Tlytimes Judicial Pokerian 2 1 1975
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tlYTimes Judicial PokeriAN 2 1 1975 gets twenty, what about Mr. Nixon By Clifford Irving after impeachment? Life? Muddy waters have cleared. The Men EAST HAMPTON, N. Y. — Before who broke into the Watergate have Judge John J. Sirica appointed himself received paroles or are free pending chief dispenser of justice in the Water- appeal. Mr. Nixon resigned and was . gate case, he was not considered by pardoned by his appointee. And a few many Washington lawyers as the best days ago Judge Sirica freed Mr. Dean, legal mind in town. His courtroom Mr. Magruder and Mr. Kalmbach. Is was noted for snappishness, not mercy. this judicial mercy? In Washington, he was among those Sadly no—just the ancient, quid pro judges whose rulings were most fre- . quo: You point the finger, and we'll quently overturned by higher courts. take it easy on you. Throughout the During the time I spent in three trials and incarcerations, the prosecu- Federal prisons I met a score of men tion and Judge Sirica have played who had been sentenced by Judge poker not only with justice, but with Sirica. Most of them were black. They the irretrievable years of men's lives. were all doing comparatively heavy One tends to forget the essence of time for so-called "white-collar" crimes. Watergate: The ruling executive clique Some of them had asked the court in a democratic nation attempted to for recommendations to the parole win an election through illegal means, board, but none had been forthcoming. and then tried to hide what it had Some had applied for sentence reduc- done. The cover-up has always seemed tions; none had ever been granted by to me far less shameful than the Judge Sirica. act. itself; as an orgy of deception I did time •at Danbury prison with it just took longer to illuminate, and Howard Hunt, Frank Sturgis and therefore received more extended pub- others who broke into Democratic licity: At Danbury, Mr. Hunt and his National Headquarters. They were Central Intelligence Agency troop were the enlisted men in' the affair, as ostracized by a majority of the prison- Richard M. Nixon surely later be- ers. Ironically—quixotically, too, since came commander-in-chief. Under the they never asked to join—they were . pretext of an extended psychological banned from membership in the in- study (never conducted), Judge Sirica mate chapter of the Junior Chamber kept these men in prison nearly a of Commerce. I asked why, and a year before passing sentence. They young hustler laid it on me. sweated it out while the judge, pre- "Man," he said, "I'm a thief, I deal sumably, tried to reckon .the culpa- and I steal, but I deal what dudes bility of the lieutenants and generals, want and what I steal is money. But and then parcel out the years accord- these guys, like Hunt—man, they were ingly. out to steal men's liberty. Dig?" Mr. Hunt finally was hit with a I dig. Still, I was glad when Hunt two and one-half to eight-year term; & Co. were released. Prison is evil. Mr. Sturgis got one to four. This was No human being should be there un- not only harsh (an unarmed burglary, less he has killed dispassionately or a first offense) and vindictive (unlike is a clear danger to the physical sur- John Dean and Jeb Stuart Magruder. vival of others. I was ultimately more Mr. Hunt et 'al couldn't or wouldn't glad than galled when Spiro T. Agnew incriminate the top brass), it was that quintessential hypocrite, walked. absurd. One asked then, if Mr. Hunt And so, too, I believe we should got eight, how could John N. Mitchell applaud the release of Mr. Dean, Mr. and John D. Ehrlichman get less than Magruder and Mr. Kalmbach. They ten to twenty? And if Mr. Mitchell, aren't killers. They have families. They that erstwhile deacon of law and order, should not have been imprisoned in THE NEW YORK TIMES, TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1975 Jean-Claude Suares the first place. Ditto for Hunt. ated with the authorities. Most have Ditto for Smith, doing ten years wives and children. Is it necessary, at Lewisburg for embezzlement. Ditto first, to show one's penitence on net- for Jones, doing three years at Dan- work television, or blush between the bury for mail fraud. There are over covers of a Literary Guild selection? 24,000 Smiths and Joneses in Federal A last question to all our judges and prisons and at least 400,000 more in United States attorneys: Do you have state and county institutions. I imagine to be baby-faced, slick-tongued, an one of their deepest regrets is that informer and a member of the Nixon their crimes are not linked to Water- gang to be dealt a decent hand in the gate. judicial poker game? Will Judge Sirica also set free those hundreds of men he has sent to Lewis- Clifford Irving, a writer, spent seven- burg and Danbury for up to thirty teen months in prison for the Howard years at a crack? Many have cooper- Hughes autobiography hoax. .