Word: deaver
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...Deaver's medical problems could become the subject of a legal dispute this week when the former White House assistant goes on trial in U.S. district court on five charges of perjury. Lawyers spent much of last week interviewing prospective jurors about their attitudes toward alcohol, indicating that the defense may attempt to use Deaver's addiction to exonerate...
Because of his medical condition, his lawyers contend, Deaver could have been telling the truth when he told a congressional subcommittee and then a grand jury that he could not remember details about lobbying efforts that may have violated federal conflict-of-interest laws. Deaver claimed not to recall meetings or telephone conversations with White House and Cabinet officials during which he allegedly pushed for favors for clients such as TWA, Rockwell International, Philip Morris and the governments of Canada, South Korea and Puerto Rico...
...Deaver's attorneys will argue that their client, who visited the White House frequently, could not recall those conversations because they were insignificant. His memory was also hazy, the lawyers may argue, because Deaver was in an alcoholic fog both at the time of the meetings and when he testified...
Although Independent Counsel Whitney North Seymour Jr. asked that expert testimony on the alcoholism issue be disallowed, Presiding Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson has agreed to hear medical witnesses on Deaver's problems. In other cases, judges have allowed testimony on whether alcohol impaired a defendant's intent to commit a crime. To prove perjury, Seymour must show that Deaver intended to lie under oath...
Legal experts are dubious about the prospects of an alcohol-related defense, though many believe it could be used to win some leniency for Deaver in sentencing. "This defense has been frequently used and has almost never been successful," says Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz. "It's a defense of the last resort." Explains Lawyer Michael Kennedy, who cited his client's drug dependency in unsuccessfully appealing for a new murder trial for Schoolmistress Jean Harris: "Juries tend to look at addiction as something for which you must bear the responsibility. Therefore they are disinclined to let people...