Lehman Hits Walker Case Plea Bargain : Father-Son Spy Team ‘Should Be Shot or Hanged,’ He Declares

A major controversy erupted today between Navy Secretary John Lehman and the Justice Department over the Walker father-son spy team plea bargain, with Lehman saying the pair “should be shot or hanged.”

Justice Department officials strongly defended the deal consisting of a life sentence for John A. Walker Jr., a retired Navy communications specialist who spied for Moscow the past 17 years, and a reduced sentence of 25 years in prison for his son, a seaman on a nuclear aircraft carrier.

But Lehman, in published interviews, denounced Monday’s plea-bargaining agreement for sending the wrong message, and assailed the Justice Department policy of viewing espionage as “just another white-collar crime.”

“All of us in the Navy are very unhappy with it,” he said. “We think they should be shot or hanged.”

Vietnam Casualties

Lehman, in interviews with the Washington Post and USA Today, was also quoted as saying the spying by the Walkers may have caused American casualties during the Vietnam War if Moscow was able to intercept top-secret Navy messages and pass them along to Hanoi.

John Walker, 48, will be eligible for parole in 10 years while Michael, his 22-year-old son, could be freed after serving about eight years.

Justice Department officials replied that the deal was approved by Lehman’s boss, Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger and that the death penalty did not apply to the Walker case.

“We do feel we sent out a strong message. We are satisfied,” Terry H. Eastland, chief spokesman for Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III, said.

Last June’s Statement

But the plea-bargaining agreement conflicted with assurances last June by Assistant Atty. Gen. Stephen S. Trott, chief of the criminal division, flatly ruling out immunity or leniency for the spy suspects.

“Will we allow these people to get off lightly in order to get information from them? The answer is no,” he said at the time.