• Posted on Wednesday, November 11, 2009
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Man's defense in murder trial: 'I've been running the country'

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Kevin Wayne Dunigan told the jury, "You're being deceived."

Not only were police and prosecutors totally wrong for accusing him of the 1995 stabbing death of Gary Patrick Veirs, Dunigan said in his closing argument Tuesday, but he also had the cure for global warming and how to win the war in Afghanistan.

It was right after Dunigan told the panel, "I've been running the country," that former President George W. Bush "did everything I told him" and if current President Barack Obama is lucky, "I'll work with him," that the judge stepped in.

"Looking at the jurors' expression of disbelief, in terms of what you're arguing, I don't think it's very helpful," Sacramento Superior Court Judge James L. Long told Dunigan, after ordering the jury outside while he gave the defendant some advice. "But if you want to continue, you can."

With that, Dunigan – who insisted on representing himself in the murder trial that went to the jury Tuesday — cranked it up once again in one of the more unusual closing arguments to ring through the county courthouse in recent months.

"I've got these people (sued) in federal court for millions of dollars," Dunigan, 46, went on. He told the jury he's been "fighting corporations," and that Sacramento police have had it in for him for 20 years.

Read more at SacBee.com

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"Suits & Sentences" is written by Mike Doyle, who covers the Supreme Court for McClatchy's Washington Bureau. Send a story suggestion.