THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 30, 1994 TAG: 9409300023
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
I believe that Oliver North's campaign has benefited from poor reporting by the press concerning his Iran/-Contra trial, as compared to the Simpson case.
The ruling to overturn North's conviction, by a vote of 2-1, was based on a vague technicality. The appeals court did not hold that the prosecution used North's immunized testimony against him. It merely said Judge Gesell, the trial judge, failed to look hard enough, after the trial, to see that the immunized testimony had not been used against the defendant. Additionally, the appeals court did not say North was innocent; it ordered a new trial.
One of the judges who voted to overturn North's conviction was David Sentelle, a Republican who owes his appointment to North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms. Sentelle, in August of this year, was part of the appeals court which removed Robert Fiske as independent counsel in the Whitewater investigation, replacing him with the highly partisan Kenneth Starr (remarkably, Starr is the fellow who wrote the opinion for Sentelle's appeals court in overturning North's conviction).
North filed two lawsuits against the government during the Iran/Contra investigations (Feb. 24, 1987, and March 5, 1987) claiming the independent-counsel law was unconstitutional. (Based on these lawsuits, I presume that North would now support President Clinton as being treated unfairly by this same law.)
The other judge who voted to overturn North's conviction in July 1990 was Lawrence Silberman. Also a Republican, Silberman ruled in 1988 that the independent-counsel law was unconstitutional. But the Supreme Court overturned his ruling later that same year. Did Judge Silberman vote to overturn North's conviction less on the merits of the prosecution's case against North and more in sympathy with North's view that the independent counsel law is unconstitutional?
Like President Clinton, North had a defense fund. It raised $4.6 million in 1988, and $6.4 million in 1989. (O.J. is not paying that much!) Reportedly North often had to borrow gas money when he worked at the National Security Council. But following his conviction in 1989, he was able to swing the purchase of a new home near Washington costing $1.7 million.
J. S. MORROW
Virginia Beach, Sept. 16, 1994 by CNB