Layton Conviction Upheld in Ryan Jonestown Slaying

A federal appeals court today upheld the conviction of a former follower of the Rev. Jim Jones for conspiring in the murder of a congressman hours before the mass murder-suicide at Peoples Temple in 1978.

In a 3-0 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments by a lawyer for Larry Layton that a tape-recorded speech by Jones was improperly used as evidence and that his trial lawyers provided an inadequate defense.

Layton, the only former Peoples Temple member prosecuted in the United States, was convicted in 1986 of conspiring with Jones and others to murder Rep. Leo Ryan, shot to death at an airstrip in the Central American country of Guyana in November, 1978.

Ryan, a Democrat from the San Francisco Peninsula, had just concluded a visit to the temple’s jungle compound to investigate conditions after complaints by relatives of members of the religious cult.

Hours after the congressman, three newsmen and a temple defector were shot to death on the airstrip by gunmen from the temple, Jones and 912 followers died by poison and gunfire in a murder-suicide ritual at the agricultural settlement known as Jonestown.

After a hung jury at his first trial, Layton was convicted of conspiring in Ryan’s murder on a theory that he had participated in a plot by Jones to prevent the congressman and others from reaching the outside world with information about conditions at Jonestown.

Layton was sentenced to life in prison, with parole possible in five years.