Posted by Samuel Adams on April 22, 1998 at 13:59:16:
Here is a transcript of Sarah Bain's speech given during Sunday's memorial service. Sorry for any errors.
I have heard of Sarah Bain's statements and efforts before on a few, very few, websites. I have never read about her nor seen anything about hear on the "mainstream" media. Why wont the media report anything about her????????
Sorry for the rant. Here is the transcript of her speech from Sunday.
Mt. Carmel Center
Waco Texas
April 19, 1998
Transcript of speech given by
Sarah Bain ( jury forewoman of the Branch Davidian's criminal trial )
Ron Engelman:
Our next speaker is a lady thats got alot of guts. She was the chair person of the jury of the criminal trial in San Antonio. Following that trial, and seeing what the judge did, she wrote letters, she protested, she's just one heck of a lady. Her name is Sarah Bain. Sarah.
(applause)
Sarah Bain:
As Ron has said I was the... had the honor of being the foreperson of the trial...(inaudible)....That was needless to say an extremely powerful moment, days, weeks, for me. I still don't have the trial itself out of my system. There has been so much that has transpired since that trial. Evidence that has been made public that was not available at the trial. I have had my views altered as a result of that information that has not been made public. But going back strictly to the forty days at the trial I would like to give you some of the thoughts of the jury at that time. As we were deliberating, one of the ....one of the.... bits of information that was vitally important to us.... was whether or not the helicopters that were notoriously circling overhead, did any firing. In the course of the trial we had testimony from pilots , we had testimony from some of those that were onboard the helicopters. We had even military personnel who said that, (all of the same?) , absolutely not...there were no guns on those helicopters. We did have testimony at the trial, specifically from Jack Zimmerman, who was an attorney from Houston that came in during the 51 day , uh ,siege, as a representative of Mr. Schneider. He testified that when he came into the Mount Carmel center. that it was very obvious that there were bullet holes that came through the roof. And he spent a great detail explaining how you could recognize an incoming shell. Sadly we had his testimony, versus the testimony of many others. Utilizing more or less what was the preponderance of the evidence, it was our opinion at the time, that apparently the helicopters had not done any firing. most of you are aware now that there is much evidence that supports the truth, that the helicopters did fire. this is important, vitally important, to help establish whether or not the Branch Davidians that were (inaudible) at the time of the raid, at Mount Carmel, whether or not they were in a defensive mode or as the government would lead us to believe that they were on the offensive. With the helicopters firing, actually that, that truth has come out from one of the ATF negotiators, in the many many many hours of negotiation tapes during a conversation with David Koresh, who covered the truth by utilizing the statement, there were no mounted guns on the helicopters. As a jury we didn't , it didn't matter to us whether or not if there mounted guns on the helicopters. We pretty much assumed that would not have been the case. We would have been in total violation utilizing military weapons against citizenry, had that been the case. Our main concern was whether or not those onboard had done any firing. What he in essence said there may have been firing from the helicopters, just not by mounted guns. When I first heard that section of the negotiation tapes which was here last year in Mr. Mcnulltey's video, uh, documentary, Waco The Rules of Engagement. When I first heard that my stomach really churned. As I mentioned that had been one of the real sticky points during our deliberations. Once the trial was over we were in our deliberations, since we had determined our verdicts we turned them into..(inaudible) ... we had an hour and a half wait until one o'clock, urrr, two and a half wait until one o'clock when the verdict (inaudible) be made publicly. During that time we jurors were basically sitting discussing the trial and continuing to try and (inaudible) calming down a little bit we had finished with our view. And many of us sat back, those of us who felt rather upset about the fact that we had really felt it necessary to come down with any guilty verdict at all. We sat back and said well, the Branch Davidians had now been held accountable for the deaths of the four ATF agents, we can rest assured that the ATF will have to someday to be made accountable for the deaths of the six Branch Davidians who died on that exact same day, we took some consolation in that. We're still waiting. There in is some of the major frustration, is the fact that their has been no accountable, on the part of the government. It matters not to me whether there is a trial and every single person is exonerated. I just simply feel that there needs to be a trial, they need to be made to answer for the reasons why they had to conduct the raid, and it needs to be in a public forum, not personnel matters that are handled behind the scenes. And I believe that for the peace of mind of many Americans, that that might help bring a little bit of closure to the incidents that took place on February 28 and April 19 of 93. Of course in addition to having a trial for the ATF officers and their responsibility for the deaths of six Branch Davidians, there has to be some accountable made by the FBI for their activities on April the 19th, actually for their activities during the entire 51 days. But specifically for their activities on the 19th. Why did they feel that it was necessary at that time to insert CS gas. Why did they determine at that time that the insertion of CS gas had to be done by, TANKS. Why during that time did they allow the FBI tactical team to overshadow the FBI negotiators, who seemed behind the scenes to be really wanting to bring a peaceful end, to the entire siege. Some way the FBI tactical squad got the upper hand, and we all know the result of that. If there is anything that I would (like?) , for those of you who are present, especially those of you who are from out of Texas, would carry back to your area, is to remind everyone who still considers the Branch Davidians to be murders. They were found NOT GUILTY of the count of murder. They were found NOT GUILTY on the count of conspiracy to commit murder. That was done by a jury of 12 after over 40 days of listening to evidence in trial. Some that had, if it had been valid, if we had considered the evidence valid, would have indeed said they were murderers. The government did not proved that at all ! Those were two of their easier counts, that we had to make our determinations on. Because of our determinations on the not guilty, for murder, or for conspiracy to commit murder, the jury then turns around and makes what I still consider to be their, our, our fatal flaw. The third count we kind of abbreviately called the fire arms charge. Uh, Jack Devault, alluded to that. To be found guilty of the fire arms charge we had to have found that the Branch Davidians, possessed or used, fire arms. It was hard to say that they did not use or possess fire arms. Where we as a jury made our fatal flaw, was in not paying close attention to the instructions that were in front of us, in black and white, that they had to have been found guilty of utilizing the weapons during the commission of a crime. Thats where we put our period. We had already found several of the defendants guilty of manslaughter, I'd like to address that in a moment. We believed that they had been utilizing weapons during the commission of the crime of manslaughter. Where the court had put its period was a little bit further down in the instructions, that said they had to have been found guilty of the crime of murder. We had already exonerated them from that charge. Finding them guilty on count three, thank you very much jury, now has many of the Branch Davidians imprisoned for 30 years. I have a big burden on my shoulders because of that. Back to the count of manslaughter, because of the instructions that we received, the definition of manslaughter carries with it the idea that someone acted as a rational person would have acted when they are under a siege of provocation. We consider the Davidians to have acted logically, they certainly were under a siege of provocation. because of that they were found guilty of, as everyone has (termed?), the lesser charge of manslaughter. What we are again waiting for is for the (provokers?) still have to answer for their charge. We're waiting for the accountability that our very, (inaudible) guilty verdict, (inaudible) that we came with down with on the count three, or on the manslaughter charge (said?) took place. That there was provocation. Why is the govern, government not being answered, being caused to answer for that provocation. Because of my frustration, because of the burden that I do feel, I also do not know exactly what the proper, tactic is to cause such a accountability to occur. I'm hoping that someone has more leadership ability than I do, has better ideas of the workings of the government and better ideas of the workings of our court systems and can pull something together to see that eventually the accountability is brought to bear. In mentioning that with a gentlemen I met just this morning, he said he just did not see how that would happen. The Indians are still waiting. I think that was not.....(applause)....I think that was not very encouraging. I feel that, this is my fifth year to come out to Mt. Carmel. I'm hoping that it will not be another five years that I still am feeling this burden and this frustration. I'm hoping that there will soon, not later, be this accountability that we're all waiting for.
Thank you very much......(applause).....