Lazo - Presumed Innocent

Presumed Innocent deals heavily with the guilt of Rusty Sabich. Throughout the film, Rusty is confronted by his wife and by his own memories of his affair with Carolyn Polhemus. As a prosecutor, Rusty values justice and the law. He struggles with immense guilt over breaking the law of marriage with his affair. His suspicious behavior while investigating Carolyn's murder is not due to guilt over murdering her like the other investigators believe, but his guilt from sleeping with her (after all, he knows he is innocent of murder). After the case against him is dismissed, Rusty tries to return to his life, but discovers the murder weapon in his own tools.

Barbara's confession escalates Ruty's guilt

These two scenes are key to understanding Rusty's guilt. First, he seems to quickly realize that his wife, Barbara, must have murdered Carolyn. Curiously, he goes to the basement and proceeds to destroy the evidence. He does not keep the hammer to confront Barbara with, but immediately tries to cover it up. Why? This becomes clear after Barbara admits that she had to "destroy the destroyer." Rusty's final voice over says, "there is punishment." Rusty realizes that although he did not physically murder Carolyn, she would not have been killed if he never had an affair with her. In his mind, it is his fault (at least to an extent) that she is dead. His guilt runs so deep that he blames himself for her murder even though he did not kill her, and also takes full responsibility for the affair when Carolyn had just as much, if not more, to do with it starting.