Ex-Intelligence Analyst Morison Sentenced to Two Years in Spy Case

A former Navy intelligence analyst convicted of espionage and theft of government property for giving U.S. spy photos to a British magazine was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison.

Samuel Loring Morison, 41, had faced a possible 10-year term and $10,000 fine on each of his two convictions of espionage and two of theft of government property.

U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Young sentenced him to two years on each charge, with the sentences to run concurrently. Young did not impose a fine.

Prosecutors had recommended a four-year prison term and a $10,000 fine. Morison’s attorneys had sought probation with the condition that Morison perform community service.

The two-year sentence means that Morison will have to spend at least eight months in prison before parole, prosecutors said.

Defense attorney Mark Lynch said he will file an appeal of the conviction within 10 days. Lynch said he already has asked Young for a new trial, but Young has not ruled on the motion.

A civilian employee of the Naval Intelligence Support Center, Morison was responsible for analyzing intelligence information about the Soviet fleet.

During the trial, prosecutors introduced Morison’s statement to the FBI admitting he gave Jane’s Defence Weekly three classified U.S. satellite photographs of the Soviet navy’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier under construction in July, 1984. The photos were published by Jane’s on Aug. 11, 1984, and later by other publications and news organizations.

Morison, grandson of the late Pulitzer Prize-winning naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison, told the judge, his voice shaking: “I knew it was wrong. I didn’t know it was criminal. If I had known this would have happened, I wouldn’t be here now.”