• U.S.

TRIALS: Fresh Start for Gurney

2 minute read
TIME

On the eighth day of deliberation, the jury of six men and six women announced that they had agreed on some points, disagreed on others, and “reached all verdicts that can be reached.” U.S. District Judge Ben Krentzman sent them back into the wood-paneled jury room in Tampa, Fla., to deliberate further. After two more days, the jurors finally re-emerged last week with most of a verdict. Handsome, silver-haired ex-Senator Edward J. Gurney, 61, the first U.S. Senator in 50 years to be criminally indicted while in office, was found not guilty of bribery, of taking unlawful compensation, and of three counts of lying to a grand jury. The jurors disagreed on a fourth perjury count and a conspiracy charge. Judge Krentzman declared a mistrial on those two charges, and federal prosecutors seemed reluctant to pursue the matter further. Said Gurney of the jury’s verdict: “Thank heaven.”

Nixon Defender. Gurney’s prosecution arose out of charges that his aides collected some $400,000 in illegal or unreported campaign contributions, partly by demanding money from Florida builders in exchange for supposed Government favors. Gurney testified that he was at first unaware of these activities and stopped them when he found out about them.

A staunch defender of Richard Nixon during the Senate Watergate committee hearings, Gurney had seemed politically doomed by the trial. But after the verdict, he confidently declared that a return to politics “is an option.” His other options: retiring to private law practice or writing about his trial in what he modestly heralds as “one of the greatest books in the history of American jurisprudence.” In the meantime, he faces a bill for his legal defense that is estimated to be $250,000.

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