Lind L. Tailor is a convicted criminal sentenced to death, a fact that was kept hidden from the public. L uses Tailor as a decoy on television, claiming the broadcast is global and that Tailor's words are being translated into Japanese by Yoshio Anderson. After Tailor falsely claims to be "L" and denounces Kira as evil, Light, in a fit of rage, kills Tailor with a heart attack. The real L then reveals that Tailor was merely a stand-in, a criminal awaiting execution, and challenges Kira to try and kill him. When Kira fails to do so, L deduces that Kira requires both the victim's true name and face to execute his killings. L also discloses that the video was only aired in the Kanto region of Japan as part of a strategy to pinpoint Kira's location. Initially, L had planned to air the video in other parts of Japan at different times but deemed it unnecessary after this revelation.
In both the anime and manga, Tailor is depicted with long hair, whereas in the film adaptation, he sports a short haircut. Similar to the film, a Japanese speaker dubs Tailor’s English dialogue into Japanese during the broadcast. Matt Lagan plays the role of Tailor in the live-action film adaptation.
