The Stevens Defense: Alaskan Claims that He Didn’t Intend to Steal Car and Thus Is Innocent
jonathanturley
It seems that Alaskans are not only returning convicted felon Sen. Ted Stevens to the Senate, but they are adopting his novel criminal defense. If you recall, Stevens insisted that gifts from lobbyists and industry were not “gifts” if he did not consider them gifts in his mind. Thus, a massage chair in his basement for years was simply left there and not really accepted by him. Now, Alaskan Charles J. Schultz in Fairbanks appears to have learned from the master. When stopped by police, Schultz insisted that he did not steal the car despite that fact that it was not his.
When stopped, Schultz insisted that he was simply driving his own Chevy Cavalier. The trooper then informed Schultz that he was actually behind the wheel of a Ford Escort. He also was driving with .166 alcohol in his bloodstream — twice the legal limit.
The Stevens defense goes something like this: if I did not mentally accept that I was driving someone else’s car, it was not theft because I never possessed it in my mind. At this rate, Alaskans may have found a successor to Stevens or Young if either goes to jail.
