Another Judgment Day

By Richard Lacayo

However American juries may feel about some of the curious characters on the fringes of American life, they tend to reserve their real suspicion for the forces of law and order. That lesson was delivered again last Saturday in San Antonio, Texas, as 11 followers of cult leader David Koresh were acquitted of charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the deaths of four federal agents a year ago this week. Jubilant defense attorneys slapped each other on the back. Did it not matter that five defendants faced prison terms as long as 10 years for manslaughter? Said Dan Cogdell, a key defense lawyer: "The conspiracy count was the government's sole reason for being here -- the rest was window dressing -- and they lost that across the board."

The government side preferred to emphasize that manslaughter is not the same thing as justifiable homicide. "We are of course pleased that the jury agreed with so much of our evidence," said chief prosecutor Ray Jahn. But U.S. District Judge Walter Smith Jr. instructed the jury to consider self-defense against the government agents as a justification for the Davidians' resort to gunfire, which may explain why only five of the 11 were found guilty of manslaughter. Four were adjudged to be innocent on all counts, and two were convicted of weapons charges. Pressed to explain the jury's decision, Jahn said that perhaps the panel thought the cult members "who died were the actual conspirators and the ((defendants)) were merely tagalongs."

In Washington, Attorney General Janet Reno, who ordered the final, fatal push on the compound on April 19, repeated the prosecution's interpretation. "The findings that these deaths ((of the four agents)) were not justified makes clear that the government had a responsibility to act," she said. The plans for the February attack were deficient, however, as the government has admitted. In September, the Treasury Department published a scathing report on the raid that described faulty planning, fouled-up communications and, worst of all, a fatal misjudgment by commanders of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, who decided not to call off the attack even after they learned that they had lost the element of surprise. Last week Reno said, "One of the minor tragedies of Waco is we will never know what the right choices were." She added, "The ghost of Waco will be with me all of my life."

Recognizing the challenge of proving any defendant had fired any of the fatal shots, prosecutors charged them with conspiracy to murder, in addition to murder. Conspiracy would require the jury to decide they had been involved in an agreement or a plan to ambush the agents. Calling more than 120 witnesses, including ATF agents, Texas Rangers and gun dealers, prosecutors tried to prove the 10 men and one woman on trial -- three of whom were away from the compound on the day of the shooting -- knew in advance of the impending ATF raid and were bent on killing federal officers.

The government even argued that Koresh and his followers deliberately set the fires that consumed the compound in April in an attempt to kill officers in the inferno. To drive home the point, more than 30 ATF agents who were part of the February attack testified to their terror in what they repeatedly called "an ambush" in open terrain, as they were peppered by guns that included a .50-caliber rifle whose cartridges could pierce metal. "It was raining blood," said Special Agent Bernadette Griffin.

The defense opened its case by playing a tape of a 911 emergency call placed from the compound as the shootout began. "Call them off -- there are women and children in here!" cult member Wayne Martin told a dispatcher. It was a critical moment of drama that contradicted the government claim of Davidians eagerly awaiting a shoot-out. Just 11 witnesses were called by defense attorneys, who made their case largely through cross-examination of such prosecution witnesses as former cult member Kathryn Schroeder. She undermined the government's case by testifying that there was no plot to kill agents. Claims by ATF agents that they hadn't expected armed resistance from the Davidians were undercut by their testimony that they were told that day to mark their blood types on their necks -- an ominous instruction they had never received before.

"I'm so happy! Oh, my goodness!" Koresh's mother Bonnie Haldeman exclaimed when told of the verdict. "God bless them jurors!" Every day since their arrest, the Davidians have consulted their Bibles and the remembered teachings of Koresh, trying to determine how the trial fits in with his prophecies about the end of the world. In their view, it was not they who faced judgment in court but the law-enforcement establishment. To an extent, the jury proved them right.

With reporting by Cary Cardwell/San Antonio and Richard Woodbury/Houston