{"id":9642,"date":"2012-05-14T05:00:23","date_gmt":"2012-05-14T12:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/?p=9642"},"modified":"2012-05-13T17:23:47","modified_gmt":"2012-05-14T00:23:47","slug":"minority-religions-and-esoteric-practices-as-courtroom-evidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildhunt\/2012\/05\/minority-religions-and-esoteric-practices-as-courtroom-evidence.html","title":{"rendered":"Minority Religions and Esoteric Practices as Courtroom Evidence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

On Friday, the Contra Costa Times reported<\/a> that an appeal to overturn a 2010 fraud conviction<\/a> was denied. California\u2019s 2nd District Court of Appeal decided that\u00a0prosecutors did not unfairly prejudice the case by bringing up a \u201cvoodoo\u201d (though more likely Palo Mayombe, according to one expert<\/a>)\u00a0shrine that belonged to\u00a0Ruben Hernandez, saying the evidence was \u201chighly probative\u201d<\/em> of his\u00a0\u201cconsciousness of guilt.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
The altar of Ruben Hernandez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

In a 35-page ruling, the appellate court justices noted that Hernandez testified during the trial about the \u201cbenevolent purposes served by the dolls.\u201d\u00a0\u201cHe characterized the dolls as an element of his Catholic faith in which the pins stuck in the dolls were a form of \u2018spiritual acupuncture\u2019 to cleanse evil from the individuals the dolls represented. He also believed the dolls would assist in ensuring people were not put in jail wrongfully,\u201d the justices wrote.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This case is just the most recent to raise the question of when, exactly, it is fair and relevant to a criminal case to bring up a defendant\u2019s\u00a0adherence\u00a0to a\u00a0minority\u00a0religion, or involvement in an esoteric practice. While the justices in the Court of Appeals found that Ruben Hernandez\u2019s altar was fair game, that wasn\u2019t the opinion in the case of\u00a0Christopher Vaughn, accused of murdering his wife and three children. In that instance,\u00a0Judge Daniel Rozak ruled that Vaughn\u2019s\u00a0adherence\u00a0to Druid beliefs could not be directly referenced<\/a>, seemingly agreeing with\u00a0Public Defender Jaya Varghese, who said that\u00a0\u201cThe word \u2018Druid\u2019 alone is prejudicial,\u201d<\/em> and would\u00a0\u201csignificantly impact\u201d<\/em> his right to a fair trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Will County judge this morning barred attorneys from referring to quadruple-murder suspect Christopher Vaughn\u2019s Druid beliefs at trial, but said some statements Vaughn posted to a Druid listserv can be heard by jurors. [\u2026]\u00a0Prosecutors want to use postings Vaughn made to Druid listservs that refer to his desire to live in the Canadian wilderness. They argue his statements were another sign that Vaughn wanted to be rid of his family<\/strong>. [\u2026]\u00a0Judge Daniel Rozak said he would allow the statements \u201cif they somehow deal with leaving the country or living off the land\u201d and don\u2019t reference Vaughn\u2019s religious beliefs.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are two very different cases, but both speak to the fact that the mere mention of a Pagan, Afro-disaporic, or esoteric practices can have an outsize influence on a trial, affecting how juries and judges react. For every instance where bringing up a defendant\u2019s religion might be acceptable, as in the case of Angela Sanford<\/a>, there are many more, particularly in custody battles<\/a>, where it is not. Where it\u2019s clear that fear and ignorance are being welded as weapons to win a judgement.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the best-known example of this would be the case of the\u00a0West Memphis 3<\/a> (Damien Echols<\/a>, Jason Baldwin and Jesse Misskelley Jr.), where\u00a0Damien Echols\u2019 interest in the occult and Wicca<\/a> was used as proof of his murderous interests, and the three were subsequently swallowed up in the Satanic hysteria of the times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n
The West Memphis Three<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n

\u201c\u2026you really have to put this case into historical perspective. In 1993, the Satanic Bandwagon Folks like Dr. Griffis were mainstream and largely supported by both the media and established religion. We now know better, just like we now know that there are such things as \u201ccoerced confessions.\u201d\u00a0In 1993, virtually everybody believed that the phenomena of Satanic Ritualistic Homicide was very real, and perhaps even more regrettably, that no one, not even a mentally handicapped person, or a child, would confess to a crime that they did not commit. <\/strong>Thankfully, due in large part to pioneers with real credentials like Dr. Gisli Gudjohnson, Dr. Richard Ofshe, and Dr. Richard Leo, we now understand the dynamics of false confessions. By the way, not many people remember that Dr. Ofshe won a Pulitzer Prize for his work studying religious \u201ccults.\u201d He had a dual expertise.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Echols, Baldwin, and Misskelley would end up spending\u00a018 years in prison before being freed in 2011 on an Alford plea, the capstone on an era that saw thousands of lives ruined in part thanks to the willingness of lawyers and prosecutors to wrongfully exploit people\u2019s fears. Today, those fears are still being exploited, invoking \u201ceffigy dolls dunked upside down in this brown liquid\u201d<\/a><\/em> to judge the\u00a0\u201cconsciousness of guilt.\u201d <\/em>Judging the worth of mothers, or even the depths of depravity, through what amounts to a theological popularity contest.<\/p>\n

It very well may be that\u00a0Hernandez, or\u00a0Vaughn for that matter, are entirely guilty of the crimes they\u2019ve been accused of, but that doesn\u2019t remove the issue of their religion or beliefs being invoked. In Vaughn\u2019s case, his lawyer was able to make sure the case stayed focused on the facts, while Hernandez\u2019s trial allowed his \u201cvoodoo altar\u201d to be used as evidence of his guilt, even though the spells may have born from defensive fear instead of from a guilty conscience. It is for this reason, perhaps more than any other, that outreach and interfaith efforts must be maintained.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to affect an air of smug superior isolationism when there\u2019s nothing on the line, but in the wider world we must constantly face that our faiths are a tiny minority in world dominated by faiths that have been historically hostile to us. We have to work towards changing perceptions, or else we risk sacrificing all those who end up\u00a0situations\u00a0where\u00a0\u00a0misconceptions can mean jail and ruined lives. In the meantime, while we work for change, let\u2019s hope that more lawyers advocate strongly to leave religions most people don\u2019t understand off the witness stand.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Friday, the Contra Costa Times reported that an appeal to overturn a 2010 fraud conviction was denied. California\u2019s 2nd District Court of Appeal decided that\u00a0prosecutors did not unfairly prejudice the case by bringing up a \u201cvoodoo\u201d (though more likely Palo Mayombe, according to one expert)\u00a0shrine that belonged to\u00a0Ruben Hernandez, saying the evidence was \u201chighly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[3261,517,661,1308,1348,1754,3351,2593,2631],"class_list":["post-9642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paganism","category-religion","tag-christopher-vaughn","tag-custody-case","tag-druidry","tag-law","tag-litigation","tag-palo","tag-ruben-hernandez","tag-vodou","tag-west-memphis-3"],"yoast_head":"\nMinority Religions and Esoteric Practices as Courtroom Evidence<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On Friday, the Contra Costa Times reported that an appeal to overturn a 2010 fraud conviction was denied. 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