c. 2000 Religion News Service
Judge Roy Moore Wins Primary Race for Alabama Chief Justice
(RNS) An Alabama judge who became famous for his decision to post the Ten Commandments in his courtroom has won a Republican primary for chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.
Judge Roy S. Moore, who sits on the Circuit Court in Gadsden, Ala., defeated three other judges in the primary race on Tuesday (June 6).
“Of course, we give our first recognition to God,” Moore said in an interview with The New York Times. “He has providence over us, and his will is something that can’t be thwarted.”
Moore, 53, will face Judge Sharon Yates, a Democrat who sits on the Court of Civil Appeals, in the November general election. Yates was not opposed in her party’s primary.
In the Republican primary, Moore won 55 percent of the vote, 25 percentage points more than Associate Justice Harold See of the State Supreme Court. See had raised more than $1.1 million for the race _ four times the amount raised by Moore _ and was the consensus candidate favored by Alabama’s business community.
Pam Baschab of the Court of Criminal Appeals garnered 8 percent of the vote and Judge Wayne Thorn of the Circuit Court in Birmingham, received 7 percent of the vote.
Moore entered the national spotlight three years ago when he defied another judge’s order to remove a hand-carved wooden plaque of the Ten Commandments that he had posted behind his bench. The judge’s decision was a response to an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit against Moore. His case was eventually dismissed on technical grounds.
After winning the primary, Moore said if he won in the general election, he would take his plaque of the Ten Commandments with him to the Supreme Court. But he did now know whether he would post it behind the court’s bench or in his chambers.
Jurors in O’Hair Case Differed on Whether She is Dead or Alive
(RNS) Jurors who recently convicted a man in a case relating to the disappearance of atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair could not agree on whether she and two of her relatives are alive or dead.
The jury foreman, Hector R. Rodriguez, said Tuesday (June 6) that the panel also was split on what happened during September 1995, when O’Hair disappeared with her son Jon Garth Murray and adopted daughter Robin Murray O’Hair.
“I would say that three jurors think they are dead and the other nine think they are alive somewhere in the world,” said Rodriguez, the Associated Press reported.
Gary Paul Karr, 52, was convicted June 2 on four charges involving extorting money from the missing family members in 1995. But jurors acquitted him of charges of kidnapping conspiracy.
O’Hair and her relatives disappeared from San Antonio, Texas, along with gold coins totaling $500,000.
Defense lawyers argued during the trial that the trio had fled to Romania or somewhere else. Prosecutors presented a theory that they were kidnapped, robbed and killed and their bodies were dismembered. No bodies have been found.
Some jurors believed the O’Hairs were kidnapped and later murdered, but others thought they left Austin after being forced from power by another faction headed by Ellen Johnson, the current president of American Atheists, Rodriguez said.
Those who think they fled believe the O’Hairs enlisted Karr and two other men to help them raise money to flee overseas and something went wrong with the plan.
Karr is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 4 and faces life in prison due to prior convictions.
O’Hair became famous when she was a plaintiff in a case that resulted in a 1963 Supreme Court ruling that ended mandatory prayer recitation and Bible verse reading in public schools.
Maryland Governor Grants Clemency; Religious Leaders Praise Decision
(RNS) Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening on Wednesday (June 7) commuted the death sentence of a convicted murderer just days before his scheduled execution following a personal plea by Pope John Paul II and three Washington-area Catholic bishops.
Eugene Colvin-el was scheduled to die for the 1980 stabbing death of an 82-year-old woman. Glendening, a two-term Democrat, decided the evidence presented in the case was not enough to sentence the 55-year-old inmate to death.
Glendening’s decision elicited praise from religious leaders, including Baltimore Cardinal William Keeler, who joined in a letter with Washington Cardinal James Hickey and Bishop Michael Saltarelli of Wilmington, Del., in asking Glendening for clemency.
“The death penalty is increasingly being seen as unnecessary and cruel,” Keeler told The Washington Post. “He should be praised for his decision.”
Bishop Felton E. May, leader of the United Methodist Church in the Baltimore-Washington area, also praised Glendening’s decision.
“This is the first step for a more just and humane society within the state of Maryland,” May said.
Colvin-el was convicted the 1980 stabbing death of Lena Buckman of Florida. Buckman was stabbed to death by an intruder in her daughter’s Baltimore County home.
Even though the Maryland Court of Appeals upheld Colvin-el’s conviction just hours before Glendening’s announcement, Glendening said the evidence was mostly circumstantial and was not enough to sentence Colvin-el to death. Police in the case had no eyewitnesses, forensic evidence or confession that tied Colvin-el to the crime.
Glendening’s decision marks the latest chapter in a national reexamination of the death penalty. Texas Gov. George Bush has delayed a scheduled execution for 30 days to allow for further DNA testing, and Virginia Gov. James Gilmore III approved a similar delay to allow for DNA testing for a mentally retarded man on death row.
Interfaith Alliance Asks Bush, Gore for Hate Crimes Legislation
(RNS) Two years after a black man in Texas was dragged to his death by three white men, the director of the Interfaith Alliance called on Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore to support the Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
The Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, director of the Washington-based advocacy group, said the second anniversary of the death of James Byrd Jr. shows that the country needs greater protection for minorities.
“Governor Bush and Vice President Gore, even though the words `Equal Justice Under Law’ are emblazoned above the highest court in the land, as people of faith, you and I know that not all Americans are protected,” Gaddy wrote. “The time to change this is now.”
The Hate Crimes Prevention Act would allow crimes based on a person’s gender, disability or sexual orientation to be persecuted by federal officials.
Federal prosecutors currently can only prosecute cases based on race, religion, national origin or color if the victim is engaged in a federally protected activity, such as voting or walking on a public street. The legislation would also remove the “federally protected” requirement.
Italian Town Attacked for Crucifying Live Dove in Pentecost Ceremony
(RNS) Italian Agriculture Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio has joined in the attack on the Umbrian hill town of Orvieto for its tradition of crucifying a live dove to symbolize the Holy Spirit in Pentecost celebrations.
Supporting animal rights activists and environmentalists, Scanio on Wednesday (June 7) called the use of the live bird in the ceremony on Sunday (June 11) “unjustified cruelty” and warned that it is an “open violation” of Italian law.
Orvieto traditionally celebrates Pentecost by lowering a dove on a giant wooden cross attached to a wire into the square outside its famous Romanesque-Gothic cathedral as townspeople set off barrages of firecrackers. The bird often dies.
On Pentecost, 50 days after Easter, Christians mark the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles and disciples in the form of tongues of fire as recounted in the biblical book of the Acts of the Apostles.
“We must avoid letting popular traditions turn into unbearable cruelty to animals and, what’s more, into an open violation of the law,” Scanio said. He urged the town to use a straw dove.
Quote of the Day: Bennie Demps, a convicted murderer who was executed in Florida on Wednesday
(RNS) “They butchered me back there. … This is not an execution, this is murder.”
_ Demps, before being executed in Florida on Wednesday (June 7), complaining that prison officials had hurt him trying to find a vein in which to stick the lethal needle. Demps also claimed prosecutors had made him “a poster boy for the death penalty.” Demps was found guilty for stabbing another prison inmate to death in 1976.
DEA END RNS
