Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 28, 1994 TAG: 9402280035
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SAN ANTONIO LENGTH: Short
"I'm glad to be out," said Clive Doyle, one of four Branch Davidians acquitted Saturday of all charges in the killings of four federal agents. "I'm not happy that the rest are still in there."
Woodrow Kendrick said he felt "pretty lousy, because I got free and my friends didn't."
Saturday's verdicts capped a yearlong drama that started on the Texas prairie and spread to the White House, leaving at least 89 people - including Koresh - dead and toppling the head of one of the nation's top law enforcement agencies.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys both sought Sunday to find vindication in the verdicts, although the split decision indicated that jurors wholeheartedly embraced neither's arguments.
Defense attorneys said the verdicts proved that cult members acted in self-defense when they fired upon the federal agents.
"We can respect law enforcement, but we don't have to deify it," said defense lawyer Terry Kirk. "Thank God in this country we still have the right of self-defense, even if it is the federal government."
But government officials pointed out that the manslaughter convictions showed that the jury did not accept the notion that cult members acted in self-defense.
The jury sent "a message that we were justified in our actions," Attorney General Janet Reno said. "They convicted them of voluntary manslaughter, which under law is not a justified killing."
by CNB