Spy Trial Jurors Quizzed on Weinberger’s Remark

A judge interrupted the espionage trial of a Soviet couple today to ask jurors whether they had heard Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger say convicted spies should be shot, and four panelists had.

Defense attorney Greg Stone, representing Svetlana Ogorodnikova, asked that all panelists who heard Weinberger’s remark, widely broadcast Wednesday, be dismissed from the case.

U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon assembled the jury and asked them all about the Weinberger comment, made during an interview with reporters in Washington, and four--three jurors and an alternate--said they had heard the remark.

The judge began more intensive questioning individually to determine if they were affected by the remark, in which Weinberger said in Washington that convicted spies “should be shot, although I suppose hanging is the preferred method.” At present, the maximum penalty for espionage during peacetime is life in prison.

“We think that comment is so prejudicial that the jurors should be (questioned) on whether they were exposed to it,” Stone said.

Will Instruct Jurors

Lawyers for fired FBI agent Richard W. Miller, a co-defendant in the spy case, said they had seen Weinberger on television and also felt that it was prejudicial to Miller.

The judge said he will instruct the jurors to avoid reading any reports involving spy cases, including the current coverage of the Walker family espionage charges in Washington. John A. Walker Jr., his son, his brother and a friend have been charged with stealing Navy secrets and selling them to Soviet agents. Weinberger was commenting on that case when he made his remarks Wednesday.

On another matter, Kenyon ruled today that attorneys for Ogorodnikova and her husband, Nikolay, will be allowed to see a report on the FBI’s interview with Miller’s psychiatrist.

But he did not immediately rule on whether the information would be admissible at the trial.

Will Rule Separately

He said Congress had left up to federal judges the decision on whether to honor a defense claim of patient-doctor privilege. However, Kenyon said he was concerned about the behavior of federal officers who interviewed psychotherapist Dr. Joan Glad. He said he will rule separately on the issue if it comes up in Miller’s trial, which is set to follow the Ogorodnikovs’ trial.

The defense insists that the FBI should never have talked to Miller’s therapist.

“It is Mr. Miller’s right of confidentiality that is the touchstone here,” said attorney Stanley Greenberg.

However, attorneys for the Ogorodnikovs argued that they cannot get a fair trial unless the defense knows what the therapist told the FBI about the former FBI agent, Miller, who came to her for treatment of his obesity and other problems.

Miller tells of park tryst, Page 1 Part II.