Unfortunately for federal law enforcement, he’s becoming an inspiration for defense attorneys.
Sessions proclaimed before the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month that his ever-evolving story on involvement between the Trump campaign and Russia was completely legit. He asserted that he hasn’t been lying, that “my story has never changed,” that he’s “always told the truth” each time he’s been put under oath or or signed sworn affidavits — it’s just that what he’s recalled has changed changed over time, and he can’t be held accountable for faulty memory of stressful times.
That assertion is being put to interesting use.
Federal prosecutors in South Carolina are asking that a police officer convicted of killing an unarmed black man (firing eight rounds into his back) be given an enhanced sentence for “obstruction of justice,” due to a series of excuses and denials and misleading testimony that changed dramatically over time as he was presented with new evidence that contradicted his previous assertions. (Emphasis mine.)
In a federal court filing last week, Slager’s attorneys said the former officer had not, in fact, lied when he gave an ever-shifting account of the shooting during two years of investigations and court proceedings, at times contradicted by cellphone footage of the incident. Rather, they said, his memory had faltered under pressure.
“A Swiss cheese memory is a symptom of stress, not an indicator of lying,” Slager’s attorneys wrote, citing testimony from a medical expert. To further illustrate the point, they quoted at length from Sessions’s testimony.
[…] “Unlike Slager, who had been in what he perceived as a life and death struggle before he made his statements, Sessions had time to prepare for his Congressional testimony, yet still often got it wrong,” they wrote in their filing. […] “Like Sessions, Slager never lied or misled anyone,” the defense attorneys’ filing reads. “Like Sessions, he answered the questions that were asked. When he had his memory refreshed, he added the refreshed recollection to his testimony. When he failed to remember certain items, it can be attributed to the stress or chaos of the event during which the memory should have been formed.”
This puts federal prosecutors in the uncomfortable position of either accepting the excuse during the penalty phase of the trial, or suggesting that their boss’ declarations of utter and complete honesty aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.
Jeff Sessions’s ‘failure to recall’ gives defense lawyers new argument in police shooting case – The Washington Post
“A Swiss cheese memory is a symptom of stress, not an indicator of lying,” Michael Slager’s attorneys wrote.
I'd just argue that there is no jurisdiction in the court to determine whether Sessions is truthful and that the comparison is not admissible as evidence.
Isn't this the guy who 'threw down' the Taser? That's an aggravating circumstance and indicates criminal intent.
+Travis Bird Oh, I seriously doubt the gambit will work — at least, not in this case.