5 Branch Davidians' sentences set aside
By Richard Carelli, Associated Press, 6/5/2000 10:54
WASHINGTON (AP) The Supreme Court today set aside the lengthy
prison sentences given to five Branch Davidians who survived a
1993 siege at the sect's Waco, Texas, compound. The court ruled
that a federal judge misused an anti-gun law to increase their
punishment.
The unanimous decision makes it harder for courts to find
lawbreakers deserve extra time behind bars because they used or
carried machine guns during their crimes.
A federal law subjects anyone who used or carried a ''firearm''
during a violent or drug-related crime to five years in prison.
The term jumps to 30 years for anyone who used or carried a
''machine gun'' during that same crime.
Federal appeals courts had split on whether determining use of a
machine gun is an element of the offense a jury must find beyond
a reasonable doubt, or merely a sentencing factor a judge gets to
determine by a preponderance of the evidence.
The nation's highest court said use of a firearm must be
determined by the jury.
''We believe Congress intended the firearm type-related words it
used ... to refer to an element of a separate, aggravated
crime,'' Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote for the court.
Five Davidians were convicted in 1994 in the killings of four
federal agents during a botched Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms raid on the compound outside Waco.
The raid led to a 51-day standoff that ended when flames swept
through the compound. David Koresh and some 80 followers died
during the inferno, some from the fire and others from gunshot
wounds.
A federal jury acquitted the five Davidians of murder and
conspiracy-to-murder charges but convicted them of voluntary
manslaughter. Each was sentenced to 10 years in prison for that
conviction. The jury also found them guilty of using firearms.
The presiding judge tacked on 30-year sentences for four of them
and a 10-year sentence for the fifth after finding that each had
used a machine gun.
Renos Avraam, Brad Eugene Branch, Jaime Castillo and Kevin
Whitecliff drew the 30-year sentences; Graeme Craddock the
10-year term. Craddock also was sentenced to a consecutive 10
years for using a hand grenade.
The jury never had been asked to determine what types of firearms
the five had used. The judge made that determination during
sentencing.
In appealing their sentences, the Davidians relied heavily on a
decision in which the justices last year said carjackers cannot
be given tougher sentences unless a jury, not a judge, determines
that victims were seriously injured during that federal crime.
The case presumably will return to a federal trial court where
new sentencing hearings will be conducted. Today's decision did
not suggest appropriate new sentences.
The case is Castillo vs. U.S., 99-658.
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Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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