The Foreign Service Journal, October 2007

semen in Leahy’s trachea. In those days before DNA analysis, the source of the semen could not be determined, but its presence lent credence to spec- ulation that homosexuality played a role in the affair. Walker also told me that a burn bag we had sent back to Washington with physical evidence contained an unsent encrypted cable reporting on the alleged communist plot. Some suspect that this cable — never introduced in evidence at trial — was an effort by Erdos to justify his actions. Justice Is Done Walker and I spent much of the next six months preparing for the Erdos murder trial, traveling trans- Atlantic from Cameroon to Washing- ton nearly once a month. The pro- ceedings took place during the first week of March 1972 at the Federal District Court for Northern Virginia at Alexandria, Judge Oren Lewis presid- ing. Erdos was charged with first- degree murder. He was defended by two young, but experienced, criminal trial lawyers from the premier Wash- ington firm of Williams, Califano & Connolly: William McDaniels and Aubrey Daniel III. (Daniel had re- cently successfully prosecuted Lt. William Calley in the highly publicized My Lai massacre case.) Despite Erdos’ placid and lucid outward appearance, and his years of experience in Third World posts, his counsel presented an insanity defense. They asserted that conditions in Equatorial Guinea, specifically the very real political terror there, had driven their client over the edge. Erdos testi- fied in chilling detail to the crime, describing how he repeatedly stabbed Leahy with a long, sharp pair of scis- sors, one stroke of which nicked the jugular vein. Evidence of the semen in Leahy’s trachea was entered into testi- mony, yet Erdos never admitted to any homosexual relationship. (In those days, homosexual officers, regarded as vulnerable to blackmail by hostile intel- ligence services, were subject to having their security clearances revoked.) After deliberating over Friday lunch, the jury brought in a verdict of voluntary manslaughter, rejecting both the insanity defense and premedita- tion. Voluntary manslaughter is de- fined in federal law as “unlawful killing upon a sudden quarrel or heat of pas- sion.” Judge Lewis sentenced Erdos to the maximum 10-year term. His ap- peal was denied by the Fourth Cir- cuit in Richmond. At trial and on appeal, the defense asserted, inter alia, that the U.S. gov- ernment did not have jurisdiction over acts committed overseas and that Erdos should have been arraigned in Boston where he first set foot back on American soil. Both the district and appellate courts found ample statute and case law to reject these assertions. Still, this was in some respects a “first impression” case, the first indictment ever brought for murder committed by an American official at a Foreign Service post. And the case firmly est- ablished the principle that federal courts have jurisdiction over acts com- mitted at U.S. embassies and con- sulates. His appeals exhausted, Erdos was incarcerated at the Federal Prison Farm in Amarillo, Texas. He was released on parole in late 1976 after serving about three years, and died of a 54 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 The jury brought in a verdict of voluntary manslaughter, rejecting both the insanity defense and premeditation.