William Jefferson's split personality defense
by Stephanie Grace - Times-Picayune (excerpt)

A lot has happened in the 2½ years between William Jefferson's federal bribery conviction and last week, when he finally got his second day in court before a three-judge federal appeals panel in Virginia. The former New Orleans congressman declared bankruptcy, and he recently put the family homestead, where he's been living under electronic monitoring, on the market. A long list of his relatives have also found themselves in federal court, accused in a wide array of money-making schemes and featuring an overlapping cast of supporting characters, including Jefferson himself. Jefferson's brother and close political associate Mose was convicted in one case and died in prison before he could be tried in a second. His sister, former assessor Betty Jefferson, and her daughter pleaded guilty to corruption charges and helped convict Jefferson's onetime legislative aide and Mose's longtime girlfriend Renee Gill Pratt, a former state legislator and city councilwoman. A second Jefferson sister pleaded in the same case but also died before trial. And yet one thing has remained constant since the summer of 2009. Just as he has all along, Jefferson is still pinning his hopes of exoneration on a single legal technicality.