I think the story was in the Wheel of Time series but after googling many times I couldn’t find what I was looking for, unfortunately.
The story is that a ruler is faced with a dilemma with justice. There was a crime which I believe was murder and that there were a group of men who were definitely involved but the witness only saw all but one of them commit the crime which means that one person is innocent. The ruler decides to imprison all of the men.
by OnceMor3