Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 12, 1991                   TAG: 9102120556
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

APPEALS COURT ORDERS THAT BAKKER BE RE-SENTENCED

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Bakker was fairly tried and convicted of 24 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy in 1989 but must be resentenced.

The founder of the PTL Network was sentenced to 45 years in prison and fined $500,000 for defrauding followers who bought partnerships in PTL's Heritage USA vacation park and retreat in Fort Mill, S.C.

But the appeals court said U.S. District Judge Robert Potter of Charlotte, N.C., abused his discretion and violated Bakker's due process rights with his remarks at sentencing.

During the hearing, the judge said Bakker "had no thought whatever about his victims and those of us who do have a religion are ridiculed as being saps [for] money-grubbing preachers or priests."

The appeals court said judges cannot punish defendants for offending their personal religious beliefs.

"Whether or not the trial judge has a religion is irrelevant for purposes of sentencing," said the opinion written by Judge Harvie Wilkinson and joined by Judges Dickson Phillips and John Butzner.

"Regrettably, we are left with the apprehension that the imposition of a lengthy prison term here may have reflected the fact that the The appeals court said judges cannot punish defendants for offending their personal religious beliefs. court's own sense of religious propriety had somehow been betrayed," Wilkinson wrote.

The court ordered that Bakker be resentenced by a different judge.

Bakker has been serving his sentence at a federal prison in Rochester, Minn. His appeal was argued last October by Alan Dershowitz, who joined the case after Bakker was convicted.

Dershowitz had also argued that Bakker's sentence exceeded federal sentencing guidelines that took effect Nov. 1, 1987. But the court said the guidelines do not apply because the conspiracy began in 1982.

The court also rejected Bakker's claim that his jury trial was tainted by publicity, that he was denied effective counsel, that two rulings on evidence were incorrect and that jury instruction were improper.

On the publicity charge, the court noted that Bakker made frequent appearances on national television shows before the trial.

"A defendant should not be allowed to manipulate the criminal justice system by generating publicity and then using that same publicity to support his claim that the media attention surrounding his case created a presumption of prejudice," the court said.