Jury Begins Deliberations in North Trial

WASHINGTON--Lt. Col. Oliver North's jury debated his guilt or innocence in a tightly guarded room yesterday, as an alternate juror who heard all the testimony said she would have voted to convict him on some of the 12 charges.

The jurors deliberated for about six hours before quitting for the day. They will resume this morning.

"Mr. North...wasn't made to do what he did," said Horasina McKie, one of five alternates dismissed when the case went to the jury. "He had a choice in it. He had a choice to either say, `No, I don't want to do this' or `Yes sir, I will do this' even as it went along, and he knew it was wrong."

North is charged with withholding information from Congress, lying to Attorney General Edwin Meese III about his activities in the Iran-Contra affair, destroying and altering documents, misusing money entrusted to him and accepting an illegal gratuity--a $13,800 security system at his home.

McKie said she had not discussed the case with other jurors--following the strict instructions given daily by U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell--and did not know how they feel.

The nine women and three men judging North began deliberating at 9:40 a.m. and soon relayed requests to the judge on notes. They asked for copies of Gesell's instructions, which took more than two hours to read in court, note pads, paper clips and pencils.

Jury members will deliberate for half the day on Saturday, but not on Sunday. Their lunches in the court-house are being catered.

After a night sequestered in a downtown hotel, the jurors were brought to the federal courthouse in a van and taken to an small room only a few feet away from the courtroom where they had listened to testimony for eight weeks. Their room was further crowded with hundreds of exhibits, some still classified as top secret. A U.S. marshal guarded the door.

The lead juror is 34-year-old hospital clerk Denise Anderson, who said during pre-trial questioning that she does not like news and that the extensive television coverage given North's testimony during the 1987 congressional hearings "made me mad... I did not look at it at all."

McKie, an alternate juror who commented in an interview with CBS News, touched on one of North's major defenses, that he was authorized to do all he did.

"No one said, `If you don't do this we're going to fire you," the alternate juror said. In his instructions, Gesell had told the jury to remember that no one, including the president, had the right to order an unlawful act.

North testified he was acting under orders, even when he lied to a congressional committee in denying he was assisting the Nicaraguan Contras. He said that he had no idea any of his actions violated the law, and that he had good motives for what he did.

If convicted on all counts, he could be sentenced to 60 years in prison and fined as much as $3 million. However, federal court practice is generally to limit sentences to the longest term for any one count--in this case 10 years.