JUSTICES WON'T REVIEW MARINE'S SPY CONVICTION

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

DATE: TUESDAY, April 6, 1993                   TAG: 9304060195
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium
JUSTICES WON'T REVIEW MARINE'S SPY CONVICTION
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to review the espionage conviction of Pvt. Clayton J. Lonetree, the Marine convicted of spying for the Soviet Union while assigned to guard the U.S. embassies in Moscow and Vienna in the mid-1980s.
The court made no comment in letting the 1987 conviction stand. Lonetree, who was reduced in rank from sergeant and sentenced to 25 years in prison, argued that he had been tricked into confessing by two intelligence agents who promised him confidentiality but then reported him to the authorities and testified against him at his court-martial.
Lonetree talked to the two agents, identified publicly only as Little John and Big John, over several days in a Vienna hotel room. They never informed him of his right to remain silent or consult a lawyer.
The military courts that upheld his conviction by a Marine Corps court-martial ruled that because the intelligence agents were not his superior officers or law-enforcement agents, and because Lonetree was not in custody when he talked to them, neither the lack of warnings nor the broken promise of confidentiality made the confession invalid.
In his Supreme Court appeal, Lonetree's lawyers argued the confession should be regarded as involuntary and inadmissible because the promise of confidentiality made it the product of "coercive conduct."
In response, the government argued that there had been no coercion.
A promise of confidentiality, the government said, "is not the kind of government conduct that is likely to overbear a person's will and in effect render his confession the product of coercion."
The agents made their promise not for purposes of prosecution but "to obtain critical damage-assessment information" about the material Lonetree had given his contacts, the government said.
He provided information about the layouts and security systems of the embassies as well as the identities of U.S. officers.
But the most sensational accusation in the case, that several Marines had escorted Soviet agents on an illicit tour of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, was dropped after investigators concluded the incident had not occurred.
Lonetree was drawn into espionage through a love affair with a Russian woman who worked as a translator at the embassy. He is being held at the disciplinary barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., awaiting resentencing.
The Court of Military Appeals upheld his conviction by a 3-2 vote last October, but set aside his 25-year sentence on the ground that he might have been inadequately represented by his civilian lawyer, William M. Kunstler.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB