History Main / DisabilityAlibi

** In "Cavallino Rampante," a perp known for his electronic inventions is considered a suspect in a string of Ferrari thefts until the cops arrive at his apartment and discover that he's aged, quite weak, and dependent upon a wheelchair.
** Averted in "DOA for a Day" when the Navy Seal son of a judge has motive for killing his father's murderer. When the detectives arrive to question him, they discover he's a triple amputee, but he tells them he still could've done it...20 different ways.

* ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'': This gets used to [[spoiler:exclude Snake from ''[[ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated his own supposed death]]'' after he's supposedly killed by his implanted bomb which mangled the remains in grisly detail including a piece of bone sticking out from his left arm...which is actually impossible due to him having an artificial left arm, which is the proof needed for Clover to believe he's still alive.]] Inverted on the same note when [[spoiler:Junpei deduces that only Ace could be Snake's "killer" because the dead man isn't Snake, but was dressed up as him which played into Ace's prosopagnosia and drove him to get "Guy X" killed.]]

* ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'':
** This gets used to [[spoiler:exclude Snake from ''[[ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated his own supposed death]]'' after he's supposedly killed by his implanted bomb which mangled the remains in grisly detail including a piece of bone sticking out from his left arm...which is actually impossible due to him having an artificial left arm, which is the proof needed for Clover to believe he's still alive.]] Inverted on the same note when [[spoiler:Junpei deduces that only Ace could be Snake's "killer" because the dead man isn't Snake, but was dressed up as him which played into Ace's prosopagnosia and drove him to get "Guy X" killed.]]

* In ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'', this gets used to [[spoiler:exonerate Snake from ''[[ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated his own supposed death]]'' after he's supposedly killed by his implanted bomb which mangled the remains in grisly detail including a piece of bone sticking out from his left arm...which is actually impossible due to him having an artificial left arm, which is the proof needed for Clover to believe he's still alive.]]

* Inverted in the case of double amputee and former Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius, who was put on trial for killing his girlfriend. He admitted to having shot her, claiming he thought she was a burglar, but from the angle the shots went through a door, they were fired by someone standing at full height. This was used to suggest that Pistorius couldn't have fired the shot without putting his prosthetic legs on, and if he took the time to do that, he couldn't have been as scared and impulsive as he claimed.

* In the LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek ''Closer And Closer'', a paraplegic mystery writer is being stalked by a SerialKiller who has taken her latest novel too seriously. The killer turns out to be a friend of hers who is a fellow paraplegic--and, unlike many examples here, he is ''not'' faking or exaggerating his condition. He wheedled his way into his victims' homes by [[WoundedGazelleGambit claiming to need help]], then used the strength of his arms to strangle them.

** "[[Recap/MonkS2E7 Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect]]": Monk's mail bombing suspect, Brian Babbage, has been in a coma for four months, having been hit by a truck while trying to bait Stottlemeyer and Disher into a car chase, but Monk insists that Brian is responsible for the mail bomb that was mailed three days ago. [[spoiler:Turns out that Brian had glued the bombs to the inside of various mailboxes throughout the San Francisco area and was planning on being arrested on another charge and in jail by the time the glue wore out and the bombs dropped where people would find them -- the crash and coma had been a "lucky" accident]].

** Season One episode "Mr. Monk Meets Dale the Whale" has Monk investigate a murder supposedly committed by a mastermind known as Dale the Whale, who is physically incapable of committing the murder due to being so morbidly obese he can't even leave his room, much less murder somebody. [[spoiler: He blackmailed somebody else into killing the victim for him and FramingTheGuiltyParty just to mock the police.]]
** Subverted in season two episode "Mr. Monk Goes to the Circus". A man is murdered by a masked ninja who performs several impressive acrobatic feats in front of many witnesses. Natasia Lovara, a trapeze artist who had a grudge against the victim and possesses the skills to have killed someone in such a way, is wheelchair-bound after breaking her foot in a botched stunt shortly before the murder was committed. [[spoiler: It turns out she faked breaking her foot during the stunt, killed the victim, and then went back and broke her foot for real knowing that the police would look at her as the primary suspect and want an X-ray.]]
** "Mr. Monk and the Sleeping Suspect": Monk's mail bombing suspect, Brian Babbage, is in a coma from when he got hit by a pickup truck while trying to bait Stottlemeyer and Disher into a car chase. Turns out that Brian had glued the bombs to the inside of various mailboxes throughout the San Francisco area and was planning on being arrested on another charge and in jail by the time the glue wore out and the bombs dropped where people would find them -- the crash had been a "lucky" accident.

* The Exbrayat novel ''Le Sage de Sauvenat'' has an old man who is sent to trial for the murder of an all-around HateSink (wife beater, swindler, likely sold out his uncle to the Nazis...). However, during the trial, another villager reveals the old guy is so near-sighted he couldn't have shot the victim like he claimed (to his acute embarrassment). He ends up doing time for perjury anyway but is still seen as worthy of respect by the village.

* As a tragic {{irony}} in ''Film/AboveSuspicion'' (1995), his last film role prior to the accident which left him paralyzed, Creator/ChristopherReeve played a police officer who is shot and paralyzed from the waist down. He uses this as a means to get away with murdering people who wronged him because no one can prove a wheelchair-bound man is capable of it. [[spoiler: It's revealed his disability is faked, though.]]

* Manga/DetectiveConan has done this quite a few times.

* Manga/DetectiveSchoolQ's "Satsugekka Murder Case" involves a doctor who is bedridden due to accidentally eating a raw puffer fish whose poison hasn't been completely cleaned yet making his muscles paralyzed from the neck down. Naturally, people don't suspect him. [[spoiler:He turns out to not be completely paralyzed, and the Q-Class is able to prove that by making him dodge a surprise attack. Heavily subverted that while he fakes his recovery status from the puffer fish poisoning, he can't move his legs[[note]]keywords on the previous sentences being "not completely paralyzed" emphasis on completely[[/note]] so he's still unable to commit the crime. In fact, he is used as a scapegoat by the real culprit who poses as a voluntary hitman in constant communication with him. The doctor faking his guilt over the crime is ''part of the real killer's instruction to him''.]]

[[folder:Comics]]