Pleas for Patty

FREE PATTY plead T shirts and bumper stickers by the thousands in California. They are visible evidence of a rapidly growing movement to win the release of Patricia Hearst from the federal correctional institution at Pleasanton, Calif., where she is serving a seven-year term for bank robbery. Every weekend in San Diego, 50 volunteers canvass shoppers at supermarkets, collecting signatures on petitions to President Carter. Similar efforts are under way across the country, and a leader of the campaign claims that 40,000 people have signed pleas for clemency. The White House and the Justice Department have received 1,500 letters, including ones from California Senator S.I. Hayakawa, California Lieutenant Governor Mervyn Dymally and Charles Bates, the retired FBI agent responsible for Patty's capture. Asked an editorial on San Diego station KGTV: "How many of us can say we would not follow our captor's orders in order to stay alive?"

Last week George Martinez, the newspaper heiress's attorney, sent a pardon application to Attorney General Griffin Bell. After reviewing her case--a process that could take as long as 90 days --Bell will pass on his recommendations to President Carter, who will make the final decision. Trying to do her bit, Patty sometimes wears a T shirt that reads PARDON ME on the front and, on the back, BEING KIDNAPED MEANS ALWAYS HAVING TO SAY YOU'RE SORRY.

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