Oliver L. North's sentencing has been postponed while the judge considers defense charges that one of the Iran-Contra jurors who convicted the former White House aide deliberately lied during jury selection.
U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell postponed Friday's scheduled sentencing after North's lawyers produced evidence that juror Tara King failed to disclose that a brother had been convicted of armed robbery and that two others had arrest records.The defense also said that King's statements to reporters after the verdict that she used marijuana and cocaine before the trial suggests she was under the influence of drugs during the trial.
King told interviewers that she did not use drugs during her jury service.
The judge on Tuesday postponed sentencing until July 5 and scheduled a June 28 hearing on defense allegations that King intentionally withheld the information when she filled out a questionnaire given to prospective jurors.
The questionnaire asked if any member of her family had ever been a party or witness to a civil or criminal court proceeding or had been under investigation by law enforcement authorities.
The 35-year-old office worker answered the question in the negative.
"This apparently intentional misstatement raises serious questions as to juror bias and impartiality," North's lawyers said in pleadings that were unsealed Tuesday by the judge.
Gesell might be forced to grant a mistrial if the defense can prove that it learned after the verdict that King deliberately withheld information to get on the jury.
Independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh, in other pleadings ordered unsealed, said North and his lawyers must prove that they learned about King's misstatements after the verdict.
Otherwise, his motion "constitutes an impermissible attempt to sandbag the judicial process," Walsh said, quoting from a 1982 appellate court decision.
Gesell gave North's lawyers until Friday to state "the precise date and time when counsel first learned each fact."
Walsh also argued that King may have inadvertently answered the question incorrectly, noting that she is nearly 17 years younger than the brother convicted of armed robbery in 1987.