From: [l v c] at [cbnews.cb.att.com] (Larry Cipriani)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
Subject: upi story on weaver trial verdict
Date: 10 Jul 93 02:45:36 GMT

Copyright 1993 by UPI

	BOISE, Idaho (UPI) -- Two white separatists were acquitted Thursday of
murder and conspiracy charges stemming from a north Idaho shootout last
summer that killed a U.S. marshal and the wife and son of one of the
defendants.
	After a 40-day trial and 20 days of deliberations, the jury convicted
Randy Weaver only of failing to appear on a firearms violation and
violating his pretrial release. Kevin Harris was acquitted of all
charges.
	During the Weaver, 45, and Harris, 25, were portrayed by prosecutors
as racist, anti-government fanatics. But they became folk heroes, even
the subject of a ballad, to many like-minded people of north Idaho and
elsewhere.
	The defense team, led by legendary criminal defense lawyer Gerry
Spence of Jackson, Wyo., rested their case without calling a witness.
	The move followed a prosecution so mired in problems that U.S.
District Judge Edward Lodge said at one point, ``About 75 percent of the
witnesses called by the government have been favorable to the defense.''
	After the verdict, defense attorneys called on Boundary County to
open an investigation into the shooting deaths of Weaver's wife and son
by federal agents.
	``We're vindicated,'' said Spence, ``but what are we now going to do
about the deaths of Vicki Weaver and Sammy Weaver?''
	An exhuberant Harris, mobbed by supporters as he left the courtroom,
said he never had doubts of being acquitted, adding, ``I had total faith
in Yaweh (God) the creator.''
	Weaver faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and up to a
$500,000 fine for his convictions, but the average sentence on such
charges is 12 months and defense attorneys were expected to ask that he
be released and given credit for the 10 months already served.
Sentencing was scheduled Sept. 28.
	The 11-day siege on Ruby Ridge in the Idaho Panhandle began Aug. 21,
1992, when fatigue-clad federal agents were discovered by the Weaver
family dog while they were on surveillance.
	An agent shot the dog and in an ensuing gunbattle, Deputy U.S.
Marshal William Degan allegedly was killed by Harris, and Weaver's son,
Sammy, 14, was shot in the back by another agent.
	The question of who fired first was a major argument in the trial.
Prosecutors accused Weaver of murdering Degan in a conspiracy to bring
about an ``Armageddon-like'' confrontation with the government.
	Weaver's wife, Vicki, 43, was killed the following day by an FBI
sharpshooter, shot in the face through the cabin front door while
holding her infant daughter. Weaver and Harris, both wounded, spent the
next 10 days holed up with Weaver's two daughters until they
surrendered.
	Before the standoff, Weaver failed to appear in court for 18 months
on weapons charges for allegedly selling two illegal sawed-off shotguns
to an undercover agent. During the trial, the government revealed Weaver
had not been properly notified of the court proceedings.
	Weaver contended the charges were trumped up -- Spence referred to it
as entrapment -- because he refused to become a government informant in
the white supremacist Aryan Nation Church.
	``This office was disappointed and stunned by the jury's verdict. It
now appears that whoever was responsible for Billy's death will not face
the consequences,'' said Robert Guiney, the U.S. Marshal for the
District of Massachusetts, where Degan served before being sent to
Idaho.
-- 
Larry Cipriani -- [l v cipriani] at [att.com] or attmail!lcipriani