Americans take pride in the principle that here, no man is above the law. Despite the resistance of the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, that axiom is being forcefully upheld in Boundary County, Idaho. An FBI sharpshooter has been ordered to stand trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter for killing Vicki Weaver in the 1992 siege at Ruby Ridge.
That standoff and its bloody conclusion are a dark chapter in the history of American law enforcement. Federal agents surrounded the cabin of white separatist Randy Weaver after he failed to appear in court on charges of selling two sawed-off shotguns to an informant. After a gun battle started by U.S. marshals, FBI sharpshooters arrived with orders to shoot to kill “any armed male adult observed in the vicinity of the Weaver cabin.”
One of the agents, Lon Horiuchi, shot Randy Weaver in the back and then fired a shot that passed through the open cabin door and killed his wife as she stood behind it, unarmed and holding her 10-month-old baby. The same bullet also wounded Weaver friend Kevin Harris, Horiuchi’s intended target.
A federal appeals court called the rules of engagement “a gross deviation from constitutional principles.” Randy Weaver was acquitted of the firearms violation and received a $3.1 million wrongful death settlement from the federal government.
But a federal prosecutor declined to indict Horiuchi. Last August, though, the local prosecutor filed charges of involuntary manslaughter against him, concluding that the FBI sharpshooter had acted recklessly by shooting “through the front door of the Weaver residence without first determining whether any person other than his intended target was behind the door.” Recently, Horiuchi was granted a request to move the trial to federal court.
The indictment, condemned by FBI Director Louis Freeh, is unusual but not unprecedented. State authorities are free to second-guess decisions made by federal prosecutors–just as federal prosecutors have often filed charges against police (such as those in the Rodney King case) who have been acquitted in state court. Congress has acted to prevent local bias from infecting the criminal justice process by letting defendants insist on having the state trial conducted in federal court.
A jury will have to decide whether the slaying of Vicki Weaver, a shocking tragedy, was also a crime. The question deserves a full airing and a final answer.
