SECRETS BARRED AS EVIDENCE IN VA. SPY TRIAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000606240014-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: December 6, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606240014-0
""-_ 1"'.3
WASHINGTON POST
6 December 1985
Secrets Barred
As Evidence
In Va. Spy TriaL
By Tom Kapsidelis . ,,,,,,,,,
IJrrmted Pre, International raw"
RICHMOND, Dec. 5-A divided"'
federal appeals court ruled today
that accused spy Richard Craig
Smith cannot introduce certain clas-
sified material at his trial in Alex%
andria because it would harm the s
national interest.
The full 4th U.S. Circuit Court of)
Appeals, by a 7-to-5 vote, reverse
ci1
a position taken earlier by a threev
judge panel and threw out a decd
sion by U.S. District Judge Richard
L. Williams that certain information
Smith wanted to introduce was rel-
evant and admissible.
While the information may have
been relevant, the appeals court
said, Williams should have accepted
the government's contention there
should be a "balancing test" be-
tween Smith's right to a defense
and the government's right to pro-
tect sources of national intelligence,
Smith, of Bellevue, Wash., wins-
indicted last year on five counts of
espionage. A former Army Intelli-
gence Security Command employe,
he is accused of giving the identities
of six U.S. double agents to a Soviet
intelligence officer for $11,000.
He wants to introduce classified
information to support his defense
that he believed he was working for
the CIA when he sold the informa-
tion, court papers showed.,
Rejecting the idea that relevancy,
is the only issue, the court said;,
"The government has a substantial,_
interest in protecting" intelligence
sources and methods.
Dissenting judges rejected the vigi
that relevant evidence already known"
to the defendant should be barred.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/27: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606240014-0