SAN FRANCISCO -- Despite the fact that she now has Jimmy Carter on her side in a bid for a presidential pardon, Patty Hearst Shaw still has legal problems from her days as a radical bank-robbing terrorist that may well cloud her efforts to clear her name.
The retired prosecutor responsible for Hearst's San Francisco bank robbery conviction is firmly convinced of her guilt, and she must also contend with her involvement in a Sacramento bank holdup that left a customer dead. She may also be called to testify in the trial of her onetime radical chum, Kathleen Soliah, now known as Sara Jane Olson.The White House declined comment on the potential pardon, but Hearst's attorney, George Martinez, said his client "is obviously very moved by President Carter's support. She's been a model citizen, and she deserves a pardon."
Several key figures in the saga said enough time has gone by to allow her to be pardoned, including Olson.
"I feel very sympathetic to Patty Hearst and wish her only the best," Olson said through her San Francisco attorney, Stuart Hanlon. "I hope the pardon goes through."
Olson was an associate of Hearst 25 years ago, during the days when the radical group called the Symbionese Liberation Army had kidnapped the newspaper heiress from her Berkeley apartment in February 1974. Over a period of a few months, the SLA converted her to their cause, and she helped them rob banks and was a fugitive for more than a year.
Hearst was captured in September 1975, convicted of bank robbery in March 1976 and sent to federal prison. In February 1979, President Carter commuted her sentence to time served, and she was freed.
Since then, she has married her former bodyguard, produced two children, written a couple of books and appeared in a few movies. She lives in a wealthy Connecticut suburb of New York.
Olson, once a hanger-on to the SLA and, for the past 23 years, a fugitive on bomb-related charges, was captured on June 16 in St. Paul, Minn., where she was living an upscale life -- similar to Hearst's -- as a doctor's wife, acting in local plays and cooking gourmet meals.
Olson, now free on bail, is scheduled for trial in Los Angeles in January on explosives and murder conspiracy charges. The Los Angeles County district attorney has asked a Connecticut judge to compel Hearst to be a witness in the case, and her attorney says "it's no secret that she doesn't want to give testimony."
Hearst is also implicated in the April 21, 1975, robbery of a Crocker Bank branch in the Sacramento suburb of Carmichael. Hearst admitted in her book that she had been driving the getaway car. During the robbery, Myrna Lee Opsahl, 42, the wife of a Sacramento surgeon, was shot to death. Hearst says SLA member Emily Harris pulled the trigger, but Sacramento County authorities say they still want to talk to Hearst about the robbery.
Olson's brother, Steven, was the only person charged in the case. He was acquitted in a 1976 trial. Hearst first applied to the Department of Justice for a presidential pardon in August 1988, according to Martinez. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department would not comment on the specifics of Hearst's application.