Court Upholds Convictions in Spy Photos Case

A federal appeals court today upheld the convictions of a former intelligence analyst who gave spy photographs of a Soviet ship to a British military journal.

Samuel Loring Morison, grandson of the late Pulitzer Prize-winning naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison, was convicted in October, 1985, of giving U.S. satellite photographs of a Soviet nuclear aircraft carrier under construction to Jane’s Defence Weekly.

A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments by Morison, who worked for the Navy, that the statutes under which he was found guilty of espionage and theft of government property were unconstitutionally vague and were intended to cover “classic spying” for a foreign government rather than leaks to the press.

The defense also said the espionage prosecution violated Morison’s right to free speech and would intimidate low-level government employees from leaking information which would embarrass their superiors.

But the judges said: “The mere fact that one has stolen a document in order that he may deliver it to the press, whether for money or other personal gain, will not immunize him from responsibility for his criminal act. To use the First Amendment for such a purpose would be to convert the First Amendment into a warrant for thievery.”

Morison was sentenced to two years in prison but remains free on bail. His lawyer said it was uncertain whether he will appeal today’s decision.