=== Aum Shinrikyo
1. Outcast Aum aids landlord's plan

=== Falun Gong
2. China Sect Members Ask Singapore Aid
3. News Corp. Heir Woos China With Show of Support

=== Scientology
4. A church for celebrities, but what about me?
5. Police work for Scientology

=== Unification Church
6. Clergy split over controversial Moon's visit
7. Chief of Moonies stops in Jackson on U.S. tour
8. Reverend Moon goes mainstream in 50-state tour
9. Moon plans to speak at revival in W. Baltimore
10. Moon, in D.M., pushes marriage

=== Islam
11. Muslims demand halal foods be served in Dearborn schools

=== Militia Groups / Hate Groups
12. Texas farm standoff enters second year
13. 100 held as Met launches dawn raids on hate crime
14. Nobody enjoys an apologist

=== ISCKON / Hare Krishna
15. Living with Krishna
16. Spiritual school
17. Food of the gods
18. Chic Krishna

=== Hinduism
19. Boutique Deities Offend

=== House of Prayer (Atlanta)
20. Minister has prior conviction for beating
21. Abuse claims not new, files say
22. 19 children to remain in state custody
23. Pastor says he'll take chance with jury
24. 'Who's supposed to be the villain?'
25. Child Beatings: 'They'd beat them for every simple little thing they'd do'
26. Corporal punishment part of black American culture
27. Welfare officials acknowledge the value of spanking

=== False Memory Syndrome
28. Fairlie sues over daughter's 'false memory' claims

=== Other News
29. LA County Pays $85,000 Settlement
30. Muslims fear for their lives as cannibal cult leader escapes
31. Fortunetelling legal again in Coeur d'Alene
32. School rejected girl's religious cards, suit says
33. Woman Detained After Vampire Assaults

=== Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
34. Bush's initiative could help groups that promote faith healing

=== Death Penalty and other Human Rights Abuses
35. Texas fight takes on race and death penalty


=== Death Penalty and other Human Rights Abuses

35. Texas fight takes on race and death penalty
Christian Science Monitor, Mar. 22, 2001
http://www.csmonitor.com/
[Story no longer online? Read this]
There is a correlation between race and violent behavior, the expert witness testified. Just look at the disproportionate numbers of black and Hispanic men in prison.

That testimony has now touched off a Texas-size controversy, involving the Lone Star State's attorney general, its highest criminal appeals court, and seven men on death row. At issue is whether the expert witness's words unfairly influenced juries to mete out death sentences - instead of, say, life in prison - in the cases of the minority convicts.

Attorney General John Cornyn, a Republican, has acknowledged that the testimony should not have been permitted - and that the seven inmates deserve new sentencing trials. But so far, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has refused to grant all seven inmates new hearings.

The issue is now attracting international attention because one of the men is an Argentine. Victor Hugo Saldano was convicted and sentenced to die for the 1995 robbery and murder of a Texas man.

Mr. Saldano's guilt is not in question. The issue is whether the prosecution's argument that Saldano is a threat to society, in part because he is Hispanic, swayed the jury's decision to levy the death penalty.

''One of the clearest principles of American constitutional law is that race is an inappropriate basis upon which to make official decisions,'' says James Liebman, a professor at Columbia University Law School in New York.

The 14th Amendment mandates that US law applies equally to all. The Texas Constitution says the same. However, as recently as the 1950s, judges in the South, including Texas, allowed juries to assess different penalties to people of different races convicted of the same crimes.

Under Texas law, a jury assessing the death penalty must find that a defendant poses a continuing threat to society. Expert witness Walter Quijano, a psychologist, told Saldano's jury there are 24 statistical predictors of criminal behavior, including socioeconomic status, family history, drug abuse, the deliberateness of the crime, and the defendant's age and gender.

Quijano also told the jury that because blacks and Hispanics are overrepresented in the Texas criminal-justice system, race is correlated with criminal behavior.
The jury sentenced Saldano to death.

Saldano's request for a rehearing was denied by the Court of Criminal Appeals because his attorney had not objected to the race argument at trial.

Subsequently, the Argentine consul in Texas obtained a new lawyer for Saldano, who took the case directly to the US Supreme Court.

At that point, Attorney General Cornyn learned of the case and agreed that race should not have been raised during trial. In an unusual step, he submitted a brief to the Supreme Court, arguing that Texas' Court of Criminal Appeals erred in upholding Saldano's death sentence.
(...)

Last month, the Texas court reheard Saldano's case for a new sentencing hearing. Representatives of eight Latin American governments attended the arguments.

They ''obviously have a great interest in the outcome of this case,'' says Houston lawyer Scott Atlas, who filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the US Supreme Court, supported by 11 Latin American nations, including Argentina, Mexico, and Venezuela.

In addition to deciding whether Saldano deserves a new hearing, the jurists are in the unprecedented position of deciding who has authority to regulate the court itself. If it rules against Cornyn, he and his successors would be prohibited from disagreeing publicly with the court in future cases.
(...)

Meanwhile, the Texas Legislature is considering a bill that bans the use of race or ethnicity as a factor in criminal sentencing.
[...more...]   [Need the full story? Read this]


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