The State : Layton Trial Bid Rejected

Former Peoples Temple member Larry Layton lost his attempt to get a new trial on charges of aiding in the murder of Rep. Leo Ryan (D-San Mateo) and diplomat Richard C. Dwyer in Guyana nine years ago. Chief U.S. District Judge Robert Peckham in San Francisco rejected the claim by Layton’s new attorney that the defendant was denied effective legal representation because his trial lawyers failed to learn that he faced a mandatory life sentence if convicted and did not put on an insanity defense. Layton’s first trial ended with a deadlocked jury. The second resulted in conviction last December. The killings of Ryan and Dwyer, deputy chief of the U.S. mission in Guyana, set off the mass suicide and killings of temple members.