Fort Smith sedition trial

In 1983, Robert Jay Mathews founded a revolutionary white supremacist terrorist group called The Order (or The Silent Brotherhood) on his farm in Metaline, Washington. The group was formed with the goal of overthrowing the United States Federal Government, which they called "Zionist Occupation Government" (ZOG), and to establish an all-white nation in the Pacific Northwest. Mathews recruited several men from the Aryan Nations to join the group. The Order began robbing banks and armored cars in order to finance their planned revolution. Members of the group assassinated Jewish radio talk show host Alan Berg outside his Denver home on June 18, 1984.

Mathews was killed in a shootout with FBI agents on Whidbey Island on December 8, 1984 and most other members of The Order were arrested thereafter. Two Order members, David Lane and Bruce Pierce, were convicted of involvement in Berg's death and several other members, including Richard Scutari and Andrew Barnhill, were given lengthy sentences for racketeering.

Around the same time as The Order was active, another white supremacist group called The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord (CSA) was also plotting to overthrow the US government. The group was headquartered on a heavily armed and fortified compound in Arkansas and group established ties with other white supremacists, such as Aryan Nations leader Richard G. Butler and Christian Identity and Ku Klux Klan leader Robert E. Miles. CSA members allegedly plotted to poison the water supplies of New York City and Washington D.C. with sodium cyanide.[1] One CSA member named Richard Wayne Snell assassinated a black Arkansas State Trooper and a white pawnshop owner he mistakenly thought was Jewish. Snell was ultimately convicted, sentenced to death and executed for these crimes on April 19, 1995.

After Snell's arrest, the FBI and ATF plotted a siege of the CSA compound on weapons violations which began on April 19, 1985 and ended peacefully three days later with the arrest of CSA leader Jim Ellison. Ellison was later sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on racketeering charges.

As the FBI investigated The Order's crimes, informants began providing them with information allegedly outlining The Order's ties to several prominent white supremacists, such as Butler, Miles, Texas KKK leader Louis Beam, Tom Metzger of White Aryan Resistance, William L. Pierce (no relation to Bruce Pierce) of the National Alliance and Glenn Miller of the White Patriot Party. The FBI alleged that The Order's crimes, as well as other crimes committed by other white supremacists, were coordinated by prominent leaders of the white supremacist movement and that some of the leaders were continuing to plot more crimes including the bombings of several federal courthouses.[2]

In April 1987, fourteen white supremacists were formally indicted in Fort Smith, Arkansas. on charges of seditious conspiracy, transporting stolen money and conspiring to commit murder.[3] Barnhill, Beam, Butler, Lane, Miles, Bruce Pierce, Scutari, Snell, Robert Neil Smalley and Ardie McBrearty were charged with seditious conspiracy while Snell, David Michael McGuire, William and Ivan Wade and Lambert Miller (no relation to Glenn Miller) were charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Barnhill and Scutari also faced charges of transporting stolen money.[4][5]

The trial began on February 16, 1988. The prosecution's case relied heavily on the testimonies of Ellison and Glenn Miller. The defense contended that Ellison and Miller had motive to lie about the alleged conspiracy in order to receive reduced prison sentences on other charges. The defense also attacked Ellison's character by revealing his delusions of grandeur and that he was a polygamist. The charges against Smalley were dismissed due to lack of evidence in March 1988, and the remaining thirteen defendants were acquitted of all charges on April 7.[4][5]

Many white supremacists celebrated the verdict with Beam stating "ZOG has suffered a terrible defeat here today". Several of the defendants, including Barnhill, Lane, McBrearty, Pierce and Scutari still had to serve lengthy prison sentences on other charges.[4] Lane and Pierce died serving their sentences in 2007 and 2010 respectively while Scutari remains incarcerated.

Glenn Miller would later kill three people in two shootings at Jewish community centers in Overland Park, Kansas on April 13, 2014. Miller was sentenced to death in 2015 for the murders.

Snell was executed by lethal injection on April 19, 1995 in Arkansas. Snell was executed on the same day the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was bombed in Oklahoma City. Snell, Ellison and another CSA had previously plotted to bomb the Murrah building in 1983. Some conspiracy theorists and former members of the CSA, including Ellison's second-in-command Kerry Noble, alleged that the Oklahoma City Bombing was meant to coincide with Snell's execution. An Arkansas prison official reported that Snell laughed while watching news of the bombing in the hours prior to his execution. Noble also alleged that the bombing was a continuation of The Order's war.[6]