Court Refuses to Reinstate Poindexter Convictions

The Supreme Court let stand Monday a ruling that freed former White House National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter from his five felony convictions in 1990 in the Iran-Contra scandal.

The justices, without comment, declined to overturn an appellate court ruling that had reversed Poindexter’s criminal convictions on grounds that his immunized testimony to Congress was used against him improperly.

The Poindexter decision was not unexpected, since the court had made the same determination in the case of former White House aide Oliver L. North.

Meanwhile, there were these other developments Monday in the six-year-old scandal, which involved secret arms sales to Iran by the Ronald Reagan Administration and the illegal use of the proceeds to help anti-government rebel forces in Nicaragua:

-- Jurors deliberating perjury charges for a ninth day against former CIA official Clair E. George were ordered to redouble their efforts after they told a federal judge that they had reached a verdict on some charges but were “deadlocked” on others.

The jurors did not specify how many of the seven charges they had resolved or whether they had voted for conviction or acquittal.

-- Former Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger lost his bid to be tried by a judge next month rather than by a jury. U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan ruled that Weinberger’s trial on charges he misled congressional investigators would proceed before a jury because federal prosecutors object to a non-jury trial.

Weinberger’s attorney, Robert S. Bennett, argued that it would be unfair to allow a jury in the heavily Democratic District of Columbia to hear the case of the former Reagan Cabinet officer.

Hogan disagreed, saying that other Republican officials had received fair trials in Washington. The judge also said he would rule later this week on a motion by Weinberger’s lawyers that an October amendment to his indictment charging the former Californian with lying to Congress should be dismissed because it was filed after the statute of limitations had run out.

In the Poindexter case, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington threw out his conviction in November, 1991, on the same grounds that it had invalidated the conviction of North, who had worked for Poindexter in the White House.

In a 2-1 ruling, the appellate court said that Poindexter was wrongly convicted in April, 1990, because several witnesses--including North, who testified against him--were tainted by their familiarity with Poindexter’s immunized testimony before Congress in 1987.

Federal law provides that when a person receives immunity from prosecution for whatever he tells Congress, that person’s testimony cannot be used against him, even indirectly. The court said that such an indirect use would be when the testimony refreshed the recollection of a person who testified for the prosecution at a later trial.

Appellate Judges Douglas H. Ginsburg and David Sentelle, both Reagan appointees, held that Poindexter’s trial had been so tainted. They also disputed whether “lying or misleading the Congress” actually violates a 160-year-old federal law against “corruptly” impeding a congressional investigation.

Judge Abner Mikva, an appointee of former President Jimmy Carter, dissented.

In his plea to the high court, independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh called parts of the appellate court ruling “astonishing.” Walsh said Monday that he hopes--”after other judicial circuits have had an opportunity to consider the problems raised by the Court of Appeals decision--the Supreme Court will find the questions presented by that opinion ripe for its review.”

Poindexter’s convictions had been based on his alleged cover-up of the Iran-Contra scandal. He had been sentenced in June, 1990, to six months in prison but had been granted a stay pending the outcome of his appeals.