View source for Frameup

{{Short description|Falsely prove someone guilty of a crime}}
{{for|the film|The Frame-Up}}
{{multiple issues|
{{More citations needed|date=November 2009}}
{{Globalize|article or section|United States|date=January 2023}}
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{{Criminal law}}
In the [[United States criminal law]], a '''frame-up''' ('''frameup''') or '''set-up''' is the act of falsely [[Guilt (law)|implicating]] ('''framing''') someone in a crime by providing [[false evidence|fabricated evidence]] or [[perjury|testimony]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dictionary.reference.com/search?db=dictionary&q=frame-up|title=frame-up - Definitions from Dictionary.com|publisher=dictionary.reference.com|access-date=2008-07-13|archive-date=2012-10-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022080358/http://dictionary.reference.com/search?db=dictionary&q=frame-up|url-status=dead}}</ref> In British usage, to '''frame''', '''stitch-up''', or '''fit-up''',<ref>{{cite book |title=Fit up definition and meaning {{!}} Collins English Dictionary |url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/fit-up |language=en}}</ref> is to maliciously or dishonestly incriminate someone or set them up, in the sense trap or ensnare.

While [[wikt:incriminate|incriminating]] those who are innocent might be done out of sheer malice, '''framing''' is primarily used as a [[distraction]]. Generally, the person who is framing someone else is the actual perpetrator of the crime. In other cases it is an attempt by law enforcement to get around [[due process]]. Motives include getting rid of political dissidents or "correcting" what they see as the court's mistake. Some lawbreakers will try to claim they were framed as a defense strategy. Frameups may use [[conspiracy theory|conspiracy theories]] to hide the true crimes of the accused.{{cn|date=March 2022}}

==Technique==
===In labor disputes===
[[Labor spies#Frameups|Frameups in labor disputes]] sometimes swing public opinion one way or the other. In Massachusetts, during the [[1912 Lawrence Textile Strike]], [[Massachusetts State Police]] officers acting on a tip discovered dynamite and blamed it on the [[Industrial Workers of the World]] union. National media echoed an anti-union message. Later, the police revealed that the dynamite had been wrapped in a magazine addressed to the son of the former mayor. The man had received an unexplained payment from the largest of the employers. Exposed, the plot swung public sympathy to the IWW.<ref>
{{cite book|title=Roughneck, The Life and Times of Big Bill Haywood|url=https://archive.org/details/roughnecklifetim0000carl|url-access=registration|author=Peter Carlson|year=1983|page=[https://archive.org/details/roughnecklifetim0000carl/page/163 163]|publisher=W.W. Norton |isbn=9780393016215}}</ref>

===In police operations===
A frameup where a police officer shoots an unarmed suspect and then places a weapon near the body is a form of [[police misconduct]] known as a "throw down". This is used to justify the shooting by making it appear that the officer fired in self-defence or to defend other bystanders.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://openjurist.org/689/f2d/1220/webster-v-city-of-houston |title= 689 F. 2d 1220 - Webster v. City of Houston |at= paragraph 29 |via=openjurist.org |date= 28 October 1982|volume= F2d |issue= 689 |access-date= 17 April 2015|author= Fifth Circuit }}</ref>

==Notable frame-ups==
* [[Dreyfus affair]] (around 1900), in which a Jewish soldier of the [[French Army]] was framed for treason and sent to Devil's Island before being exonerated.
* [[Carl Ingold Jacobson]], [[Los Angeles City Council]] member, framed on a morals charge in 1927.
* [[Arthur Allan Thomas]], New Zealand farmer convicted of the 1970 [[Harvey and Jeannette Crewe|Crewe murders]] in [[Pukekawa]], [[Waikato]], and later acquitted after it was found police had planted evidence at the crime scene.
* [[László Rajk#Trial|László Rajk]], a [[Hungarian Communist Party]] politician accused of being a "[[Titoism|Titoist]] spy" {{c.}} 1949. The injustice of this trial helped to trigger the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]] against the communist [[Hungarian People's Republic]].
* [[Muhammad Abdul Aziz]] and Khalil Islam, two members of the [[Nation of Islam]] who were falsely convicted for involvement in the [[assassination of Malcolm X]] in 1965. They were exonerated in 2021 after an investigation by New York County District Attorney [[Cyrus Vance Jr.]] in response to the 2020 [[Netflix]] special ''[[Who Killed Malcolm X?]]''
* [[Kylie Moore-Gilbert]], an Australian-British academic and expert on [[Islamic studies]], was framed and imprisoned in [[Iran]] from 2018 to 2020, on a charge of what is thought to be [[espionage]].
* [[Paul Rusesabagina]], a Rwandan politician, and the former manager of the [[Hôtel des Mille Collines]] in [[Kigali]] during a period in which it housed 1,268 [[Hutu]] and [[Tutsi]] refugees from the {{lang|rw|[[Interahamwe]]}} militia during the [[Rwandan genocide]];<ref>{{Cite web|last=Zeliger|first=Robert|title=Smear campaign against hero of 'Hotel Rwanda'?|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2011/06/27/smear-campaign-against-hero-of-hotel-rwanda/|access-date=18 January 2021|website=Foreign Policy|date=27 June 2011 |language=en-US}}</ref> as a result, none of these refugees were hurt or killed during the attacks.<ref>{{Cite web|date=6 April 2013|title=The story of Hôtel des Mille Collines|url=https://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/read/106788|access-date=18 January 2021|website=The New Times {{!}} Rwanda|language=en}}</ref> He was framed and arrested by [[Paul Kagame]]'s [[Rwandan Patriotic Front]] government in 2020, on charges of [[terrorism]], [[arson]], [[kidnap]] and "[[murder]] perpetrated against unarmed, innocent Rwandan civilians on Rwandan territory" for his involvement with the opposition [[PDR-Ihumure]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Burke|first=Jason|date=31 August 2020|title='Hotel Rwanda' inspiration Paul Rusesabagina held on terror charges|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/31/hotel-rwanda-businessman-paul-rusesabagina-held-on-terror-charges|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200904073746/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/31/hotel-rwanda-businessman-paul-rusesabagina-held-on-terror-charges|archive-date=4 September 2020|access-date=9 September 2020|website=The Guardian}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[False flag]]
*[[Framing (social sciences)]]
*[[Identity theft]]
*[[Joe job]]
*[[Kangaroo court]]
*[[Miscarriage of justice]]
*[[Presumption of guilt]]
*[[Perverting the course of justice]]
*[[Scapegoat]]
*[[Show trial]]

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==External links==
*{{Commonscatinline|Frameups}}
*{{wikt-inline|frame up}}
*{{wikt-inline|stitch up}}

[[Category:Law enforcement terminology]]
[[Category:Criminal defenses]]
[[Category:Perverting the course of justice]]
[[Category:Deception]]
[[Category:Abuse of the legal system]]
[[Category:Crimes]]