Judge Won’t Rule Out Bail in Spy Case

The judge in the Richard W. Miller spy case said Wednesday that he will not automatically rule out releasing the convicted Soviet spy on bail pending a possible new trial simply because of the “serious nature” of the charges against him.

U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon in Los Angeles gave Miller’s defense lawyers two weeks to gather information to bolster their arguments that the former FBI agent should be released from prison because of a federal appeals court ruling that overturned his 1986 espionage conviction.

Miller, 51, the first FBI agent to be found guilty of espionage, was convicted after two trials of passing secret information to the Soviet Union and sentenced to two life prison terms plus 50 years. His conviction was reversed last month by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on grounds that Kenyon permitted too much testimony about Miller’s failure on polygraph tests.

Miller’s lawyers, Joel Levine and Stanley Greenberg, asked Kenyon to consider placing Miller in a halfway house setting, where his movements could be easily monitored. They said that although the former agent has no money, relatives might be able to post a token bail of $100,000 or so.