21 Jun 2000
It's Time for Trial Over Blame in Waco Fire That Killed Cultists
Courts: Branch Davidians' lawsuit says the FBI caused the
deaths of about 80 people holed up at the end of the 1993 siege.
The government contests every accusation.
From Reuters
WACO, Texas--Seven years
after the fiery end of a siege
outside Waco, Branch Davidians
and the U.S government will face
off in court next week over
Davidian claims that federal agents
caused the deaths of about 80
cult members.
At stake is the question,
still hotly debated, of whether the FBI
or Branch Davidians are
responsible for the deaths of cult leader
David Koresh and many of his
followers.
The government is the
defendant in the $675-million
wrongful-death lawsuit,
originally filed in 1994 as nine cases and
since consolidated into one.
The plaintiffs, numbering
about 100, are Branch Davidians who
survived the siege and
relatives of those who died in the April 19,
1993, inferno. The rural
compound went up in flames after FBI
agents used tear gas to end a
51-day standoff.
Whatever the verdict, many
believe it will not be enough to
settle the continuing angry
dispute between those who accuse the
government of abuse of power
and others who say the Davidians
set the fire themselves in a
suicidal act of defiance.
"People have staked out
their sides of the controversy for so
long, it's hard to imagine it
will end," said Bill Pitts, a professor of
religion at Baylor University
in Waco who has studied the Branch
Davidian cult.
The siege is also being
investigated by special counsel John
Danforth, appointed by the
Justice Department last year after the
FBI ended six years of denials
by admitting it fired potentially
flammable tear-gas canisters
near the compound several hours
before it burned.
Acknowledging the
sensitive nature of the case, U.S. District
Judge Walter Smith has decided
to call a six-member advisory
jury, an unusual move because
lawsuits against the U.S.
government are generally tried
by the bench, or the presiding judge.
Jury selection in the Waco
federal courtroom will start Monday
and opening arguments could be
heard as soon as Tuesday, the
judge has said. Attorneys
familiar with the case believe the trial will
last about four weeks.
The plaintiffs are
expected to call a string of FBI witnesses and
outside experts to back up
their claims that the government caused
the deaths in three ways:
* By using excessive force
in a Feb. 28 raid on the compound
that sparked the standoff. A
gunfight broke out when agents of the
U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms tried to arrest
Koresh on firearms charges.
Four agents and six Davidians were
killed.
* By causing the fires
that roared through the compound on
April 19, possibly with
explosive tear gas canisters. The fires
started six hours after the FBI
began pouring tear gas into the
buildings with armored vehicles
that punched in walls;
* By holding firefighters
back from the scene.
The judge has postponed
ruling on another allegation, that FBI
agents shot at the compound
during the fires and therefore killed
Davidians by gunfire or by
keeping them from fleeing the burning
building. That point will be
decided in August because a
court-appointed expert was ill
and unable to attend the trial.
Government lawyers are
contesting all the charges.
U.S. Atty. Mike Bradford
has said the ATF agents were simply
firing in self-defense after
being attacked when they tried to arrest
Koresh.
The government has blamed
Branch Davidians for setting the
fires that consumed the
compound and said firefighters could not
approach because of the danger
of Davidian gunfire and from
exploding munitions stored on
the grounds.
The government has also
denied that FBI agents shot at the
Davidians.
Davidians say government
gunfire accounted for flashes of light
that appear in FBI aerial
infrared footage of the last day, but a field
test led a court-appointed
expert to say those flashes were just
sunlight and heat reflecting
off debris.
Return to The Skeptic Tank's main Index page.
The views and opinions stated within this web page are those of the
author or authors which wrote them and may not reflect the views and
opinions of the ISP or account user which hosts the web page. The
opinions may or may not be those of the Chairman of The Skeptic Tank.