Bush pardons moonshining 'Deliverance' actor

[im10ashus]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- By granting absolution to a convicted moonshiner, George W. Bush also earned the unique distinction of becoming the first president to pardon a cast member of the 1972 Academy Award-nominated movie "Deliverance."

Randall Leece Deal of Clayton, Georgia, had a small role in the film about four Atlanta businessmen who have unpleasant encounters with locals during a North Georgia canoe trip.

For the last 16 years, Deal, 66, has worked at the Rabun County Sheriff's Department, a far cry from his life in the early 1960s when he was convicted on two counts of violating liquor laws and one count of conspiring to violate liquor laws.

The crimes are commonly known as moonshining and Deal still disputes the conspiracy charge.

"That really wasn't true," he said. "But anyway, that's what they charged us with."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/08/18/bush.pardon/index.html