On Sun, 16 Jul 2000 23:35:06 -0500 (CDT) Grassroots Media Network <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Davidians' lawyer: further arguments would be 'lost cause' Source: AP - AP Wire Service Jul 15 05:44 By KELLIE GORMLY Associated Press Writer WACO, Texas (AP) _ An attorney for the Branch Davidians says it would be ``a lost cause'' to continue trying to convince a judge that U.S. federal agents fired on sect members as they tried to escape their burning compound during a 1993 siege. An advisory jury hearing the Davidians' dlrs 675 million wrongful death lawsuit determined Friday that the U.S. government bears no responsibility for the deaths of sect leader David Koresh and some 80 followers in the final hours of the 51-day standoff. U.S. District Judge Walter Smith will issue the final ruling, expected in the next month, and will also consider perhaps the most contentious issue _ whether federal agents shot at the Davidians at the end of the siege. But Davidian lawyers, survivors and victims' family members say they aren't expecting any change. ``I think a vast majority of the American public will take this as the final word,'' Michael Caddell, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, said. Caddell said he doesn't plan to file any more documents in the case and will tell the judge to make his decision based on the evidence in hand. ``Given what's happened in Waco with Judge Smith, we don't see the point. It's a lost cause. Judge Smith obviously has an agenda. At some point, it simply becomes futile,'' Caddell told The Associated Press. The siege began on a Sunday morning, Feb. 28, 1993, when agents from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms tried to search the Davidian's Mount Carmel complex and arrest Koresh on illegal weapons charges. Six Davidians and four ATF agents were killed in the ensuing shootout that day. The standoff ended seven weeks later with the deaths of some 80 men, women and children, some from gunshots and other from the fire that quickly engulfed the compound hours into a tear-gassing operation designed to drive them out and end the siege. Surviving Branch Davidians and relatives of those who died contend the government should shoulder some blame for the botched initial raid and holocaust at the end. But the five-member jury, after deliberating 2 1/2 hours, determined the government didn't use excessive force during the raid and was not negligent in violating a plan by driving tanks into the compound. The jury also had been asked whether agents contributed to or spread the fires or violated a directive to have firefighting equipment on the scene. There were no loud protests after the verdict. Ten miles (16 kilometers) east of Waco, where a chapel has been built on the site of the destroyed compound, the only sounds came from birds and a tree branch rattling in the breeze. Ron Goins, 45, who has been studying the Bible with surviving members of the sect for the past two years, said few Davidians held out much hope of a favorable verdict. Goins added he was disappointed the jury came to its conclusion so fast. ``That's not a chance to look over anything or review anything,'' he said. Present-day Davidians who gather each Saturday for services at the chapel believed the jurors and the judge had gone into the trial with their minds made up. It wasn't emphasized enough how the Davidians were violated and harassed, Goins said. During the trial, the government contended that ATF agents were ambushed by heavily armed Davidians at the start of the raid and that suicidal members of the group set the fires themselves on the final day. Clive Doyle, who was one of nine people who escaped the inferno and is one of the plaintiffs in the wrongful-death case, maintained that the government's version of what happened in 1993 in untrue. ``I would've been surprised if the jury ruled in favor of us,'' he said. ``It's kind of like the Kennedy assassination. You have the official version and you have what everybody else believes.'' Either way, the trial had served some purpose for the Davidians, Goins said. ``What they were hopeful about was getting the facts out. We can't bring the people back. The people are dead,'' he said. ``There was some sort of closure because we got to speak our mind.'' 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