Three young criminals loot and desecrate a string of six churches in Alabama. The local sheriff catches the young men (which he attributes to “God’s grace and the prayers of the people”) and they now face trial and sentencing. Seems pretty cut and dried doesn’t it? Lawbreakers get caught, face justice. But the twist here is what was seized as “evidence” during the search warrant.

“Almost all the items were recovered after officers executed a search warrant at two local residences. Officers also found documents related to Wicca, a pagan religion, and other occult-related documents.”

Motive Wicca? While I hope these criminals face justice and are made to repay their debt to society, I also hope that the found “Wicca documents” are thrown out as any sort of evidence in the case. Unless they are also going to start seizing Bibles from Christian criminals as evidence for their motivations.

In a final bid to halt his execution this evening, Michael Lenz (a member of the Nordic Pagan religion Asatru) has filed a last-minute petition to Virginia Governer Tim Kaine for clemency. Kaine, a centrist Democrat and faithful Catholic said during a radio talk-show that he is considering the appeal. In the past Kaine has made his deep personal misgivings about the death penalty, misgivings that stem from his Catholic faith, known. While he has allowed two executions to happen during his term as Governer, he has also delayed an execution to allow for extensive psychological testing.

Lenz is being put to death for the stabbing death of a fellow inmate during a religious ceremony. Will the Catholic pardon the Pagan? I guess we will find out tonight.

Update: Lenz was put to death by injection at Greensville Correctional Center. He was pronounced dead at 9:07 p.m. EDT

Fellow Pagan blogger (and trial lawyer) Fiacharrey weighs in on the jury selection for the murder trial of Scott Dyleski. I thought the lawyers were twisting the rights to a jury of one’s peers by eliminating anyone with an interest in Wicca or the goth subculture (another Pagan blogger says it is out and out jury stacking), but Fiacharrey says this is just the give and take involved in ensuring a relatively fair jury trial.

“When it comes down to it, there are really only two general ways that are fair to select a jury. The first would be a truly random selection, and whatever you get is what you get. That would be fair, but most people wouldn’?t like to spin the wheel quite that much. The other choice is to have some process by which jurors are reasonably selected and anyone with unfair biases somehow weeded out…So, yes, Wiccans will be eliminated in occult-themed cases. So will “God-Fearin’ Bible-Thumpers” because the Defense gets to de-select jurors too. Both sides have to burn up their limited allotment of free strikes, called “peremtory challenges” in Louisiana, to do so. The defense attorney will certainly try to eliminate anyone too conservative or too easily swayed by the State’s witnesses. In other cases, the people “discriminated” against might be Mormons, might be Methodists, might be used car dealers. It’s not jury stacking, it’s jury selecting.”

While this case may not be “jury stacking” I’m still not convinced he is being tried by a jury of one’s peers. It seems these sorts of acceptable tactics are being used to not only eliminate extremists (“I can tell he is guilty by looking at him”) but to eliminate anyone with anything resembling a sympathetic knowledge of the cultures being discussed in the trial. Isn’t this current method only a few shades better than the days of blatant jury-rigging (as in the mob days, or during the civil rights struggle)? Is justice being served when cases are being decided by the uninformed?

If you think church and state conflicts are heated in North America, you should look at South America where the stakes can be far higher. Recently, Bolivian President Evo Morales has come under fire for his plan to remove Catholicism as the sole faith taught in public and private schools.

“Bolivian President Evo Morales on Tuesday said some members of the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy are behaving as if they were in “the times of the Inquisition” as he defended his government’s plan to remove Catholicism as the sole religion taught in schools…”I want to ask the [church] hierarchies that they understand freedom of religion and beliefs in our country,” Morales told reporters. “It’s not possible to impose their views.”…Catholicism will be taught alongside world religions, especially Bolivian Indian religions.”

Bolivia has been heavily Catholic since it was colonized by Spain, Morales is the first indigenous head of state in 450 years. Morales hopes that his plan of demoting Catholicism to one of many faiths will knock down “ethnic borders” that have marginalized indigenous peoples in his country. But there have been rumblings from the Catholic establishment that violent resistance could ensue if Morales is seen as going too far.

“Bolivia’s Cardinal Julio Terrazas told Catholics on Sunday to stop being “passive” and defend their faith. “Great wars began with small theories … with this discourse of hate, rancor, of unforgiveness,” Terrazas said”

It remains to be seen how far “active” defense of the Catholic faith will go in this context. It should be interesting to see the cultural ramifications of Morales’ plan and how far he will be allowed to push Catholic religion out of a dominant place in the country before Catholic forces push back.