Wayne Fincher Update: January 13*

Fincher found guilty of having illegal weapons

Round one went to the government Friday...

Fincher's attorney, Oscar Stilley, vowed to appeal the verdict all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Friends: Fincher No Danger

"Wayne helped form this militia, in part, to prove his constitutional right to do so," said Don Bright, a longtime friend of Fincher's. "This is not a violent man by any means, but what we're seeing here is a jury that didn't get to hear his side of the story."

Email from Paul W. Davis:

It has been another long day in Court, and again, not a pleasant one. I was very concerned when I saw the thrust of Oscar's summation last night. I prayed that he would not get cited for contempt, which was a very likely event given the drive to clamp down on anything that references the 2nd Amendment and the rights of Jurors.

Thus it was quite a blessing to see that the one objection the US Attorney had, the Judge overruled. It was plainly obvious that she did not like the argument Oscar made. However, the Judge allowed him to make it as the Jury Instructions were a directed verdict based upon the fact that Wayne never denied having the arms in question. Frankly, I'm surprised the Jury too as long as they did (almost 5 hours), if they followed the instructions given. Personally, if one followed the jury instructions, deliberations would have taken only as long as it takes to write "yes" twice on the forms. I am going to post the Jury Instructions, both as proposed, and as finally delivered. You will be shocked at what you see.

It was hard on Wayne's family, even though they were told last night to expect the worst. However, Wayne is not broken, and is determined to go on. When Oscar and I visited with Wayne prior to the jury returning from deliberations, he said it was worth it to expose the fraud that exists in the law, and how it is done in this country. Plainly, the Federal courts are corrupt, and are more interested in procedure and precedent, than in administering judgement and justice. This will be appealed.

However, there was one thing that happened today that disturbed me greatly. As Oscar and I walked back from lunch, he received a phone call in which it was brought to his attention that someone said that he should have done this or that, that he did or didn't do. Though I am not a lawyer, I am neither ignorant, nor stupid and I do know somewhat about the law. I can tell you that it is very hard to stand up there and get slammed to the carpet time and again and have the Judge angry at you repeatedly because you will not give up on pushing to get your arguments heard. Oscar was repeatedly called down by the Judge and told to essentially "shut up." Throughout this trial, Oscar has tried vigorously to get justice done, and was shut down at every turn. The Judge was not interested in the law, only procedure and precedent. In fact, if memory serves, the jury never actually read, or heard the text of either 18 USC 922(o) or 26 USC 5861. I believe the court record will bear out my recollection. Nonetheless, they were "able" to determine that Wayne had violated a law that they never knew exactly what the law said. Needless to say, before I left to go to court this morning I picked up my copy of Alexandr I. Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago and took it with me to place on the table beside me.

All that being stated, I would that certain be careful about armchair quarterbacking as they were not there and not facing a totally hostile court. If Oscar told me once, he probably told me a good dozen times over the last four days that this is a tax case, meaning that they were playing dirty here just like in a tax case. However, I know that Oscar does not give up easily either (just like Wayne) and so he was not going to quit.

Now, that being stated as well, help would and will be greatly appreciated as Oscar was already busy and took the case because no one wanted to touch it, and he could not stand to see Wayne railroaded. At least now, we have a solid record of the proceedings and the things done had to be done in full view of the public.

Unfortunately, they found Wayne guilty on both counts. However, I know that good will come out of this. We now have to move forward to gather information about several things, not the least of which is information on all US Appellate court decisions that are firearms related.

[More About Wayne Fincher via WarOnGuns]

*Sorry-I originally mistakenly entered "January 14."