North Jury Deliberating--’Guilty,’ Alternate Declares

Oliver L. North’s jury began debating his guilt or innocence in a tightly guarded room today, as an alternate juror who heard all the testimony said she would have voted to convict him on some of the 12 charges.

“Mr. North . . . wasn’t made to do what he did,” said Horasina McKie, one of five alternates dismissed when the case went to the jury. “He had a choice in it. He had a choice to either say, ‘No, I don’t want to do this,’ or ‘Yes sir, I will do this,’ even as it went along and he knew it was wrong.”

North is charged with withholding information from Congress, lying to Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III about his activities in the Iran-Contra affair, destroying and altering documents, misusing money and accepting an illegal gratuity.

McKie told CBS News she had not discussed the case with other jurors and did not know how they might vote.

The foreman is a 34-year-old hospital clerk, Denise Anderson, who said during pretrial questioning that she does not like news and that the extensive television coverage given North’s testimony during the 1987 congressional hearings “made me mad. . . . I did not look at it at all.”