bluffing. His reputation and uniform were enough to make the perp break down.

Bester: Absolutely! [[Not So Different|Just like ...your badge, and ... your uniform.]] }}

* In one Bones episode, they told the killer that they'd charged someone else with the murder. He was so vain that he confessed just to get the credit.

* In one episode of ''[[Neighbours]]'', a man arrested for assaulting Chris names Jarrod as the man who paid him to. Jarrod effortlessly exposes him as a liar by showing up at interview with Superintendent Hayes and leading Walton to believe he is his Legal Aid lawyer. By the following scene he has changed his story.

* Played for laughs on ''[[The Golden Girls]]''. One of the ''[[Empty Nest]]'' characters, Barbara, had crossed over for the ep and had to help the girls when a guy came into the house with a gun.

'''Barbara''': To a bad guy. It's okay to lie to a bad guy. }}

== Videogames ==

* One case in ''[[Phoenix Wright]]'' was ended successfully by Phoenix's use of such a lie (confusing the color of a poison vial) to confess (by way of correcting the color, implying that he would have to have done it to know what the real color was).

'''Phoenix''': {{spoiler|Oh? How did you know that?}} }}

** And another involved an extremely subtle lie. {{spoiler|'Adrian Andrews' is a pretty masculine name, so Wright leads the Shelly De Killer on by letting Shelly lie about his meeting with Adrian. He uses male pronouns, so Shelly uses them too...and then Wright accuses him of lying about having ever met Adrian in the first place. Adrian is a woman.}}

* Early on in [[Suikoden I]], Odessa uses this to confirm that the pick-up man for a vital blueprint she needed delivered was the real deal (he is).

'''Kage''': Very strange, lady. Sir Mose does not keep any pigeons. }}

* You can pull one on a robber in ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' if your perception is high enough. The girl has just taken a necklace made from rare Sunset Star Sarsaparilla caps off the guy she killed "in defense", and claims that it's hers. You claim that you've never seen bottlecaps like "those six", and she agrees that they're very special. You then point out that there are actually ''seven'' caps, which she'd know if she really owned it in the first place.