APnv 06/04 0219 Layton

   By BOB EGELKO Associated Press Writer

   SAN  FRANCISCO  (AP)  --  Former  People's Temple member Larry
Layton has been denied a new trial on charges  he  aided  in  the
1978 murder  of  U.S.  Rep.    Leo Ryan, which triggered the mass
murder-suicide of the religious cult in a South American jungle.

   Chief U.S. District Judge Robert Peckham on Wednesday rejected
arguments by Layton's new lawyer that Layton was denied effective
legal assistance because his trial lawyers  failed  to  learn  he
faced  a  mandatory life sentence if convicted and decided not to
put on an insanity defense.

   Layton's trial lawyers showed  "competence,  conscientiousness
and  dedication,"  said Peckham, who presided over Layton's first
trial, which ended in a hung jury in 1981, and his  second  trial
that ended in a conviction last December. " ...  Layton could not
have asked for better legal representation."

   Layton,  41, the only former temple member tried in the United
States, was convicted of conspiracy and aiding  and  abetting  in
the  murder  of  Ryan, D-Calif., and the attempted murder of U.S.
diplomat Richard Dwyer on an airstrip in Guyana in November 1978.

   Ryan and four others were shot to death  by  gunmen  from  the
temple's nearby jungle headquarters, and Dwyer and 10 others were
wounded.   Layton,  who  had  gone  to  the  airstrip posing as a
defector from the temple, shot and wounded two genuine  defectors
who  were  trying  to  leave  the  country with Ryan's party in a
separate airplane.

   Hours later, the Rev.  Jim Jones and  912  followers  died  by
poison and gunfire in a murder-suicide ritual at the agricultural
compound   called   Jonestown,   where   Ryan   had  completed  a
fact-finding visit the previous day.

   The judge said the  decision  not  to  present  a  psychiatric
defense  was  "a  deliberate tactical choice made after extensive
discussion among the attorneys and with the agreement  of  Layton
himself."   Even had he known he faced a mandatory life sentence,
Peckham said, Layton would not have  insisted  on  testifying  or
putting on an insanity defense.

   Layton's   new   lawyer,   Robert   Bryan,  has  appealed  the
convictions and said  he  would  also  appeal  Peckham's  ruling.
Layton is free on bail during the appeal.

   At  both  trials,  Layton's  lawyers presented no evidence and
called  no  witnesses,  choosing  instead  to  argue   that   the
prosecution  had  failed  to  prove  that  Layton  was  part of a
conspiracy with Jones to kill Ryan so that the congressman  could
not report on conditions in Jonestown.

   Peckham  sentenced  Layton  to  life,  as required by law, but
ordered him considered for parole in five years, half  the  usual
time.   The  judge said Layton had not been a major member of the
conspiracy.

   In seeking a new trial, Bryan  said  Layton  had  been  denied
effective  legal  assistance  for  two  reasons:  his lawyers had
failed to learn during the trial that the charge of aiding  in  a
congressman's  murder carried a mandatory life sentence, and they
decided not to present a defense based on his mental state,  even
though  several  psychiatrists had concluded that Layton had been
insane at the time.

   Had he known of the sentence he faced, Layton testified  after
the  trial,  he  would  have insisted on putting on a defense and
testifying at the trial, desspite  his  reluctance  to  reveal  a
number   of   his  disclosures  to  psychiatrists  that  included
statements about his sexual relationship with Jones.

   But  Peckham  said  Wednesday  he  found  Layton's  post-trial
assertions "not believable."

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