John E. DuPont Trial: 1997

Almost exactly a year after the crime, DuPont was found competent and the trial began in suburban Philadelphia. Dupont's lawyers did not deny that he killed Dave Schultz, but they argued that their client was insane at the time of the shooting and was suffering from severe paranoid schizophrenia. The prosecution argued that DuPont did know right from wrong at the time of the shooting. The prosecutor pointed to the fact that DuPont asked to speak to his attorney several times during the police standoff as evidence that he understood what was happening.

Witnesses who knew the defendant testified that his behavior had started to change about the time of his mother's death in 1988. He had become extremely security conscious and hired a firm in 1993 to provide protection on the estate. Despite the implementation of extensive security measures, DuPont claimed on several occasions that he was being spied on and that his life was in danger. That same year he installed razor wire inside the walls of his home to prevent anyone from hiding in the walls. He also hired excavators to dig up the property to search for tunnels be believed were being dug to his home. Several witnesses also told of his increasing drug and alcohol problems between 1988 and 1995. Nevertheless, he continued to manage the daily operations of his training facility during this time. He developed close relationships with some of the wrestlers and their families, and he took a dislike to others.

The defense presented extensive evidence that DuPont was paranoid and schizophrenic. This evidence focused on his delusional beliefs, particularly evident in his statements during the police standoff and at his examination afterwards that he was Jesus Christ, the Dalai Lama, and a Russian czar, just to name a few. The defenses expert witnesses opined that DuPont was legally insane at the time of the shooting. Experts for the prosecution, Drs. John O'Brien and Park Dietz, testified that they believed that DuPont did indeed suffer from mental illness, but that he was not legally insane at the time of the shooting.