Pollard Gets Another Day In Court, But Comes Away With No Decision

Edwin Black - JTA - September 2, 2003

WASHINGTON - It didnt result in any decision, but just getting another day in court was a victory of sorts for Jonathan Pollard.

Sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987 for spying for Israel, Pollard for years had tried to get a new hearing, arguing that his former counsel was inept and that the government broke a plea bargain agreement when it convinced the judge at his trial to give him a life sentence.

On Tuesday, Pollard appeared in U.S. District Court in Washington, the first time he has been seen in public since his sentencing 16 years ago.

A packed courtroom heard Pollards pro bono defense attorneys demand what they said was justice for the former Navy analyst, who confessed to passing military secrets to Israel.

Over and over again, attorney Jacques Semmelman argued that Pollards original attorney, Richard Hibey, had been guilty of ineffective assistance of counsel, thereby denying Pollard his right to a fair trial. Pollard already has served longer than any other spy similarly convicted.

Semmelman repeatedly reminded Judge Thomas Hogan that Hibey, without explanation, never objected to the governments breach of its written plea agreement not to ask for a life sentence; failed to ask for an evidentiary hearing regarding a last-minute, secret declaration by then-Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger outlining Pollards allegedly extensive damage to U.S. interests; and failed to file the routine notice of appeal required within 10 days of the court proceedings.

Hibey has declined to discuss the case. Weinberger has admitted that his sworn declaration, in many ways the basis for Pollards life sentence, "was made far bigger than its actual importance." [J4JP: See Caspar's Ghost]

Hogan did not rule on the request for a reduction of Pollards sentence or on his attorneys request to be able to see the secret documents.

Wearing green leisure clothes and a beige knit yarmulke, [J4JP: Is this a joke? Jonathan wore green prison-issue clothing stamped in bold white lettering "Arlington County Detention Center"] Pollard was brought to the courtroom Tuesday without shackles [J4JP: his shackles we inre removed seconds before he was brought into the court room] and took a seat between Semmelman and his lead attorney, Eliot Lauer. His lawyers were backed up by two hired public relations managers, a contingent of rabbis led by former Israeli Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, Pollards wife Esther and Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.). Lauer appealed to the judge to allow Pollards attorneys access to the secret documents behind the Weinberger declaration, which the government maintains are too secret for defense counsel to examine.

Hogan asked prosecutors several times whether the information from more than a decade and a half ago is "stale" or "no longer has its status" as top secret. In a conversation with JTA, Weiner said he was the only member of Congress actually to examine the secret documents that have been denied to Pollards current attorneys. He examined them in 1999 in the presence of security officers in the office of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, Weiner said.

Weiner declined to characterize the documents or divulge their contents. But based on what he read, he said, he disagrees with both the public and secret portions of the Weinberger declaration.

"No case in American history has been treated so harshly," Weiner said. Pollard "should have never been sentenced to life."

That view was seconded by several Jewish leaders.

"Its time for the president to release Pollard on humanitarian grounds," said Seymour Reich, a former chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations who was in the courtroom representing the conferences Pollard committee. "Eighteen years is enough time."

Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, hailed the hearing as "a major achievement" for Pollards attorneys.

He added that he saw "great significance in the fact that the judge summoned Pollard up from Butner" - the North Carolina prison where he is being held - "to attend his hearing."

Eliyahu came from Israel for the hearing.

"I came here all the way from Tel Aviv to see justice done for Jonathan Pollard and bring Jonathan back to Jerusalem," he said in an interview.

Eliyahu led a prayer session in the pouring rain outside the courthouse after the hearing.

Asked if he thought Pollard would be released, Eliyahu looked at the sky and said, "Anything can happen."

A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Raanan Gissin, declined to comment on the hearing, but he told The Associated Press that Israel was still working for Pollards release.

"We are using all our efforts to get him released," Gissin said.

Government lawyers said they were under strict orders from the U.S. Attorneys Office not to comment on Tuesdays proceedings.