=== Aum Shinrikyo
1. Memorial held for sarin victims; bitterness lingers
2. Sarin gas victims press for state help
3. Group urges state to aid survivors of sarin gassing

=== Falun Gong
4. Sect ban pressure is denied by Tung

=== Falun Gong - China's Government-Controlled Media
5. Reports from China's government-controlled media
6. Religion, cult different terms

=== Scientology
7. Cruise Dogged by Scientology Split Rumors
8. Columbine Counselor's Teen Sex Abuse Prompts CCHR's New Website Tracking System of Mental Health Criminals

=== Islam
9. Call to spread Islam's message on tolerance
10. Taliban Bans New Year's Celebration

=== Catholicism
11. Report: Priests, Missionaries Sexually Abuse Nuns
12. Reports of abuse

=== Mormonism
13. Mormons' Long, Strange Trip to the Mainstream

=== Hate Groups
14. Judge Sentences Supremacist Pastor in Abduction of Grandchildren.
15. Racist church heads to court
16. Calif. Supremacist Pleads Guilty
17. Brown Students Steal Univ. Paper
18. Brown Protest Targets Ad
19. State House passes hate-crimes measure
20. Germany Won't Stop Yahoo! Auction

=== House of Prayer, Atlanta
21. Pastor, 5 followers arrested in child beatings
22. Defendants have criminal records
23. Church faces abuse probe over whipping of children

=== John and Carrie Davis
24. Jailed father found dead
25. Torture suspect 'upbeat' before his death

=== Recovered Memory Therapy
26. New trial ordered in recovered-memory case
27. Brain: Some choose to lose memory

=== Other News
28. End Near For Ex-Devil Church
29. Some in Egypt shun religious freedom panel
30. Three held for distributing Christian literature

=== Science
31. Skull may alter theory of human evolution

=== Death Penalty & Other Human Rights Violations
32. Convicted Killer is Freed After His Sister Finds DNA Evidence
33. Judge bans use of electric chair

=== Noted
34. Worshippers in Paris flock to Afro-Christian cults
35. Exorcism thriving in Australia
36. A Herd of Psychics on Larry King
37. When a body can be worth $220,000

=== Books
38. Sects, death and the spirit of the age
39. Mainstream Publishers Get Religion for Christian Audience
40. Take a Web site test on religion

=== John and Carrie Davis

24. Jailed father found dead
The Press-Enterprise, Mar. 11, 2001
http://www.inlandempireonline.com/news/stories/031101/wonder.shtml
[Story no longer online? Read this]
A Wonder Valley man facing trial in the death of one son and the torture of two others hanged himself with a bed sheet in his jail cell, authorities said Saturday.
(...)

Earlier Friday, Davis had been in court where four additional felony counts, including rape and related lesser charges, were added to his case. His $2 million bail also was increased to $2.3 million.
(...)

While the new charges changed the nature of the case against him, they would not have increased Davis' potential prison term significantly if he had been convicted, Cortez said. Davis was facing a possibility of three life terms if convicted on the original charges.
(...)

Calling himself ''Rajohn Lord,'' Davis was arrested last October with his wife and another woman after the Davises' eldest son phoned 911. The boy said he and his younger brother were being held in chains and for years had not been allowed to leave the family's desert home in the remote Wonder Valley section of the Morongo Basin.

When deputies visited the home, 17-year-old Yahweh and 12-year-old Angel Davis -- who now prefer to be called Jerry and Michael -- bore scars from being chained and whipped, investigators said.

San Bernardino County prosecutors charged Davis, his wife, Carrie Lee Davis, and friend Potts with torture, child abuse and imprisonment.

Investigators later found the bones of a third boy, Rainbow, who died in 1991.
John Davis allegedly beat Rainbow with a 2-by-4 board the day the boy died. Potts, 47, allegedly kicked Rainbow on the fatal day, according to prosecutors. Carrie Davis, 42, allegedly did nothing to stop the violence against her son and supposedly helped burn his body.

Prosecutors added murder charges against the adults. All three defendants pleaded not guilty to all counts.

A week before Davis' died, a judge declared him mentally competent to stand trial.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


25. Torture suspect 'upbeat' before his death
Inland Empire Online, Mar. 13, 2001
http://www.inlandempireonline.com
[Story no longer online? Read this]
John Davis expressed confidence in ''the Lord and his attorney'' when he learned Friday that he faced new charges in addition to murder and child abuse. But hours later, authorities said, he hanged himself in his Morongo Valley jail cell.

His attorney and a San Bernardino County prosecutor could offer no explanation for why Davis killed himself. But attorneys disagreed Monday over whether his death will alter the case against his wife and a friend.
(...)

''There's really no indication in the note of why he did it,'' said department spokesman Chip Patterson, who wouldn't disclose the letter's exact contents.
(...)

Davis faced charges in the death of his son, Rainbow, and the torture of two other sons. If convicted, he could have faced three life terms.

Also facing torture and murder charges are his wife, Carrie, and the couple's live-in friend, Faye Potts. Neither woman is on suicide watch, the sheriff's spokesman said.
(...)

John and Carrie Davis were arraigned Friday on new charges, including allegations that he twice sexually assaulted a teen-age girl. Her identity is not revealed in court records. The incidents supposedly happened in January 1995 and January 1998.
(...)

Compared with the original case, the new charges were relatively insignificant, Deputy District Attorney Rod Cortez said.

''It would have just added eight years on top of his potential three life sentences,'' Cortez said.

But the new charges added a more sinister tint to the life of John Davis, a self-described minister who called himself ''Rajohn Lord.''

The family lived a strict, spartan lifestyle in the desert. The children were home-schooled and virtually never left the secluded 10-acre family compound. Bible study lasted for hours a day.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


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