At 6:55 PM -0800 1/12/98, Eric Cordian wrote:
The manslaughter case against Ruby Ridge shooter Lon Horiuchi was effectively neutered today when a federal judge acquiesed to demands by Justice Department lawyers and moved the case out of Idaho's jurisdiction and into federal court. This means that Horiuchi will be tried in federal court in front of a federal jury on state manslaughter charges, and not in front of a jury from Idaho's Boundary County, where the shooting took place.
This ruling, by U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge, came just six days after Boundary County Magistrate Quentin Harden ordered Horiuchi to stand trial. State manslaughter charges had been filed against Horiuchi for the death of Vicki Weaver in August.
The Justice Department, which has denied that Horiuchi did anything wrong, provided the lawyers who argued that any case in which federal agents are acting in their official capacity may be transferred and tried in federal court, in front of a federal jury.
The trial is scheduled to begin March 10. Horiochi has continued to work for the FBI since the charges were filed.
The militia groups have known this was a foregone conclusion from the gitgo. This is why they are advocating frontier justice for Horiuchi. (However, exhaustive searches for this murderer have not turned up evidence of him. If he's "continuing to work for the FBI," it's from a safe house, or with a new name. Probably a safe house, as no one has reported seeing him near Federal buildings, either.) The guy's probably dead meat anyway. --Tim May The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^2,976,221 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."