Not an excuse, but closer than some

    From the beginning he had been inclined to sympathize with the financier who was writhing in the net cast about him by an unscrupulous blackmailer. Of all the crimes in the book he detested blackmail most, and it had been difficult to work up any real feeling about Sara Morton's death since learning of her attempted extortion scheme.

    True, blackmail didn't excuse murder in the eyes of the law, but in Harsh's case, considering his enormous loss if she exposed him, it was a pretty fair excuse.    

(from This Is It, Michael Shayne, by Brett Halliday)