Spare the criminal a list of his crimes (3,5)
I believe the answer is:
rap sheet
'a list of his crimes' is the definition.
(a rap sheet is a list of charges)
'spare the criminal' is the wordplay.
'criminal' indicates anagramming the letters.
'spare'+'the'='sparethe'
'sparethe' anagrammed gives 'RAP SHEET'.
(Other definitions for rap sheet that I've seen before include "Where to find previous" , "Criminal record, colloquially" , "'Written record of charges (3,5)'" , "record of arrests" .)