The State : Layton Hearing Delayed

U.S. District Judge Robert Peckham in San Francisco postponed sentencing of former People’s Temple member Larry Layton until March 3, giving Layton’s new lawyer time to prepare for the hearing and for a request that Layton get a new trial. Layton was convicted on Dec. 1 of conspiring to murder California congressman Leo Ryan and a foreign service officer in an ambush that led to the Jonestown massacre in November, 1978. Robert R. Bryan, Layton’s new attorney, accused Layton’s trial lawyer of poor representation for failing to adequately warn Layton that he faced a mandatory life sentence if convicted of conspiring to murder Ryan.