Ethics

Resurrection Voids This Deal

By Ed Brayton

Here's a very odd story. The mother of a dead child has agreed to testify in the prosecution of the leader of the religious cult that helped kill that child, but only on the condition that she can withdraw from the arrangement if her son comes back to life. Seriously.

Accepting a plea bargain that her attorney described as unprecedented in American jurisprudence, a 22-year-old Maryland woman yesterday agreed to cooperate in the prosecution of other defendants in the death of her son under the condition that charges against her be dropped if the child rises from the dead.

"It also is specifically noted," Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Timothy Doory said in court as he described the plea bargain to the boy's mother, "that if the victim in this case, Javon Thompson, is resurrected, as you still hold some hope he will be, you may withdraw the plea, and the charges will be nolle prossed [withdrawn] against you."

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on April 03, 2009 (boomark / email).