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Jury selection starting in du Pont trial
Insanity defense planned in killing of Olympic wrestler
January 21, 1997
Web posted at: 9:50 a.m. EST
From Correspondent Mary Ann McGann
MEDIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Tuesday marked the beginning of jury selection in the trial of multimillionaire John du Pont, on trial for killing an Olympic wrestler who was living and training on his sprawling estate.
Du Pont's lawyers plan an insanity defense, building a case around their contentions that the great-great grandson of industrialist E.I. du Pont was unable to tell right from wrong when he shot Dave Schultz to death a year ago.
Du Pont is being treated at a psychiatric hospital in Norristown, Pennsylvania. A psychiatrist for the defense will testify that the multi-millionaire is a paranoid schizophrenic who was insane when he drove to Schultz's home on his estate and shot him three times.
Du Pont was initially found incompetent to stand trial, but after a two-month treatment with anti-psychotic drugs, he has been ruled competent to aid his attorneys.
Those attorneys disagree. While he no longer refers to himself as the Dalai Lama, Jesus Christ or the successor to the Third Reich, they say he's still too confused to stand trial.
"Yes, he's driven less by the delusions, at least in outward appearance," said defense attorney Taras Wochok. "But I have to say, there are still large gaps in recollection, large gaps in terms of background information that we desperately need to provide the best possible defense for him."
Wochok acknowledges that an insanity defense is difficult to prove. And the prosecution is prepared to use what happened after the shooting to disprove the theory.
Du Pont returned to his mansion after shooting Schultz, a gold medalist at the 1984 Olympics, and barricaded himself inside for two days. Prosecutors plan to use tape recordings of negotiations between the millionaire and SWAT team negotiators as evidence du Pont was "negotiating, calculating" in the hours after the shooting.
Fellow wrestler Kevin Jackson said he believes du Pont knew exactly what he was doing when he shot Schultz, one of the most popular wrestlers in the sport. Schultz's wife Nancy, who witnessed the shooting, has founded a wrestling club. Many of the wrestlers who once competed on du Pont's Foxcatcher team now compete for the Dave Schultz Wrestling Club.
Related stories:
- Du Pont lawyers announce insanity defense - December 12, 1996
- Du Pont murder trial set for September - July 2, 1996
- Judge declines to delay du Pont trial - February 9, 1996
- Athletes wrestle with the past and future - February 9, 1996
- Du Pont to undergo medical tests - February 6, 1996
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