Restore North Convictions, Walsh Asks

Independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh asked the Supreme Court on Monday to reinstate the convictions of former White House aide Oliver L. North and to overturn a ruling that he says would make it almost impossible for courts to try a person compelled to testify before Congress.

After a 12-week trial, North was convicted of destroying documents and lying to Congress in the Iran-Contra scandal. But last July, a federal appeals court here threw out the conviction on a 2-1 vote in an opinion written by two appointees of Ronald Reagan, who was President when North served on the National Security Council staff.

The appeals court said that prosecutors had failed to prove that grand jury witnesses did not have their memories “refreshed” by North’s dramatic, televised testimony before Congress. Because North was compelled to testify, prosecutors were required to take special efforts to assure that they did not hear any of his testimony or use his account against him.

But, the appeals court said, it is also possible that witnesses had heard the testimony and that their accounts were therefore “tainted.”

In his appeal filed Monday, Walsh said that the high court should hear the case, not just because of its “notoriety” but because of the broad ruling set forth by the appeals court. Unless the ruling is overturned, other Iran-Contra convictions and the pending prosecutions of Samuel R. Pierce Jr., former secretary of housing and urban development, could be threatened, he said.

The Supreme Court is expected to announce by July whether it will hear the case.