Spy Conviction of Ex-FBI Agent Miller Overturned

The espionage conviction of Richard Miller, the only FBI agent ever convicted of spying, was overturned by a federal appeals court today because of the use of lie-detector evidence at his trial.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the jury should not have been told the results of Miller’s polygraph examinations, which concluded that he was lying about his motives.

The polygraph evidence bolstered the credibility of Miller’s later admissions of wrongdoing, “the heart of the prosecution’s case,” the court said in a 3-0 ruling.

The decision entitles Miller to a new trial on charges that he spied for the Soviet Union.

Miller was convicted in June, 1986, of passing secrets to the Soviets through his lover, Svetlana Ogorodnikova, in return for promises of $65,000 in cash and gold. He was sentenced to two life terms plus 50 years in prison.

Ogorodnikova and her husband, Nikolay Ogorodnikov, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit espionage and are serving prison terms.

‘We’ll Deal With It’

U.S. Atty. Robert Bonner was informed of the ruling while attending a speech by President Bush on a ranch in Southern California.

“Oh really?” Bonner said. “We’ll obviously want to take a look at the 9th Circuit opinion. We may reappeal, and we have other means. If those fail, we will retry the case. We’ll deal with it when we see the decision.”

Joel Levine, a Los Angeles lawyer who represented Miller, reacted by noting the time Miller has spent behind bars since his arrest: “We’re very, very pleased, but we would be more pleased if we (hadn’t had) to go through five years waiting for a fair trial with a client in custody.”

Miller, a 20-year FBI veteran, was portrayed by prosecutors as a bitter, vengeful failure easily recruited as a spy. The defense described him as a well-meaning FBI misfit who dreamed of redeeming his career by infiltrating the Soviet spy network in the United States.

He was charged with furnishing a classified document called the Positive Intelligence Reporting Guide, which sets forth annual U.S. intelligence needs, to his lover for delivery to the Soviet Consulate in San Francisco in August, 1984.

In reversing his conviction, the appeals court ruled there were several errors by U.S. District Judge David Kenyon, who presided over the trial in Los Angeles.

One was Kenyon’s decision to admit evidence of lie-detector tests that the FBI gave Miller during the investigation of the case.