Edwards Defense Asks the Jury to Distinguish Sin From Crime
... This is a case that should define the difference between someone committing a wrong and committing a crime, he said. John Edwards has confessed his sins. He will serve a life sentence for those. But he has pleaded not guilty to violating the law.
Mr. Edwardss behavior has been examined in vivid detail for nearly a month in this small country courthouse. Through much of that time, he has appeared a far cry from the man once able to convey tremendous power when he walked into a room. He often looked tired, moving around the courtroom stiffly while the government spent almost three weeks laying out a case filled with lurid details about an extramarital affair and its attempted cover-up, secret payments, crumbling relationships and political maneuvering.
Lawyers from the Department of Justice claim that Mr. Edwards masterminded a plan to use more than $1.5 million from two wealthy political supporters to hide his relationship with Rielle Hunter and the daughter they conceived, to keep his bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination from being derailed.
They laid out that narrative in their closing statements, offering a story so cinematic that it has already been optioned for a movie ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/18/us/edwards-defense-sin-vs-crime.html?_r=1