Word: wortham
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Svetlana Stalina was not alone last week in winning her freedom from Russia. A Soviet appeals court lifted the three-year labor-camp sentence imposed last December on Buel Ray Wortham, 25, of Little Rock, Ark., who had been convicted of stealing an antique statue of a bear from a Leningrad hotel and of changing money on the black market (TIME, Dec. 30). In place of the prison sentence, Wortham was ordered to pay a 5,000-ruble ($5,555) fine. The decision came after a plea by a group of Little Rock townfolk, who had promised to pay whatever...
...offer is tempting. Whereas the ruble is officially pegged at $1.11, the tourist can get it on the black market for anywhere from 25? to 66?. But it is also dangerous, as two young American tourists discovered last week. Hauled before a Leningrad court were Buel Ray Wortham, 25, of North Little Rock, Ark., and Craddock M. Gilmour, 24, of Salt Lake City, who had made the mistake of talking about their black-market dealings in the presence of their Intourist guide. In addition, Wortham was accused of stealing a "national treasure" from his Leningrad hotel room...
...proceedings seemed fair enough. State Prosecutor Aleksandr Borodankov went out of his way to point out that the U.S. and Russia had been allies during World War II. Whereas the maximum sentence for such black-market operations is eight years, Borodankov asked only for a five-year term for Wortham, who admitted to three separate transactions, and was willing to let Gilmour (one transaction, no bear) off with a 1,000-ruble fine...
Compromise Judgment. The prosecutor did not have everything his way. Both defendants were represented by Soviet attorneys, who seemed not at all embarrassed at having to defend Americans. Wortham's counsel produced character affidavits from everyone from the mayor of North Little Rock to Congressman Wilbur Mills, told the court that "Wortham is not a person of such social danger as the prosecutor represented," asked for a token sentence of three months...
...judgment, handed down by Chief Magistrate Nina I. Isakova, was a compromise. She agreed with the prosecution that Gilmour should pay 1,000 rubles for his freedom, sentenced Wortham to three years in a Soviet labor camp - with the probability of being released after 18 months of good behavior. In Moscow, the U.S. embassy called the sentence "harsh," as perhaps it was by American standards. For Russia, however, it seemed light indeed...