By Jackson West, 12:00 AM on Fri Aug 29 2008, 875 views (Edit, to draft, Top, Slurp)

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Gary McKinnon, the U.K. citizen trying to avoid extradition to the U.S. to stand trial on multiple counts of criminal trespass for using a 56k modem to hack into the Pentagon's network in search of UFO evidence, is trying a new tactic. Having lost his appeal, his attorneys are now pointing to a recent diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome as a reason to indefinitely delay his flight across the pond. While the Asperger's defense is nothing new, it has become particularly popular as a gambit by lawyers to excuse the behavior of geeks gone bad. Though not without much success — it certainly didn't work for convicted murderer Hans Reiser. (Photo by AP/Lefteris Pitarakis)