While watching a CSI rerun the other day, where the convoluted plot involved an attempted frame-up for murder and arson, a strange thought occurred to me as all the guilty folks were perp-walked away. I’ve seen hundreds of dramas where someone attempted to set another person up to take the rap for a crime, and when they get caught, they are prosecuted for the crime itself, but I don’t recall anyone ever being charged with a crime for trying to get someone else locked up. But it seems to me that should be a crime of some kind, just by itself. Is it?
It depends on exactly what they did to make it look like the other person did it.
Obstruction of justice is always a good starting point. Then tack on everything, including littering and jaywalking, that the person did while framing the other person…