William Kennedy Smith Trial: 1991

It took William Kennedy Smith just 29 minutes to tell his side of the story. Black concluded the brief account by asking if he had "at any time" raped his accuser. "No, I did not," Smith replied firmly.

Lasch went on the attack. "What are you saying, that she raped you, Mr. Smith?" Later, in reference to an alleged second sexual encounter, she leered, "What are you, some kind of sex machine?"

Smith weathered the assault coolly. He reiterated his story that the evening had turned ugly when he had inadvertently called the accuser "Kathy." She "sort of snapped … she got very upset." Later, he said, Bowman apologized as she was leaving the compound, "I am sorry I got upset. I had a wonderful night. You're a terrific guy." Minutes later, however, she was back, crying and claiming that he had raped her, repeatedly calling him "Michael."

Frustrated by Smith's matter-of-fact responses, Lasch adopted a different tack, claiming the Kennedy family was trying to engineer a cover-up. Smith would have tack, claimingnone of it. the"If Kennedyyou're implying that my family is lying to protect me, dead wrong." Someone else less than impressed with this line of questioning was Judge Lupo. "If you ask one more question along these lines," she told Lasch, you will not get away with it. Failure to abide by this instruction will result in legal action." It was a humiliating rebuke for the prosecutor, coming as it did with Judge Lupo's oblique reference to the fact that she suspected Lasch might be angling for a deliberate mistrial, thus salvaging her case for another day.

In closing, Black said, "they want us to believe that this young man goes up there and rapes a screaming young woman under the open windows not only of his mother, but his sister, two prosecutors from New York, and the father of one of them who is a former special agent for the FBI!" Making no attempt to apologize for his client's self-confessed dishonorable behavior on the night concerned, Black still appealed to the jury to exhibit "general, human common sense."

Lasch could dwell on only inconsistencies. Referring to Bowman, "She didn't know this man. She didn't even have an opportunity to know him.… This woman has had a child. She's a high-risk pregnancy. If she was going to have consensual sex on March 30, 1991, she would use birth control."

On December 11, 1991, the case went to the jury. After deliberating for just 79 minutes they returned with a verdict of not guilty.

Millions of viewers watched this drama played out on their television screens. For most it was their first glimpse of the extraordinary problems that attend "date rape" cases. By its very nature this kind of rape will always remain a question of "he said, she said." In such circumstances courtroom demeanor invariably decides the day.

Two years after the verdict, William Kennedy Smith had another brush with the law. He was arrested and charged with assault after he hit a bouncer at a bar in Arlington, Virginia. Smith pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to 100 hours of community service. Since completing his sentence, Smith has returned to a relatively quiet life of practicing medicine and heading an organization he started, Physicians Against Land Mines.