Jury Guidelines Partly Undercut North’s Defense

The case against fired White House aide Oliver L. North went to a federal court jury late Thursday after the judge told the panel that North’s superiors did not have the right to “order anyone to violate the law” and that he could not be found innocent merely on those grounds.

The instructions from U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell, before jurors were sequestered for the night, partly undercut North’s principal line of defense. One of North’s attorneys objected to the instructions.

Gesell said that the jurors must apply a tough standard in weighing possibly mitigating factors for North’s actions in allegedly misleading Congress in 1985 and 1986 about his secret efforts to aid the Nicaraguan rebels.

Two Hours to Read Guidelines

The judge, in his two-hour reading of his legal guidelines to the jury, said that the jurors must assess whether North “was specifically ordered and directed by a superior to act contrary to the law,” and if so, whether any “alternative was available to him to comply with the order by other lawful means.”

It is not enough to merely determine that North understood he should mislead Congress about his efforts, Gesell said.

“A person’s general impression that a type of conduct was expected, that it was proper because others were doing the same or that the challenged act would help someone or avoid political consequences, does not satisfy the defense of authorization,” Gesell said.

He added: “Neither the President (then Ronald Reagan) nor any of the defendant’s superiors had the legal authority to order anyone to violate the law.”

In his eight-week trial on Iran-Contra charges, North has not refuted that he helped draft letters to Congress denying that he was providing military and financial help for the Contras while a congressional ban on U.S. aid was in effect.

However, in defending himself against 12 charges centered on these alleged false statements, he said that his superiors told him it was Reagan’s wish that Congress be kept in the dark. He said that all his activities were known to and authorized by his boss, then-National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane.

Sits Rigidly Attentive

The 45-year-old retired Marine lieutenant colonel sat rigidly attentive during Gesell’s reading, occasionally scribbling notes on a yellow legal pad.

The judge said that because his instructions were so lengthy, he would send a copy to the jury room for jurors to study when they begin deliberations this morning. He reminded jurors that while he determines how the law applies, they alone must determine the facts of the case.

Before jurors retired to a downtown hotel for the night, they selected Denise Anderson, a hospital office secretary, as the panel foreman.

Gesell repeatedly advised the jurors to use “your common sense,” to follow “the rule of law” and to focus on North’s conduct alone.

“Our country is governed by the rule of law,” he said. “You have heard testimony indicating that other government officials may in some respects have concealed facts known to them, and some ranking above or below the defendant may have engaged in conduct similar to that charged against the defendant on trial.”

But the conduct of others is not the issue in this case, he said. “You are not to judge defendant’s guilt or innocence based solely on the actions of others,” he declared.

The judge delayed his instructions for four hours to consider a defense motion for a mistrial based on disclosure that two jurors had not reported on their jury questionnaires that they once were defendants in auto accident lawsuits that were settled out of court. The form included a question about previous court actions in which they had been involved.

After questioning all jurors individually in his chambers, Gesell denied the motion and declined to disqualify the two.

North is charged with lying to Congress and obstructing congressional inquiries into his activities, altering and shredding top-secret government documents, misusing a Contra “operation fund” for personal expenses and conspiring with others to use a tax-exempt foundation illegally to raise funds for the Nicaraguan rebels.

If convicted on all counts, he would face maximum punishment of 60 years in prison and $3 million in fines.