Top 10 Craziest Legal Defenses That Actually Worked
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Top 10 Craziest Legal Defenses That Actually Worked
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These defenses were just crazy enough to succeed. Welcome to Watchmojo.com, and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the Top Ten Craziest Legal Defenses that Actually Worked. For this list, we’re taking a look at defendants who made arguments that may have been out-there, but which led to them winning their case. And although these defenses worked for our picks, we can’t legally recommend trying any of these at home.
#10: It Wasn’t Me
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Singer R. Kelly has been a part of several controversies during his career. In 2002, a tape emerged where Kelly was allegedly shown having sex with and urinating on an underage girl, who prosecutors alleged was his goddaughter. After the tape was shown during the 2008 trial, the defense argued the man in the video wasn’t Kelly and the girl shown wasn’t his goddaughter. Since the goddaughter never testified and there was no solid proof that the singer was in said video, the jury ruled Kelly was not guilty. Later nicknamed the “Shaggy Defense” after singer Shaggy’s hit song “It Wasn’t Me”, Kelly’s defense led to his freedom...to stir up more controversy.
#9: An Oral Defense
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Drunk driving is dangerous on its own, but Heather Specyalski’s defense claims it got more risqué than that during a deadly car crash. One late night in October 1999, businessman Neil Esposito’s car sped off the road and crashed. Specyalski, who was in the car, was injured; Esposito was killed. In the 2004 trial, the prosecution alleged Specyalski drove while intoxicated, causing the crash. Heather argued back that she could not have been driving because she was performing oral sex at the time of the accident. Ultimately the position of an injury on her left thigh combined with her...candid defense led to the jury ruling in her favor.
#8: Depression & Diet
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This defense had people connecting Twinkies to murder. In 1978, San Francisco mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk, an openly gay politician, were both shot and killed by Dan White. Lawyers for White argued that he suffered from severe depression indicated by sudden changes in behavior, such as White eating junk food like Twinkies instead of his regular healthy foods. They claimed White’s compromised mental state or “diminished capacity” led to the shootings. The “Twinkie defense” convinced jurors to convict on manslaughter rather than murder. This prompted the 1979 White night riots in San Francisco, and changes in statutory definitions in California.
#7: PMS, Not DUI
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For Geraldine Richter, her time of the month let her dodge time in jail. On the night of Thanksgiving in 1990, Richter was driving home with her kids when she was pulled over by troopers that thought she was driving drunk. When asked to take a sobriety test, she cursed at the officers, kicked one of them and blew over the legal limit. At the trial, a gynecologist for the defense said Richter’s actions could’ve been brought on by PMS symptoms, which were enhanced by the need to protect her children, and that she held her breath for the breathalyzer. In the end, Dr. Richter was acquitted of all charges for her outburst.
#6: Sleeping Through Murder
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Sleepwalkers can be more than just a danger to themselves. In May of 1987, Kenneth Parks drove to his in-laws’ house during the night. Once there, he attacked his father-in law and stabbed his mother-in law to death all while he was asleep. His lawyers argued that a history of sleepwalking along with various stressors in Parks’ life, including a gambling addiction and an upcoming trial for fraud, caused him to sleepwalk and carry out his deadly assaults. The jury found him not guilty on both the murder and assault charges. Despite the successful verdict, he was later found guilty of fraud.
#5: Which Twin?
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Saying that your twin did it sounds like an excuse from a soap opera, but that’s the defense that saved the Raj brothers in Malaysia. In 2003, one of the brothers was arrested for having over 350 pounds of drugs in his car. Before he was taken away, the second brother arrived at the car and was also arrested. With a death penalty looming over their heads, the brothers escaped punishment because neither the police nor DNA evidence could determine which twin had actually been arrested at what time and who had been caught with the drugs. The brothers hugged after their acquittal, most likely closer to each other afterwards than they had ever been.
#4: An Irresistible Cut
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If you’re squeamish, you may want to prepare yourself. Lorena Bobbitt claimed that on June 23rd, 1993, her husband raped and abused her – and not for the first time. While he slept that night, she took a knife, cut off his penis and threw it into a field. Bobbitt soon turned herself in, and her husband got everything...reattached. During the trial, the defense argued that a history of domestic abuse caused Lorena to go temporarily insane and she couldn’t resist her impulse to dismember him. Although she had to spend some time in a mental institution, Lorena was found not guilty. She has remarried and helped victims of domestic abuse receive counseling.
#3: Fighting the Matrix
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Movies, books and gaming have all been blamed for violent crimes in the past, but one of the most strange and tragic cases was linked to “The Matrix.” In July 2002, Tonda Lynn Ansley shot and killed her landlord, Miami University professor Sherry Lee Corbett. When questioned by police, Ansley claimed she was living in the Matrix where “they” commit crimes such as drugging and kidnapping people at night. She alleged the professor was part of the plan to brainwash her as well. Before the trial, multiple mental evaluations found that at the time of the murder, Ansley truly believed in the Matrix and she was declared not guilty by reason of insanity.
#2: A Case of Affluenza
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Ethan Couch’s life of privilege led to four people paying a terrible cost. In June 2013, Couch was driving drunk when he crashed into a car, killing four. During the trial, a psychologist stated that Couch’s lifestyle and upbringing had left him unable to understand that his actions had consequences, a disorder he called “affluenza.” This defence originally got Couch out of a lengthy prison sentence, and he instead received a sentence of 10 years of probation and time in rehab. However, after violating his probation and fleeing to Mexico, Couch faced more severe consequences and was sentenced to 2 years in prison in 2016. His subsequent requests to be released early were denied.
#1: The Glove Doesn’t Fit
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The “trial of the century” had a defense no one would forget. Former football star O.J. Simpson was accused of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman in June 1994. The prosecution had substantial evidence-but it was the bloody glove thatwould make the biggest difference. Prosecutors alleged Simpson wore the gloves during the murder, but when he tried one of them on in court, it didn’t fit. Despite theories that blood shrunk the glove or O.J.’s arthritis made it tight, the dramatic moment stuck with jurors and he was found not guilty. The trial is still a media sensation today with a small pair of gloves going a long way.
