# Has the trope of a witness implicating themselves of a crime instead of the defendant ever happened?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-trope-of-a-witness-implicating-themselves-of-a-crime-instead-of-the-defendant-ever-happened/953264>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 27, 2021, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-trope-of-a-witness-implicating-themselves-of-a-crime-instead-of-the-defendant-ever-happened/953264 "2021-10-27T03:21:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

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**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2021, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-trope-of-a-witness-implicating-themselves-of-a-crime-instead-of-the-defendant-ever-happened/953264/2 "2021-10-27T18:02:42Z")

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The best I’ve found is this (which is not what you’re looking for)

> **[Murder Defendant Recants Story, Admits Shooting](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1983/01/08/murder-defendant-recants-story-admits-shooting/c3adbb46-70ab-4060-b207-e04a01377fef/)**

> ". . . I thought he was going to shoot me and I fired the gun. And I didn’t know whether I killed him. I wasn’t trying to kill him . . . . "
> 
> With that testimony, Harlow Brian Sails, 21, stunned the jury in his murder trial in Upper Marlboro yesterday as he admitted shooting an off-duty D.C. police officer who had intervened in the robbery of a jewelry store.

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