Barry Withdraws Bid for Retrial of Cocaine Possession Conviction

Marion Barry’s attorney on Friday withdrew his request for a retrial of the mayor’s misdemeanor cocaine possession conviction.

“I have spoken with my client, and he has decided to withdraw that motion for a mistrial,” defense lawyer L. Kenneth Mundy told U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson during a pre-sentencing hearing.

Barry, who is scheduled to be sentenced next Friday, faces up to a year in prison and a maximum fine of $100,000.

Law enforcement officials said U.S. Atty. Jay B. Stephens might consider retrying the mayor on a dozen charges that the jury had been unable to resolve if Barry pushed his request for another trial. Stephens had said earlier that he would not conduct another trial.

Mundy said the decision to withdraw the request was reached before the government filed papers opposing the motion.

In the 10-minute hearing Friday, Mundy asked that the sentencing be delayed because he had not had enough time to respond to a pre-sentencing report prepared by the mayor’s parole officer.

The report was not released in open court, but Mundy said his chief objection was its apparent conclusion that Barry has neither shown remorse nor taken responsibility for his actions by admitting to prior drug use.

“There is an ongoing probe of Mr. Barry, and some of the questions being asked (of witnesses) involve drug use by Mr. Barry,” Mundy said. “It would have been very perilous for him to make any pre-sentencing statement to the parole officer until we know that there will be no other trial.”

The judge denied the request to delay sentencing.

Mundy originally had asked for a retrial because he said some of the jurors were compromised when they witnessed a drug sting operation at the hotel where they were sequestered.

The jury convicted Barry on Aug. 10 of one misdemeanor cocaine possession count, acquitted him of another and deadlocked on a dozen other counts, including a charge resulting from his Jan. 18 arrest in an FBI sting operation at a downtown Washington hotel.

Barry said in advance of his trial that he would not seek reelection as mayor, but he announced his candidacy for the District of Columbia City Council after the trial.