=== Waco / Branch Davidians
1. Jurors hear 911 tape of Waco fight
2. Jury in suit over Waco siege listens to tapes of gunbattle
3. Attorney: Bullet holes evidence ATF was aggressor at Mount Carmel
4. Federal judge in Waco suit bars evidence that FBI negotiators warned
against using tanks
5. 2 Sides Give 2 Versions of Facts in Waco Suit
6. Lawyers debate who's at fault in Waco case
7. FBI Testimony Barred in Waco Trial
8. Branch Davidian plaintiffs focus on child victims
9. Davidian attorneys praise jury

=== Ho No Hana Sanpogyo
10. Nine more foot cultists nabbed

=== Islam
11. Assad Patronage Puts a Small Sect on Top in Syria
12. Nigeria's Kano state celebrates Sharia

=== Catholicism
13. Mexico's Virgin of Guadalupe Goes High-Tech

=== Paganism
14. Modern pagans reclaim Stonehenge

=== Hate Groups / Hate Crimes
15. Supremacist will be tried on charges of abducting 6 grandchildren
16. German academics outraged by award for 'Hitler apologist'

=== Other News
17 French parliament to debate controversial anti-sect bill
18. Robinson has been linked to cult rituals
19. Greeks Rally to Keep Religions on ID Cards
20. Dalai Lama Seeks Help From Congress
21. House Votes To Protect Religious TV

=== Noted
22. Larry King Live: Is the Apocalypse Coming?
23. In the Name of Peace at the Office

=== Prayer in the USA
24. Outrage in an Illinois Town Over Justices' Ruling on Prayer
25. Fumble on Prayer
26. Prayer Continuing, Despite Order
27. What's Still Allowed in Prayer Form
28. Ruling May Leave 'Moment of Silence' Laws Vulnerable

=== Death Penalty / U.S. Human Rights Violations
29. Eyes turn to Texas for execution today
30. Majority think innocent have been executed
31. Florida man wins last-minute execution reprieve
32. Florida executes man who got reprieve while in death chamber
33. Court lifts reprieve for killer


=== Waco / Branch Davidians

1. Jurors hear 911 tape of Waco fight
Dallas Morning News, June 22, 2000
http://dallasnews.com/texas_southwest/99956_wacowire.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
WACO - Jurors in the Branch Davidian wrongful-death lawsuit heard a 911 tape Wednesday of the chaotic firefight that began a 1993 standoff with federal authorities, a recording that began with a sect member screaming for federal agents to ''back off'' and the din of heavy gunfire.

''There are 75 men around our building, and they're shooting at us out at Mount Carmel. ...Tell them there are women and children here and to call it off,'' Davidian Wayne Martin told McLennan County sheriff's Lt. Larry Lynch. ''Call it off!''

''I hear gunfire! Oh [expletive]!'' Lt. Lynch responded. ''They're still shooting. I can hear the bullets. God almighty, I knew this. ...''

The hourlong tape opened Wednesday's testimony in the wrongful-death trial, which alleges that agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms used excessive force in their initial raid on the sect's rural compound.

Government lawyers have maintained that ATF agents acted properly, returning fire only when they were met by an ambush and shooting only at areas of the compound where they detected hostile gunfire. Four ATF agents and six Davidians died on Feb. 28, 1993.
(...)

Plaintiffs' lawyers called one witness Wednesday, Houston lawyer Dick DeGuerin. Mr. DeGuerin briefly represented Davidian leader David Koresh and tried to persuade him to surrender during a series of face-to-face meetings during the siege. He also criticized authorities after the raid, saying they ignored the sect's pledge to give up after Mr. Koresh finished a theological manuscript - a promise the FBI ridiculed.

Attorney General Janet Reno later told a Justice Department investigator that she regretted not speaking with the Houston lawyer before approving the FBI's tear-gas assault. ''If I had [it] to do over, I think I would have talked or had Webb [then-Assistant Attorney General Webster Hubbell] talk to lawyer DeGuerin,'' stated notes from the September 1993 interview.

Outside the courtroom, Mr. DeGuerin said that the evidence being brought out in the civil case has long needed a full public airing.

''It's important that the focus is finally on the government's conduct and not on whether David Koresh was a horrible person,'' he said. ''My main concern, at this point, is that the public knows that the government treated everybody without justification.''
(...)

Portions of the recording have been played in congressional hearings and the 1994 criminal trial of surviving Branch Davidians. But Wednesday's playing of the 911 recording marked the first time that a jury heard Mr. Martin scream repeatedly that government agents were the first to shoot. Judge Smith ruled that portion of the tape self-serving and inadmissible when he presided over the criminal trial.
(...)

The trial's focus shifted late Wednesday afternoon to the fiery ending of the 1993 . siege. Plaintiffs' lawyers began offering excerpts of depositions in which Davidians told of the inferno that their home became after the FBI's tear-gas assault.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


2. Jury in suit over Waco siege listens to tapes of gunbattle
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 21, 2000
http://www.postnet.com/postnet/stories.nsf/
ByDocID/4AF99FA5C641913B8625690600006BDD?OpenDocument
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) But the tapes failed to clarify who fired first or how federal agents identified themselves when they came to ram down the front doors of the sect's complex near Waco on Feb. 28, 1993. The raid began a 51-day siege that ended in a fiery battle where about 80 Branch Davidians died.
(...)

Lawyers for relatives of dead Davidians and some survivors put some of the tapes into evidence to show the ATF used excessive force. Some of the tapes had been played before a jury in the criminal trial of some Branch Davidian defendants in 1994. But other parts were put before a jury for the first time.

For example, Martin's statements to Lynch that ''I have the right to defend myself'' and ''they started firing first'' were not disclosed to the criminal trial jury.

Government lawyers played other parts of the tapes to help the defense. For example, in one part, Lynch asked Martin if authorities could give any medical help to the injured Davidians. Martin responds: ''We don't want anything from your country.''

In another recorded exchange, Martin says the sect members were prepared to resist ''to the last man. We are not going to leave this property. Each man is going to make their own decision.''

The defense is trying to use such statements to show that the Branch Davidians believed the U.S. government was corrupt and that a violent world-ending confrontation with federal authorities was inevitable.

In another tape used by the government, Branch Davidian leader David Koresh said, ''We knew you were coming before you did.'' The government has portrayed Koresh as a self-proclaimed prophet who doomed his followers to an apocalyptic end.
(...)

Graeme Craddock, an imprisoned Davidian, testified by deposition that Koresh had always taught about the possibility that the complex would be attacked by the government. Craddock said he was issued two guns that he had on the morning of the ATF raid. Craddock said the first shots he heard seemed to come from outside the building.

After that, he heard a barrage that sounded like ''hail falling on a tin roof.'' He said he heard screams from Perry Jones, one of the Davidians who died on the day of the raid.
(...)

Part of the deposition of Derek Lovelock, a Davidian survivor who lives in England, was read into the record. Lovelock, the first one out of the burning complex, said stairwells inside the complex had been damaged when the FBI used converted tanks to insert tear gas. Damage from the tanks restricted the movements of people inside, he said.

In a videotaped deposition, Davidian Annetta Richards of Jamaica said she saw three helicopters flying toward the complex on the day of the ATF raid that began the siege.

''Shortly after I sat down, a bullet came through the wall, just inches from my face,'' said Richards, who was 64 at the time of the raid. She said she was in a second-floor room and that bullets came through the walls and the roof. She said she saw no Davidian fire a gun.

About a month after the siege, Richards peacefully left the complex. She said she believed the others would have eventually left the same way.

''Everyone was planning on coming out,'' she said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


3. Attorney: Bullet holes evidence ATF was aggressor at Mount Carmel
Waco Tribune-Herald, June 21, 2000
http://www.accesswaco.com/auto/feed/news/local/
2000/06/21/961639083.23827.2776.0173.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Bullet holes in the front door convinced him that agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were the aggressors in their Feb. 28, 1993 raid on Mount Carmel, Houston attorney Dick DeGuerin testified Wednesday in the Branch Davidians' wrongful-death lawsuit against the government.

''All the bullet holes I saw had smooth edges from bullets coming from the outside,'' DeGuerin said.

DeGuerin told the seven-member advisory jury and U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. of Waco that he entered Mount Carmel seven years ago to try to get the Davidians to surrender and take their chances in court. He was enlisted to represent David Koresh by the Davidian leader's mother, Bonnie Haldeman.

''It was a parallel interest I had, I thought, with the FBI,'' DeGuerin said.

DeGuerin told Houston attorney Cynthia Chapman - who is assisting her husband, attorney Mike Caddell - that Mount Carmel had a pair of hollow-core steel front doors. Only the door on the right had bullet holes, according to DeGuerin.

Chapman poked a hole through paper to illustrate a bullet's entry and exit patterns, causing the government to complain that her object lesson wasn't legitimate.

''You don't think so?'' Smith asked. ''Overruled.''
(...)

The plaintiffs Wednesday also presented depositions from several women at Mount Carmel. All of them said they were not warned about the ATF raid and did not carry guns.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


4. Federal judge in Waco suit bars evidence that FBI negotiators warned against using tanks
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 21, 2000
http://www.postnet.com/postnet/stories.nsf/ByDocID/
16D48FED642EBF5686256905003A5F98?OpenDocument
[Story no longer online? Read this]
WACO, TEXAS - A federal judge ruled Tuesday that FBI negotiators' warnings to their commanders against using tanks against Branch Davidians could not be brought up during the sect's wrongful death lawsuit in Waco.

U.S. District Judge Walter Smith Jr. ruled that the testimony was barred by federal law that allows discretion to federal officers to handle situations as they see fit. The ruling was a boost to government lawyers who wanted to keep the negotiators' statements out of the trial.
(...)

''It (the judge's ruling) takes away some of our best evidence,'' said Jim Brannon, one of the lawyers for the Branch Davidian survivors. ''We would have liked to see it go the other way.
(...)

The trial began Tuesday with the videotaped faces of 15 smiling children of the Branch Davidians greeting the six jurors. Caddell used video of the children as an emotional opening to his claim that the government didn't do enough to protect them during the final siege on April 19, 1993. All but one of the children died in the final assault. The video had been made inside the complex during the standoff that began with a raid by Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents on Feb. 28.

After he introduced each child, Caddell put color photographs of each on a board for the jury to see. He said each ''never owned a gun, never fired a gun, never broke the law, never hurt anyone.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


5. 2 Sides Give 2 Versions of Facts in Waco Suit
New York Times, June 21, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/library/
national/062100waco.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
WACO, Tex., June 20 -- Trial in a lawsuit filed against the government by survivors and relatives of those killed in the 1993 fire at the Branch Davidian compound began today with the two sides giving different interpretations of the same basic facts.

''This case is about truth and responsibility,'' said Michael A. Caddell, lead attorney for the plaintiffs. ''We'll hear the truth about what happened at Mount Carmel and who bears the responsibility for what happened, including the death of 25 children.''

J. Michael Bradford, the United States attorney in Texas, told the federal judge and seven-member advisory jury hearing the case that responsibility was also the theme of his defense. ''The responsibility for this tragedy is with David Koresh and the Branch Davidians,'' he said.
(...)

Mr. Caddell said his lawsuit revolved around four issues: Did federal agents direct indiscriminate gunfire at the compound during the initial raid? Did the F.B.I. deviate from its approved operational plan? Did unauthorized F.B.I. action cause or contribute to the fire? And did the F.B.I. violate Attorney General Janet Reno's orders by not having firefighting equipment available on April 19, 1993?
(...)

Mr. Caddell moved quickly to separate his clients from those Branch Davidians involved with weapons or violence during the raid, admitting that hundreds of firearms were found in the burned-out compound.

''That is not in dispute here,'' he said. ''Eight people were convicted for those crimes and sent to prison. None of them are involved in this lawsuit. I am not here to defend David Koresh.''

He also conceded that some Branch Davidians may have set at least one of three fires that government investigators say started the April 19, 1993, blaze.

For his part, Mr. Bradford tried to deflect charges of indiscriminate firing by government agents by describing the chaotic conditions during the raid. ''They did not expect to receive gunfire,'' he said. ''The agents were in a situation where they were pinned down and fighting for their lives.''

Three Branch Davidians injured during the raid, he said, were killed by their own companions. ''The B.A.T.F. tried to get them out for medical treatment, but instead of giving them medical attention they were shot,'' Mr. Bradford said.

He also scoffed at Mr. Caddell's theory of the origin of the fires: ''They didn't start just one of the fires, they started all of them.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


6. Lawyers debate who's at fault in Waco case
Dallas Morning News, June 21, 2000
http://dallasnews.com/texas_southwest/
99489_waco_21tex.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
WACO - Testimony in the Branch Davidian wrongful-death lawsuit opened Tuesday with plaintiffs' attorneys displaying pictures of children killed in the 1993 tragedy and government lawyers countering that the carnage was caused by the sect and its apocalyptic leader.

''I'd like to introduce you to some of my clients,'' Houston lawyer Michael Caddell told an advisory jury of six people and the one alternate as they silently watched images of smiling, waving children.

Pausing to display photos of 15 children between the ages of 2 and 17 who died in the incident, he added with each picture that the child ''never owned a gun. Never broke the law. Never hurt anyone.''

U.S. Attorney Michael Bradford of Beaumont countered that Branch Davidians were an ''armed encampment'' that ambushed agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms looking for illegal weapons.

He told jurors that sect members set their compound near Waco afire on orders of their leader, David Koresh, when FBI agents tried to force them out with tear gas. Four ATF agents and six Branch Davidians died in the initial raid on Feb. 28, 1993. About 80 Branch Davidians, including more than 20 children, died when the compound burned about six hours into the FBI's tear-gas operation on April 19, 1993.

''The responsibility for those tragic events should not be placed upon the shoulders of the brave men and women of the ATF and the FBI,'' Mr. Bradford said. ''The responsibility for what happened at Mount Carmel is on David Koresh and the Branch Davidians. They caused this dangerous situation to occur, and they brought it to a tragic end.''

Among spectators who filled the second-story federal courtroom Tuesday were sect members who survived the 51-day siege and fire. Several stood to be introduced during their lawyers' opening statements, and the rest watched quietly as both sides laid out their sharply conflicting versions of Mr. Koresh, his followers and their actions in 1993.

Three of the survivors, including two teenagers who were 8 and 10 at the time of the incident, were the first witnesses, and their testimony marked the first time any members of the sect have testified in the long series of criminal proceedings and civil suits arising from the standoff.
(...)

The government won a preliminary victory Tuesday when U.S. District Judge Walter Smith ruled that the plaintiffs must seek permission before telling jurors what the government's negotiators advised and feared about the FBI's tear-gas operation.

The government's lawyers had complained that admitting the negotiators' documents and testimony into evidence would be improper because it would violate Judge Smith's ruling that negotiations and other FBI actions were protected from litigation by federal law.

The ruling was made after government lawyers agreed that they would not try to argue that individual Branch Davidians should be held partially negligent for refusing to come out and surrender.

Mr. Caddell said plaintiffs won a big concession with the government's agreement. He predicted that the judge will ultimately allow the jury to see memos from an FBI behavioral expert warning that sending in tanks would guarantee violence and tragedy.

Both sides also declared victory in a day that began with what appeared to be a race to condemn Mr. Koresh and detail his arsenal.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


7. FBI Testimony Barred in Waco Trial
AOL/AP, June 21, 2000
http://my.aol.com/news/story.tmpl?
table=n&cat=01&id=0006210217144224
[Story no longer online? Read this]
WACO, Texas (AP) - A judge hearing the $675 million wrongful death case against the government over the deadly 1993 Waco siege has excluded testimony from three FBI negotiators who said tanks should not have been used to end the standoff.

Plaintiffs' attorneys, who considered the evidence important to their case, said the ruling by U.S. District Judge Walter Smith would force them to adjust their case.

''We will have to shift gears and bring other witnesses,'' said attorney James Brannon after the trial opened Tuesday.
(...)

In his ruling, Smith agreed with government lawyers who say the negotiators' testimony and communications fell under a privilege that shields the federal government from liability even if its agents' actions prove negligent. It is designed to give federal officials the ability to act without fear of a lawsuit.

U.S. Attorney Michael Bradford, defending the government, said the agents were making difficult decisions in a tense situation.

''How negotiations are discussed shouldn't be second-guessed by the court system,'' he said.

It was unclear whether plaintiffs' attorneys can use a March 1993 memo warning that the FBI would face trouble if tanks were used at the compound and children died. The memo by FBI profiler Peter Smerick to on-scene commander Jeffery Jamar has been described by Brannon as his best evidence from the government.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


8. Branch Davidian plaintiffs focus on child victims
Waco Tribune-Herald, June 20, 2000
http://www.accesswaco.com/auto/feed/news/local/
2000/06/20/961555716.23334.7535.0092.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
The plaintiffs in the Branch Davidians' wrongful-death lawsuit against the government started early Tuesday during the first day of testimony trying to put a face on their case - a young face.

''This case is about truth and responsibility,'' said Houston attorney Mike Caddell, in his opening. ''Truth about what happened at Mount Carmel and responsibility for the many people who died there, including 25 children.''

Caddell showed video images of 15 children who died seven years ago in the events following the fire that destroyed Mount Carmel. As each image flashed on the screen, Caddell hung photographs of children like Hollywood Sylvia on a board in front of the seven-person advisory jury in U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr.'s Waco courtroom.
(...)

Caddell called two witnesses to give a kid's perspective on the raid.

Jaunessa Wendel was 8 years old and Natalie Nobrega was 10 years old in 1993. Wendel's mother, Jaydean, died in the raid. Nobrega's mother, Theresa, died on the day of the fire. Both Wendel and Nobrega were released before the fire.
(...)

Nobrega, 18, testified that she had just finished eating breakfast when the raid occurred.

''There was a ticking sound,'' Nobrega said. ''Pop, pop. Like that. I was taking notice of it, and the window smashed. My mother grabbed and covered me.''

Her room was shot up, Nobrega said.

''All my quilt coverings were full of holes,'' she said. ''If I had been sleeping, I would not be here today.''

Nobrega recalled Mount Carmel as a fun place to live. She said driving go-carts was her favorite pastime. Outside the courtroom, Caddell told reporters that Mount Carmel was ''like a summer camp'' for the children.

Marie Hagen, government co-counsel, presented a starker view of the environment.

Questioning Rita Riddle, the plaintiffs' first witness, Hagen read off a string of names of children at Mount Carmel. One child was Serenity Sea Jones, the daughter of Michele Jones, Koresh's sister-in-law. Michele Jones gave birth to Serenity Sea while she was 13 years old.

Riddle confirmed that each child on Hagen's list was fathered by Koresh.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


9. Davidian attorneys praise jury
Houston Chronicle, June 19, 2000
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/
metropolitan/582990
[Story no longer online? Read this]
WACO -- Attorneys for surviving Branch Davidians praised the six-person jury selected Monday to hear their lawsuit against the federal government.

Lawyers also were pleased that U.S. District Judge Walter Smith will allow them to present evidence that a negotiator warned the FBI that a raid on the Mount Carmel compound could result in the deaths of children. Smith also agreed to let attorneys question surviving Davidians about their knowledge of the government stand-off at Ruby Ridge, Idaho.

Smith made his rulings Monday morning, before the six-person jury was seated.
(...)

''We think it's a good jury for the plaintiffs,'' said Michael Caddell, a Houston attorney who is lead counsel for the more than 100 plaintiffs in the case.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Ho No Hana Sanpogyo

10. Nine more foot cultists nabbed
Mainichi Daily News (Japan), June 21, 2000
http://www.mainichi.co.jp/english/news/news06.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Police arrested nine members of the Ho-no-Hana Sampogyo religious group Tuesday for allegedly swindling 14 people out of about 57 million yen by falsely telling them that they would suffer cancer unless they participated in its training program.

The total number of arrests made among those linked to the cult now stands at 19.

Atsushi Yamaguchi, 36, a high-ranking member of the foot-reading cult, and Machiko Sato, 47, an adviser to the cult, were among the nine members arrested Tuesday on suspicion of fraud.
(...)

A joint investigative force of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and Shizuoka Prefectural Police also raided four locations linked to the cult the same day, including the homes of Yamaguchi and Sato in Tokyo's Meguro-ku and Shibuya-ku, respectively.

A day earlier, police served new arrest warrants on 10 people linked to the cult on suspicion of fraud, including the cult's former head, Hogen Fukunaga, 55, whose real first name is Teruyoshi.
(...)

All in all, the foot-reading cult, based in Fuji, Shizuoka Prefecture, is suspected of defrauding at least 30,000 people out of more than 87 billion yen.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Islam

11. Assad Patronage Puts a Small Sect on Top in Syria
New York Times, June 22, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/library/
world/mideast/062200syria-assad.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
DAMASCUS, Syria, June 18 -- When Hafez al-Assad died on June 10, his power and privileges passed to his eldest surviving son, Bashar, a 34-year-old eye doctor who is just a few formalities away from officially inheriting the Syrian presidency.

But Dr. Assad is not the only heir to his father's 30 years of authoritarian rule.

Behind him -- in the officer corps of the armed forces, the intelligence services, the palace guard and the ruling Baath Party command -- stand thousands of his fellow Alawites, members of a minority religious sect who owe their fortunes and their influence exclusively to Assad family patronage.
(...)

Their dominance is never openly discussed, however. It is a taboo in Syria to speak publicly about Alawite power or the power of any other minority. Syrian nationalism and Arab nationalism were supposed to have erased sectarian identities, under the ruling philosophy of the Assad government.

''There is no such thing as an Alawite sect in Syria,'' declared Riyad Ghassan Agha, head of the political bureau of the presidency, in a recent interview on Al-Jezeera television.
(...)

For most of the late President Assad's reign, his favoritism toward Alawites was a source of much private resentment among Syria's traditionally dominant Sunni Muslim majority. In the early 1980's, the supremacy of the Alawites, historically regarded in Syria as heretics, was a spur for a violent rebellion by Islamic fundamentalists.
(...)

He dealt with the Sunni fundamentalist rebellion by brutally crushing it. And he carefully courted other religious minorities in Syria, like Shiite Muslims and Christians, who also feared that they would be trampled if the Sunnis were to regain political power.
(...)

The Alawites, at about 1.5 million strong in Syria and representing about 12 percent of the country's population, are considered by some to be a distant offshoot of the Shiite branch of Islam. Most members of the sect live in Syria, although there are scattered communities in Turkey as well.

Their belief system has been a matter of speculation, rumor and suspicion from more orthodox Muslims of both the Shiite and Sunni sects almost from their beginnings in the ninth century, when the branch was founded by a man named Ibn Nusayr, who declared himself the gateway to truth.

Only a small group within the sect are initiated into Alawite rituals and doctrine. But researchers who have studied the group say they drink wine in some ceremonies, incorporate elements of Phoenician paganism, and hold that Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, is a divine. All of that is anathema to conventional Islam.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


12. Nigeria's Kano state celebrates Sharia
BBC, June 21, 2000
http://news.bbc.co.uk/low/english/world/
africa/newsid_798000/798630.stm
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Hundreds of thousands of Nigerian Muslims have been celebrating the adoption of Islamic law or Sharia in the country's most populous northern state, Kano.

Kano is the fourth and largest Nigerian state to adopt Sharia - which includes punishments such as amputation and flogging - and other states are likely to follow.

The issue has provoked fear among northern Nigeria's minority non-Muslim population and sparked violent unrest.
(...)

The authorities have given assurances that Sharia will not apply to non-Muslims, but many Christians have already abandoned Kano city, which has a history of religious violence.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Catholicism

13. Mexico's Virgin of Guadalupe Goes High-Tech
AOL/Reuters, June 21, 2000
http://my.aol.com/business/story.tmpl?
table=n&cat=02&id=0006210233422933
[Story no longer online? Read this]
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's Catholic Church unveiled a digital image of the country's beloved Virgin of Guadalupe on Wednesday, identical to the one believed to have miraculously appeared on the tunic of an Aztec Indian in 1531.

The latter image, the most sacred object in Mexico and fervently adored, is encased in crystal behind the alter of the Mexico City Basilica.

Prints and posters of the new digital photograph will go on sale Friday for an as-yet-undisclosed price.

''Anyone who wants one can now have an image like the original in their home,'' the Rev. Jose de Jesus Aguilar told a news conference.

Reproductions of the dark-skinned Virgin Mary abound, sold on street corners, in churches and curio shops across Mexico.

The digital version not only will give rank-and-file Catholics the chance to own the most ''faithful'' reproduction yet made. It also will be available to scholars for study.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Paganism

14. Modern pagans reclaim Stonehenge
The Times, June 22, 2000
http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/
Times/timnwsnws01002.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
THE tribes of ancient Britain who congregated at Stonehenge to celebrate the summer solstice yesterday could hardly have been less colourful than their ancient predecessors.

There were the New Age travellers in dreadlocks and home-knitted woollens, the ''brew crew'' with cans of lager and mohican haircuts, a Brazilian samba dancer dressed in a chain-mail bikini and even a handful of yuppies with picnic hampers and BMW estates.

Every strand of British culture was represented, from ''crusties'' to a handful of ''crumblies'' who found themselves standing in a field in the rain longing for a cup of Horlicks long after their usual bedtimes.

And then there were the druids, wizards, warlocks and witches who like to think they are continuing a tradition that dates back to the 4,000-year-old origins of Stonehenge.

It was their lobbying that persuaded English Heritage to reopen the site for the midsummer celebration for the first time in 15 years.

But the druids could not even agree among themselves on the appropriate way to welcome the dawn on the longest day of the year.
(...)

Three women dressed in black capes sitting on a tartan rug stared angrily at the crowds surrounding the druids. ''Why is everyone so interested in the druids?'' one asked. ''What about us witches?''

Dylan Ap Thuin, Archdruid of the Insulars, hinted that not all was peace and harmony within pagan ranks. Two years ago, after 100 worshippers were permitted to see in the summer solstice, there were bitter complaints that the event had been ''hijacked'' by Rollo Maughling, self-styled Archdruid of Stonehenge, who appointed himself master of ceremonies. ''This time we're not having any organised celebration,'' said Mr Ap Thuin. ''It led to too much trouble last time.''

Trying to recreate Stonehenge's ancient rituals is like reconstructing the story of Christianity from the floor-plan of St Paul's Cathedral.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Hate Groups / Hate Crimes

15. Supremacist will be tried on charges of abducting 6 grandchildren
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 21, 2000
http://www.postnet.com/postnet/stories.nsf/
ByDocID/7DA2BFFDE39D3AFE8625690600060A7A?OpenDocument
[Story no longer online? Read this]
GAINESVILLE, Mo. - Ozark County Judge John Jacob ruled Wednesday that enough evidence exists to try the anti-Semitic Rev. Gordon P. Winrod on charges that he abducted six of his grandchildren and held them on his 600-acre compound outside of town.
(...)

Winrod, 73, widely known for his extreme Christian Identity beliefs, and two of his children, Stephen Winrod, 31, and Carol Winrod, 27, appeared in court Wednesday for a hearing that laid out the evidence against them. Each faces six counts of child abduction punishable by up to five years in prison on each count.

The Winrods defended themselves in court after refusing an appointed attorney. The elder Winrod, who has long preached that Jews are the offspring of the devil, calls attorneys ''Jew lawyers'' and judges ''Jew-dicials.'' Winrod wrangled with Jacob throughout the three-hour preliminary hearing in his attempt to prove he had the right under God's law to keep the children away from the custody of their fathers.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


16. German academics outraged by award for 'Hitler apologist'
The Times (England), June 22, 2000
http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/Times/
timfgneur03002.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
GERMAN historians are outraged after a top literary prize was awarded to a controversial academic who has sought to justify Hitler's anti-Semitism and play down the monstrosity of Nazi war crimes.

Ernst Nolte was awarded the Konrad Adenauer prize, normally given for works that ''contribute to a better future'', this month, provoking a dispute over revisionism in modern German history.

The academics' anger was heightened when Horst Moeller, the director of the highly respected Institute for Contemporary History, scandalised colleagues by praising Professor Nolte for his ''life's work of high rank'' and opening up the debate on wartime Germany.

Professor Nolte became an academic pariah in the 1980s when he suggested that Hitler and national socialism presented a distorted mirror image of Stalin and Bolshevism and to merge unacceptably his anti-Semitism with his anti-communism. Professor Nolte has not wavered from his views despite a barrage of criticism. ''The Holocaust is indissolubly linked not only to Hitler's hostility to Bolshevism but also to the war against the Soviet Union in general,'' he said.

Professor Nolte, who also emphasised that Hitler was not ''absolutely evil'', is not a revisionist in the manner of David Irving - he does not deny the scope of the Holocaust. He is, however, by most definitions, an apologist for Hitler.
(...)

In his speech, Professor Moeller emphasised that he did not share Professor's Nolte's basic thesis that the Nazis were an understandable reaction to Bolshevism. However, he did call for academic tolerance and a serious discussion rather than demonisation of Ernst Nolte's works.

Unfortunately the only discussion that has ensued is about the integrity of the historical profession in Germany. How far can German historians discuss Hitler in a normal way - advancing positive as well as negative elements - without seeming to be Nazi sympathisers?
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Other News

17. French parliament to debate controversial anti-sect bill.    NOTE: This bill was accepted. See this report.
Yahoo/AFP, June 21, 2000
http://english.hk.dailynews.yahoo.com/
headlines/world/afp/article.html?s=hke/headlines/000622/world/afp/
French_parliament_to_debate_controversial_anti-sect_bill.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A controversial law to combat sects that would make a new crime of ''mental manipulation'' will be debated in the French National Assembly Thursday, amid cries of outrage from minority religions and civil rights groups.

The law would punish by up to three years in jail acts of ''serious and repeated pressure, or the use of techniques to alter the mind of a person, leading him or her to commit a harmful act.''

Another clause would allow judges to dissolve associations that have twice been convicted on charges such as endangering lives, illegal use of medicine or duplicitous advertising.

''We need to give judges repressive tools,'' said deputy Catherine Picard, who steered the bill through the committee stage in parliament. ''The law is a response to the evolution of society and the growing importance that sects have in it.''

But the proposed law, which has the backing of the ruling Socialist party, has already been condemned as an assault on free speech, and an infringement of the Declaration of Human Rights, which is incorporated in France's constitution.

Last week representatives of mainly American religious groups took out a full-page advertisement in the International Herald Tribune newspaper calling on Prime Minister Lionel Jospin to withdraw the bill, or see France ''compared to China'' in its disrespect for human rights.

The Church of Scientology, which believes it is a principal target of the planned legislation, said the bill was a ''fascist exercise worthy of a totalitarian state.''

''This is how fascism begins. You have a law introduced by one government aimed at a certain group of people. Before you know it new governments come in and turn it on to different victims,'' said Scientology spokesman Jean Dupuis.

He said legal experts had told the church that elements of the bill were almost certainly in contravention of the French constitution, and it would therefore be stopped by the country's constitutional court.

Opponents of the bill were encouraged by a statement from the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights earlier this month which said it would ''eliminate all liberty of association in France.''

However the statement drew a caustic response from the head of the government's Mission to Combat Sects Alain Vivien, who said that the federation ''seemed to have fallen into the hands of scientologists and perhaps other transnational sects.''

According to a recent poll, 73 percent of French people believe sects are a danger to democracy, and 86 percent are in favour of banning certain of them such as the Church of Scientology or the Order of the Solar Temple.
[...entire item...]

* For examples of why these kind of laws are necessary, read up on the
''Church of Scientology''
[Story no longer online? Read this]


18. Robinson has been linked to cult rituals
MSNBC/KSHB, June 21, 2000
http://www.msnbc.com/local/KSHB/187352.asp
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Lenexa, Kansas - We have disturbing insight into the life and times of suspected serial killer John Edward Robinson.

A former acquaintance said Robinson was involved in cult rituals and torture. When we talk about cults, most of us think about devil worship and Satanism.

According to one woman we talked with, John Robinson was involved with a cult of a slightly different kind focusing on ultimate control. She told us that she met Robinson at three separate rituals, where he supplied the victims for severe sexual abuse, bondage and torture. One of those victims, according to our witness, was one of the three missing Overland Park women.
(...)

James Turner was one of the aliases used by Robinson, a man who was involved in a cult where bondage and abuse during rituals was graded and judged. Sophie said that slavemaster's job was to bring in victims. In this case, according to Sophie, Robinson brought in three different young women.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


19. Greeks Rally to Keep Religions on ID Cards
New York Times, June 22, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/00/06/22/news/
world/greece-religion-nyt.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
ATHENS, June 21 -- Thousands of Greek Orthodox clerics and followers flooded the center of this capital today to demand that the government retract its decision to remove religious affiliations from citizens' identity cards.
(...)

The protest follows a call last month by Prime Minister Costas Simitis's Socialist government to enact a privacy code that bars citizens from declaring details of their faiths, occupations, family status and thumbprints for identity cards. The government says it wants to help protect religious minorities' rights.

The church, which sees itself as a guardian of Greek tradition and the move as an assault on the Orthodox Christian character of Greece, has said the affiliations on the cards should be optional and has called for a referendum on the issue.
(...)

''It's obvious,'' a close aide to the prelate, Metropolitan Prokopios, said, ''that the identity-card issue is just the start of a storm of reforms, ultimately leading to what the Socialists have long sought, a divorce from the church.'' Similar though smaller protests rattled the country 13 years ago as Andreas Papandreou moved, but later stopped, plans to seize control of church property, including prime real estate that the present government is eyeing to build a lavish resort, ahead of the 2004 Olympics here. A recent poll in a daily here, Eleftherotypia, found that 46.1 percent of those surveyed opposed Mr. Simitis's effort to ban religious affiliations from identity cards and that 40 percent supported it.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


20. Dalai Lama Seeks Help From Congress
New York Times/AP, June 20, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/
AP-Dalai-Lama.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, said Tuesday that he was open to talks with Chinese leaders, and he asked members of Congress to help initiate them.

''Anyplace, anytime, I am willing to meet with China leadership without preconditions,'' the Dalai Lama said.

China opposes autonomy for Tibet and sees the Dalai Lama as a rallying point for pro-independence forces. Officials have refused to meet with him.

The Dalai Lama was invited to Capitol Hill by Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to discuss his relationship with the U.S. government and the future political status of Tibet.

At the White House, President Clinton joined the Dalai Lama during most of his 40-minute meeting with National Security Adviser Sandy Berger. Clinton expressed support for the Dalai Lama's continuing effort to encourage dialogue with China. The White House said he also underscored the United States' strong support of Tibetans' human rights and their religious and cultural heritage.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


21. House Votes To Protect Religious TV
New York Times/AP, June 20, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/
AP-Religious-Broadcasting.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House voted Tuesday to protect religious broadcasters by prohibiting the Federal Communications Commission from regulating the content of speech aired by noncommercial educational radio and television stations.

The bill, passed 264-159, was in reaction to an FCC statement, made last December and rescinded in January, that broadcasters seeking licenses for free, specially reserved educational TV channels should devote half their air time to educational programs.

The FCC statement, which drew the ire of some religious groups and members of Congress, also disqualified religious proselytizing and church services as general educational programming.

''We are simply trying to prevent and prohibit the FCC from going down a dangerous path of regulating religious speech,'' said Rep. Charles ''Chip'' Pickering, R-Miss.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Noted

22. Larry King Live: Is the Apocalypse Coming?
CNN, June 19, 2000 (Transcript)
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/
0006/19/lkl.00.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, is the apocalypse coming? How did Biblical prophecy about the end of the world inspire bestselling fiction?

Joining us, the co-authors of the phenomenally successful ''Left Behind'' series, Dr. Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. They'll take your calls, too, and they're next on LARRY KING LIVE.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


23. In the Name of Peace at the Office
New York Times, June 21, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/library/
jobmarket/062100work-peace.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
No one at the Earth Justice Legal Defense Fund, an environmental law firm in San Francisco, expected December 1998 to be the cruelest month. The holiday season is supposed to be about peace, not tribal warfare. But war is what broke out, over Yuletide decorations.

The fracas began when Christian employees decided to celebrate and the manager told them to decorate the office however they saw fit. But the firm's non-Christian employees, including Jews, Buddhists and Muslims, felt slighted, so the boss told them all to decorate their personal areas rather than one centralized location. That did not fly, either.
(...)

Earth Justice's brush with religious discord is hardly a workplace anomaly. With the nation undergoing something of a spiritual revival, more companies are seeking to accommodate employees' religious needs by initiatives like letting people swap religious holidays, organizing prayer breakfasts or spiritual retreats, setting aside prayer rooms and even hiring on-site corporate chaplains. The Fellowship of Companies for Christ International, a Christian group, estimates that 10,000 Bible-study and prayer groups meet in the workplace.

''It's to an employer's benefit to accommodate employees' religious needs,'' said the Rev. Diana Dale, the executive director of the National Institute of Business and Industrial Chaplains, in Houston. ''It's a core part of people's grounding, and it makes them more productive.''
(...)

Such activities reflect the norms of a deeply religious society. In a recent Gallup poll, 95 percent of those surveyed said they believed in God, and 48 percent reported talking about their faith at work that day.

Employers have taken note. The Society for Human Resource Management in Alexandria, Va., says 68 percent of 743 human-resource professionals at American corporations who were polled in 1997 said they offered flexible schedules for religious observances and 15 percent said they provided space or time for religious observances.

Mixing God and the office is not to everyone's liking, of course, and it can be legally tricky. Complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about religious discrimination rose to 1,811 in 1999 from 1,584 three years earlier, though they still paled in comparison with 24,454 accusations of sexual discrimination in 1998.

Federal law requires ''reasonable accommodation'' of religious practice in the workplace. Guidelines issued by the Clinton administration in 1997 say Federal employees have the right to express their beliefs, for example by keeping copies of the Bible or the Koran on their desks, as long as they do not interfere with the rights of others.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Prayer in the USA

24. Outrage in an Illinois Town Over Justices' Ruling on Prayer
New York Times, June 22, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/00/06/22/news/
national/ill-pray.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
(...) In this conservative small town, 58 miles west of Chicago, the court ruling was seen as another attack on homespun values by sneering elitists. Of more than two dozen people interviewed here, not a single person defended the ruling.

Indeed, people despaired of an emerging American culture that allows for gay Boy Scout leaders, but grows skittish about students who want to pray. And they often saw the curbs on prayer as part of a greater effort to impose government regulations, like gun control. But more than anything, they saw it as a lapse of common sense.
(...)

Ms. Spooner saw the court ruling as ''the government stepping into your family's way,'' decreeing what kinds of worship were permissible.

''It's like, for the last 30 years, they've been reprogramming us about what's right and wrong,'' she said. ''We're being watered down in this country. But there's a higher power than the United States government. We're all going to have to answer to God.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* The ruling:
Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?
court=us&vol=000&invol=99-62


25. Fumble on Prayer
(Column - George F. Will)
Washington Post, June 21, 2000
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
articles/A31490-2000Jun20.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
And you thought the Supreme Court could not further split repeatedly split hairs concerning what activities with a religious flavor, however optional or faint, in or around public schools violate the Constitution's ban on ''establishment'' of religion. Think again.

The court conducts its business after a chant that concludes ''God save the United States and this Honorable Court,'' and the court sits across the street from Congress, both houses of which have taxpayer-paid chaplains who pray for divine guidance and blessings. But on Monday the court ruled, 6 to 3, that the Constitution was violated by a suburban Houston school district's proposed policy of allowing students to elect a speaker to make remarks to ''solemnize'' football games, remarks that could, but need not, include a prayer.

Now, it is weird that anyone thinks Texas high school football needs a solemnity-infusion. Nevertheless, the school district thought its policy would pass constitutional muster because it would involve private, not government-sponsored or approved, student speech.

But not only was the policy not constitutionally bulletproof, it so swiftly drew legal challenges that it was never implemented. And on Monday the challengers won.
(...)

This case lengthens the court's meandering record of on-again, off-again, and occasionally partial, adherence to a three-pronged test to decide when public policy that touches religion, however tangentially, constitutes ''establishment'' of religion: The policy is constitutional if, but only if, it has a secular purpose, its primary effect neither advances nor inhibits religion, and it does not foster excessive entanglement with religion.

The three-pronged test disregards the intention of the framers of the establishment clause, which was to ensure government neutrality between religious factions, not between religion and irreligion. And the test has produced some peculiar, even hilarious, rulings, such as the one in 1983, when the court, allowing political prudence to trump the logic of its illogical precedents, said that Nebraska's legislature could continue beginning each session with a prayer by a paid chaplain. Pity the poor chaplain, who suffered the indignity of a court declaration that he did not have the primary effect of advancing religion.

Among the first acts of the First Congress, which wrote the First Amendment with its establishment clause, were the hiring of a chaplain, and the urging of President Washington to proclaim a day of ''public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God.'' But, then, Washington at least did not proclaim it over a public address system.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


26. Prayer Continuing, Despite Order
New York Times/AP, June 20, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/
AP-School-Prayer.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
HOUMA, La. (AP) -- High school football games in at least one Louisiana parish will keep starting with a prayer, in defiance of a Supreme Court ruling that calls the practice unconstitutional.

''If we get an objection, we'll stop it, we'll follow the law,'' said James Charles, acting superintendent of Terrebonne Parish schools. Charles said Tuesday no one had complained about the prayers yet.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


27. What's Still Allowed in Prayer Form
New York Times/AP, June 20, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/
AP-Scotus-Whats-Allowed.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Some prayers and religious activities still are allowed in public schools, despite the Supreme Court's decision Monday barring public schools from letting students lead stadium crowds in prayer before football games. Some examples:

--Individual students are free to pray, as the court said, ''at any time before, during or after the schoolday'' as long as their prayers do not interfere with other students.

--Groups of students can meet for prayer or worship, either informally or as a formal school organization as long as other student clubs are allowed at school.

--All students are allowed to pray before eating a school meal, as long as their prayers are not disruptive.

--In some states, lower court rulings allow student-led prayers -- invocations and benedictions -- at graduation ceremonies. Monday's decision could provide new ammunition for attacks against such public school policies. In other states, such prayers are banned by lower court rulings.

--Some states and public school districts let school officials provide a daily ''moment of silence'' during which students who want to pray can do so. The court struck down such an Alabama law in 1985, saying the law encouraged students to pray. But the court never has said a truly neutral moment-of-silence law runs afoul of the constitutionally required separation of church and state.

Monday's decision could make it harder for moment-of-silence laws and policies to survive court scrutiny. ''It is ... the duty of the courts to distinguish a sham secular purpose from a sincere one,'' the justices said.
[...entire item...]


28. Ruling May Leave 'Moment of Silence' Laws Vulnerable
Washington Post, June 20, 2000
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
articles/A23419-2000Jun19.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
Yesterday's Supreme Court ruling in the Texas school prayer case could fuel challenges to laws providing for moments of silence in public schools, including a measure in Virginia that takes effect this fall, lawyers and advocates said.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


=== Death Penalty / U.S. Human Rights Violations

29. Eyes turn to Texas for execution today
Dallas Morning News, June 22, 2000
http://dallasnews.com/texas_southwest/
99958_graham_22tex.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - While the debate over death-row inmate Gary Graham simmered nationwide, this small town prepared in uncommon ways.

For the 222nd time since Texas resumed capital punishment - and for the 23rd time this year - preparations in the death chamber proceeded unseen, this time for Thursday's scheduled execution of Mr. Graham.
(...)

Not since Karla Faye Tucker was put to death in 1998 has a capital case in Texas attracted such national attention, with Mr. Graham's fate having become an issue in Gov. George W. Bush's presidential campaign.
(...)

The Ku Klux Klan and the Black Panthers have both promised they'll be in Huntsville for the execution, and local police and state troopers say at least 200 officers will stand ready for any trouble. Some Huntsville merchants have said they will hire extra security, and others announced that their doors would close early.

A local group had an evening meeting on the town square to pray for nonviolence and the protection of local residents and law enforcement.

Supporters of Mr. Graham didn't get any relief Wednesday from Texas Attorney General John Cornyn and Lt. Gov. Rick Perry, who called an Austin news conference to restate their belief in Mr. Graham's guilt and to defend Texas' death penalty record.
(...)

One of Mr. Graham's defense attorneys, Jack Zimmermann of Houston, said he had no use for the political activists that have attached themselves to both sides of the case.

''There's a bunch of fringe groups on either end of this thing, and I don't want anything to do with any of them,'' he said. ''I wouldn't have represented this guy for the last 13 months for free if I wasn't convinced: He's innocent.''
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


30. Majority think innocent have been executed
Dallas Morning News, June 22, 2000
http://dallasnews.com/texas_southwest/
100154_txpoll_22tex.A.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
AUSTIN - A majority of Texans do not share Gov. George W. Bush's confidence that the state has never executed an innocent person, according to a poll released Wednesday.

Fifty-seven percent of respondents told The Scripps Howard Texas Poll that they think Texas sometimes puts innocent people to death. And nearly 9 out of 10 said death-row inmates should have access to free DNA tests to try to prove their innocence.

Even so, support for capital punishment remains strong in Texas, with 73 percent in favor. At the same time, support nationally has fallen to its lowest level since 1981, at 66 percent, according to a recent Gallup Poll.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


31. Florida man wins last-minute execution reprieve
CNN/AP, June 21, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/2000/LAW/06/21/
bc.floridaexecution.ap/index.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
STARKE, Florida (AP) -- A man won a last-minute reprieve from a federal appeals court Tuesday, 10 minutes before he was to be executed for killing a bailiff in a 1984 courtroom shooting.

Thomas Provenzano, who has delusions of being Jesus Christ, was strapped to a gurney and had intravenous needles in his arms when the stay of execution came from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


32. Florida executes man who got reprieve while in death chamber
CNN, June 21, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/06/21/
bc.floridaexecution.ap/index.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
STARKE, Florida (AP) -- A man who killed a bailiff in a courtroom shooting and thought he was Jesus Christ was executed by injection Wednesday, one day after he received a reprieve while strapped to the gurney in the death chamber.

Thomas Provenzano had been granted the stay Tuesday, 11 minutes before the scheduled execution. Intravenous needles had already been inserted in his arms
(...)

A trial judge concluded in December that Provenzano believed he faced execution because he is Jesus. But the judge ruled that was not a strong enough reason to spare him, because Provenzano also knew he had killed Wilkerson.

Under Florida law, condemned killers can be executed even if they are mentally ill -- unless they don't understand they are about to be executed and why.

Provenzano's sister, Catherine Forbes, had asked the governor in a letter Tuesday to spare her brother.

''As you know, Thomas is severely mentally ill,'' Forbes wrote. ''He believes he is Jesus Christ and that he is going to be executed because people hate Jesus.''

Bush responded that he found no reason to alter the sentence.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]

* (James 2:12-13 NIV) Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the
law that gives freedom, {13} because judgment without mercy will be shown to
anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!

Note:

Special Rapporteur Calls for Laws to Protect Mentally Retarded; Attacks Use of Death Penalty in USA

In his annual report to the Commission on Human Rights, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions added to his statements in earlier reports referring to the desirability of abolishing the death penalty and the need to ensure the highest standards of fair trial in capital cases (see DP News June 1997). This year's report states that governments that continue to use the death penalty against minors and the mentally ill ''are particularly called upon to bring their domestic legislation into conformity with international legal standards. States should consider the adoption of special laws to protect the mentally retarded, incorporating existing international standards.'' (Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions: Report of the Special Rapporteur..., 23 December 1997, UN document E/CN.4/1998/68, paragraph 117)
- http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/aipub/1998/ACT/A5300398.htm


C. Other restrictions imposed by international law
36. Imposition of the death penalty on mentally retarded or insane persons is also prohibited. Paragraph 6 of the Declaration of the Rights of Mentally Retarded Persons, provides that, if prosecuted for any offence, a mentally retarded person shall have the right to due process of law with full recognition of his degree of mental responsibility. Further, paragraph 3 of the Safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty stipulates that the death penalty shall not be carried out on persons who have become insane. In addition, in paragraph 1 (d) of resolution 1989/64 on implementation of the safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty, the Economic and Social Council recommended that States strengthen further the protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty by eliminating the death penalty for persons suffering from mental retardation or extremely limited mental competence, whether at the stage of sentence or execution.
- http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/
TestFrame/ce9d6cdd9353d632c125661300459b39?Opendocument


145. The Special Rapporteur believes that the current practice of imposing death sentences and executions of juveniles in the United States violates international law. He further believes that the reintroduction of the death penalty and the extension of its scope, both at federal and at state level, contravene the spirit and purpose of article 6 of the ICCPR, as well as the international trend towards the progressive restriction of the number of offences for which the death penalty may be imposed. He is further concerned about the execution of mentally retarded and insane persons which he considers to be in contravention of relevant international standards.
- http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/
TestFrame/ce9d6cdd9353d632c125661300459b39?Opendocument

33. Court lifts reprieve for killer
Dallas Morning News/AP, June 21, 2000
http://dallasnews.com/texas_southwest/
99715_deathpenalty_21.html
[Story no longer online? Read this]
NEW ORLEANS - The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday removed its indefinite reprieve for Johnny Paul Penry, a mentally retarded murderer who has been on Texas' death row for almost 20 years.
(...)

Mr. Penry has an IQ estimated at between 50 and 60 and the reasoning capacity of a 7-year-old.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]