While naming any explicit real world examples is probably indeed a bad idea (it's highly YMMV who or what is "evil" to start with), one can at least say it's an obvious truth in television. Everyone except the Complete Monster has some sort of standards, even if sometimes a heavy dose of Blue and Orange Morality is involved. And so far, even the most vicious mass murderers are reported to have a few positive traits, so a literal complete monster seems to not exist in our world. Ergo, Everyone Has Standards, also those who most people agree on that they are evil.
It's probably also common for people who have committed some major crime to think like "I'm a X, but at least I'm not a Y." While others think they are Y but at least not X.