Carter is quoted as saying Hearst is now 'a model citizen in every way'

Calls convicted bank robber a 'model citizen'

October 6, 1999
Web posted at: 10:03 p.m. EDT (0203 GMT)

In this story: Hearst may face questioning in new SLA trial Prosecutor, FBI agent against pardon 'Refuge in a sea of misunderstanding' RELATED STORIES, SITES

ATLANTA (CNN) -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is lobbying the Clinton administration in hopes of winning a full pardon for Patty Hearst, the newspaper heiress who joined an urban guerrilla group after it kidnapped her.

Hearst became the focal point of one of the most sensational criminal cases of the 1970s. A surveillance picture of her wearing a beret and carrying a gun during a bank robbery has become part of U.S. history.

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Crime and punishment

During his own presidency two decades ago, Carter commuted Hearst's seven-year prison sentence on a federal bank robbery conviction after she had served nearly two years behind bars.

Now CNN has learned Carter is seeking a pardon for her, telling president Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and Attorney General that Hearst has led an exemplary life as a wife and mother since her release in 1979.

"I think he feels she is deserving of a pardon, and he has been communicating with the White House since President Bush," Carie Harmon, a spokeswoman for the Atlanta-based Carter Center, said Wednesday.

"What (a pardon) does in a way is sort of takes a person back to square one," said CNN legal analyst Roger Cossack. "They can then vote again and they can get their civil rights back."

Carter was on his way to Africa Wednesday and could not comment.

But his former U.S. attorney general, Judge Griffin Bell, commended Carter for both commuting Hearst's sentence and for seeking a pardon for her.

"She may not have been in the crime that was committed had she not been kidnapped," said Bell.

Hearst may face questioning in new SLA trial

A radical group called the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) kidnapped the then-19-year-old granddaughter of press magnate William Randolph Hearst from her apartment in Berkeley in February of 1974. Patty Hearst later said she was held in a closet for nearly two months and was repeatedly raped.

She ultimately joined her abductors, assumed the name Tania and denounced her wealthy parents. Two months after the kidnapping, she was photographed carrying a carbine during an SLA holdup of a San Francisco bank.

Hearst could be called back to the witness stand next January at the trial of SLA fugitive Sara Jane Olson, once known as Kathleen Soliah. Olson faces trial on charges she planted bombs under Los Angeles police cars in 1975.

And this time, Hearst may not be able to claim Constitutional protection against self-incrimination.

"If she (Hearst) comes, we're going to have to question her about a huge period of her life," said Stuart Hanlon, defense attorney for Olson. "Questions, that at her own trial, she took the 5th (Amendment) on and didn't answer."

Most people remember Hearst as an newspaper heiress turned SLA member and bank robber

Prosecutor, FBI agent against pardon

The Justice Department confirmed Hearst applied for a pardon in 1996.

One of the federal prosecutors in Hearst's trial, San Francisco attorney David Bancroft, has written the Justice Department arguing strongly against a pardon, according to the Los Angeles Times published Wednesday.

It quoted him as describing Hearst as "a willing participant in some pretty horrible stuff" and that "her notion of having been a victim has been rejected by a jury and several judges on appeal."

The Times quoted Carter as saying, "She's been a model citizen in every way" since her release. "My heart went out to her when her case first came to me."

But when Carter first approached President George Bush for a Hearst pardon, a federal law enforcement agent who worked the case opposed the pardon.

"Violent acts like that should not allow a person to receive a pardon the first time they request it," said former FBI agent Charles Bates in 1988.

'Refuge in a sea of misunderstanding'

Hearst, now 45, is married to her former bodyguard and with her two daughters, Lydia, 14, and Gillian, 18, lives in a wealthy community in Fairfield County, Connecticut.

Hearst has appeared in two of John Waters' movies, including "Serial Mom" in 1994 and "Pecker" in 1998. She has also performed in several TV sitcoms and has written novels and performed charitable work. She describes herself as a Republican.

She declined to comment on Carter's efforts on her behalf.

"She wants to express her gratitude for President Carter's confidence in her," her attorney, George Martinez, said. "She is quite moved by his support. He has been her refuge in a sea of misunderstanding."

Correspondent Jennifer Auther, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.