First some background. My character had been mulling the whole Stormcloak/Imperial civil war question, and was unsure of which side to support as he made his way to Solitude for the first time. He could not get past the fact that the Empire put him on an executioner's block and he was only saved by a Dragon attack. An Empire that executes people without trial for no apparant reason than being in the wrong place at the wrong time is an Empire that can no longer be supported by my character, so he was leaning toward stormcloaks. But, the stormcloaks will unseat Jarl Balgruuf, who has a warm place in my characters heart for the way he sent troops to Riverwood to protect his people from a Dragon attack and how Balgruuf treated my character.

So, being torn between the two factions, my character enters Solitude to witness an execution of a man by the same Empire for nothing more than holding open a gate. A gate, mind you that let Ulfric Stormcloak escape, but Ulfric had done nothing wrong according to Nord law (at least that is a very arguable interpretation), so executing this man seemed a tad extreme.

My character went up to talk to the executioner afterward. Now, had the executioner made some statement about "only carrying out orders," my characer might have let it pass. But the executioner made a snide remark about the whole thing.

That made my character's blood boil, reming him of course of his own experience on the block. So, my character followed this executioner and when he had the chance, he pickpocketed the executioner's keys. The executioner entered a house and my character waited an appropriate amount of time before sneaking in after him. Finding the executioner fast asleep, my character executed the coup de grace with a single (15x) dagger strike and rightly executed the executioner in his sleep. Now I've got this really cool headsman's axe.