The Nation - News from Feb. 3, 1988

Former presidential aide Michael K. Deaver’s sentencing for perjury was stayed to allow for any Supreme Court review of an appellate court decision that struck down the independent counsel statute. U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson issued the stay in light of a federal appeals court decision striking down the law under which Deaver was prosecuted by independent counsel Whitney North Seymour Jr. Deaver, former deputy White House chief of staff, was convicted Dec. 16 of three counts of lying to a grand jury and a House subcommittee that investigated his lobbying for possible ethics-law violations. Deaver had been scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 25. The conviction carries a maximum sentence of five years on each of the three perjury counts.