Ex-Jonestown Cult Disciple Denied Jury’s Transcripts

A federal judge refused Friday to order prosecutors in the murder conspiracy retrial of former Peoples Temple member Larry Layton to disclose grand jury testimony of witnesses to the 1978 shootings at a Guyana airport.

Layton, the only temple member to be tried in the United States, is charged with conspiring to murder U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan and a U.S. diplomat, William Dwyer, at the airport.

Ryan and four others were killed, and Dwyer and several others were wounded. Hours later, the Rev. Jim Jones, leader of the temple, and 912 followers died from poison and gunfire at the temple’s jungle compound, called Jonestown.

Though Layton is not accused of shooting Ryan, the prosecution contends that the shootings were the result of a conspiracy among Layton, Jones and others.

Layton’s first trial ended in a hung jury in 1981. His second trial is scheduled Sept. 18. He is free on bail.

Federal Public Defender James Hewitt told Chief U.S. District Judge Robert Peckham on Friday that the defense is being hampered because some possibly helpful statements of witnesses are unavailable.

Peckham agreed to order a list of witnesses who appeared before the grand jury that indicted Layton in 1979, but not the transcripts.

Under federal law, grand jury testimony of prosecution witnesses must be disclosed to the defense when the witnesses testify at trial. But if they do not testify, their earlier statements must be disclosed only if the prosecution finds that they might tend to prove the defendant’s innocence.

Hewitt said he did not even know which witnesses had appeared before the grand jury. He said it could be assumed that testimony of those not being called by the prosecution to testify at the trial might be helpful to the defense.

Prosecutors countered that disclosure of the grand jury transcripts could damage the grand jury process and that the prosecution had provided the required material to the defense.