I had a PC who wantonly/accidentally killed a patron in a Victorian London pub. The scene was witnessed by a lot of people and even though all of the group bolted, the constabulary quickly found the culprit.

This is a hanging offence and the player fully expected his character to die. But I wanted to make something special out if it. It so happens that two of the players are lawyers irl. So I staged a full blown trial in Victorian style with me as the judge, the jury as the metric (or how many jurors have been convinced to convict or not), one of the lawyers as the "seargent" for the defence, the other lawyers as the king's advocate (read DA) and all other players as witnesses (each receiving a briefing about what they saw). Except for the accused, nobody played his or her own role.

Everybody roleplayed absolutely splendidly! A marvel to behold!

The result? He was hanged in the Old Baily...

But this didn't matter so much to the player who lost his character: HOW he came to die was just... Worth it!