PLEASE READ: THIS WILL BREAK YOUR HEART FOR THESE INNOCENT PEOPLE
THIS IS WHAT THE DEFENDANTS AND ATTORNEYS SAID SHORTLY BEFORE BEING SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON WITHOUT PAROLE:
The federal jury was directed to look at each person and come up with a verdict for each individual. The jury claimed they misunderstood the directions, and they tried them all as one group. None of these people were ever given a fair trail.
"They Go Down Pleading Innocent"
George Frank Sheppard, who stoically sat through week after week of trial as a defendant in the deaths of six Kansas City firefighters, and who sat like a stone when the jury said, "Guilty," bared his soul in a federal courtroom Wednesday shortly before being sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
Bryan Sheppard, handcuffed and shackled, and wearing an orange jumpsuit, stood and faced the families of the firefighters. At first he spoke of trying to hold in the hatred he feels for those who prosecuted him in the deaths of the firefighters.
Then, looking straight at the families -- naming a half-dozen of them by name -- he came close to tears as he said, "If I don't appear to be a God-fearing man, I guess that's between me and God. But as God is my witness, I had nothing to do with this crime."
Susan Hunt, attorney for Earl "Skip" Sheppard, pleaded with the court to send Skip to the U.S. Medical Center at Springfield, Mo., because of the brain damage he suffered in a car wreck years earlier.
Then Skip Sheppard stood and said, "My brother said it all. But I'm innocent of this crime."
Will Bunch, attorney for Darlene Edwards, told the court, "I'll say something I've never said before a sentencing: I do not believe my client is guilty."
Darlene then stood to profess her innocence, but was sobbing and hard to understand.
John O'Connor, who represented Bryan Sheppard, sounded near tears as he asked the court to show mercy to his client. O'Connor told the court, "I hope we do have the right people here. Only they and God know if they are. I don't know, I hope we have the right people."
Bryan Sheppard stood and said, in tears, "I'm innocent of this crime."
John Osgood, the former federal prosecutor who represented Richard Brown, fought desperately all day to convince the court to not sentence the defendants to life imprisonment. He argued passionately that the firemen had disregarded many rules in choosing to fight a fire in a trailer that was full of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil.
Osgood pointed out to the court that security guard Deborah Riggs had testified at trial, and has testified repeatedly, that she warned five of the six firemen that the trailer on fire was loaded with ammonium nitrate and fuel oil.
U.S. District Judge Joseph E. Stevens Jr., commented, "I'm not prepared to assume that all of that testimony (by Deborah Riggs) was gospel."
In many ways, what happened in the courtroom was for effect. There was little doubt in most people's minds that Stevens knew what he was going to do, regardless of the arguments advanced. But there are rules that have to be played by. Everyone had to make a record for the court appeals, where this case heads next.
Before the court heard from the defendants and their attorneys, the families of the firefighters had their say (three of the families said nothing, after it because apparent that Stevens was going to impose a life sentence.) They mostly wanted everyone to remember that the firefighters were good men, who died serving the people of Kansas City -- and that they did not die because they were careless, or reckless.
Osgood told the court that he, too, believed in his client's innocence. Pat Peters, the attorney for Frank Sheppard, gave Judge Stevens copies of the polygraph examination reports, showing that Frank Sheppard, Richard Brown, and Bryan Sheppard had passed polygraph tests years earlier on whether they were involved in the explosion that killed the firefighters.
A tearful Richard Brown faced the families of the firefighters and asserted his innocence. He expressed respect for the families of the firefighters, but expressed bitterness at the government agents and lawyers who prosecuted him.
Stevens described the Firefighter Case as "the most difficult case I've ever had to deal with" in 16 years on the federal bench.
Then he sentenced each of the defendants to life imprisonment without parole. He also ordered them to make restitution of more than $500,000 each, which will be deducted from the pittances they earn while waiting to die in prison.
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