Helaman 9
The Nephites presumed the five men were guilty when they found them fallen at the site of the murder of the chief judge. In truth they were not so concerned with finding the truth as with taking action and condemning someone for the act of murder. The five were spared because of the wicked judges who had heard Nephi make the prophecy. Those judges were not interested in finding the murderer either, but they saw this as an opportunity to condemn Nephi so they had the five men released in an effort to catch Nephi to blame him and have him killed. The fact that the true murderer was found and justice was served finally was incidental to the aims of most of the people.
Sometimes today we have the same attitude of being more concerned with finding someone to blame than we are with discovering the truth.