Olson Seeks Delay, Cites Sept. 11 Attacks

If Sara Jane Olson could have picked any other moment during the last 26 years for her bombing conspiracy trial to begin, it probably would have been better than the present.

The longtime fugitive, whose trial is finally due to start this month, will ask a Los Angeles Superior Court judge today to postpone jury selection until January as a result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the East Coast.

Olson was indicted in 1976 on charges of conspiring with members of the radical Symbionese Liberation Army to kill Los Angeles police officers with nail-packed pipe bombs, which did not go off.

Since her 1999 arrest in Minnesota, prosecutors have repeatedly referred to Olson and members of the SLA as terrorists who participated in numerous bombings and bank robberies to further their revolutionary aims.

“If you are the defense,” said Loyola Law School professor Stan Goldman, “you’ve got to be shaking in your boots.”

Olson’s attorneys, Shawn Chapman and Tony Serra, say a delay in jury selection would give the public time to calm down. Prosecutors counter that the nation’s political climate is unlikely to change that much in a few months. They say it is time to proceed because the trial already has been delayed six times since Olson’s arrest.

If Judge Larry Fidler rejects a delay, jury selection is expected to start next week, and testimony could begin in early December.

No matter when the trial starts, experts say the recent attacks will force the defense to reevaluate its approach to the case and severely test the jury selection process for weeding out biased people.

Olson, known as Kathleen Ann Soliah when the alleged bombing attempt took place in August 1975, dropped out of sight after the indictment and changed her name, eventually settling in St. Paul, Minn.

She lived most of the last 26 years as a homemaker and wife of a doctor. By all accounts, the mother of three had been leading an exemplary life when police caught up with her on June 16, 1999. Since then, a series of delays sought by the defense has brought the trial to this ill-timed starting date.

In their trial brief, Deputy Dist. Attys. Eleanor J. Hunter and Michael A. Latin have repeatedly described Olson and the SLA as terrorists who participated in other bombings, planned thefts and robbed banks, including one in which a mother of four was killed.

“Her active participation . . . demonstrates her commitment . . . to effect revolutionary changes through terrorist acts against innocent victims,” they wrote.

Such references, if repeated during the trial, could inflame jurors, experts say.

“Every American was affected” by the Sept. 11 attacks, said Art Patterson, a jury selection consultant and senior vice president of Decision Quest of Los Angeles. “Children came home from school afraid. Ministers talked about it in church on Sunday. The economy has been hurt. The newspapers are saturated with it. . . . And then you ask a juror to judge someone accused of engaging in terrorist acts.

“I believe it would be blatantly unfair to pick a jury at this time in that case,” he said.

Stuart Hanlon, a San Francisco attorney who officially left the Olson defense team last year but still advises it, said he is not convinced that delaying jury selection until January is the best solution. By then, the fear factor could be even stronger and there could have been additional terrorist attacks, he said.

“The events of Sept. 11, in more than any other case I can imagine, affect Sara’s ability to have a fair trial with a fair jury,” he said. He said he now regrets not trying to bring the case to trial soon after her arrest.

Former Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Robert Philibosian said he believes that Olson can get a fair trial and that the trial should not be postponed further.

“This country fought two world wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf action and now this,” he said.

“We can’t stop trials just because the nation is at war. She’s not charged with being an Al Qaeda terrorist,” he said. Al Qaeda is the global network headed by prime suspect Osama bin Laden. “She’s charged with trying to blow up a police car.”

Experts interviewed were practically unanimous in their belief that the timing of the trial puts intense pressure on the defense lawyers to be especially vigilant during jury selection.

UCLA law professor Peter Aranella said prospective jurors should be asked whether they see any parallels between the accusations against Olson and terrorism today.

Gigi Gordon, a prominent criminal defense lawyer and former public defender, noted that 20 prospective jurors in a recent Orange County case admitted that they could not give an Egyptian defendant a fair trial on murder charges because of the attacks. The judge delayed the trial indefinitely.

“I think all of this fresh injury and sorrow will make jurors be more candid than they would have six months ago,” she said.

Goldman, the Loyola law professor, said the impact of the Sept. 11 attacks will probably lessen as Olson’s trial drags on and the jurors see her in court every day. As the familiarity grows, they will be less likely to view her as a symbol of terrorism and “more likely to see her as herself, Sara Jane Olson.”