The Elizabeth Smart case thread

[Coyote Tony]

Thank God. I never expected to hear of her being alive again. Thank God.

[SirStefan32]

Great news! Praise the Lord she's OK!

[KingofCards]

..started by my wife. Elizabeth Smart was pregnant. Disapeared for 9 months and then returned a little heavier and healthy looking... again completely unsubstansiated.

[Ryanwb]

hmmmm, she is a Mormon

You know how wacky they are

[Brian in Mesa]

Charges Filed in Elizabeth Smart Kidnapping
Tue March 18, 2003 02:23 PM ET

SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - Prosecutors on Tuesday filed aggravated kidnapping and sexual assault charges against fanatical polygamist Brian David Mitchell and his wife Wanda Barzee for last year's abduction of 15-year-old Elizabeth Smart.
The duo was also charged with aggravated burglary, Salt Lake County District Attorney David Yocom announced.

It was the first time that authorities acknowledged that Elizabeth's nine-month ordeal included sexual abuse and came amid concerns from her family that she not be subjected to further trauma at a trial.

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It was fairly obvious that the charges might include some type of sexual charge, but it still sucks. What freaks.

[Brian in Mesa]

Elizabeth Smart's alleged kidnapper found mentally incompetent

By Stephen Hunt
The Salt Lake Tribune


Brian David Mitchell is mentally incompetent to stand trial for the June 2002 kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, a 3rd District Court judge ruled Tuesday.

In a 60-page decision, Judge Judith Atherton said that although Mitchell has an ''adequate capacity'' to comprehend the charges against him, the possible penalties and the adversary nature of the proceedings, he fails the competency test in other areas.

Atherton said Mitchell has an impaired ability to communicate with his attorneys, engage in reasoned choice of legal strategies, manifest appropriate courtroom behavior and testify relevantly.

That means Mitchell, 51, will join his wife, Wanda Eileen Barzee, 59, at the Utah State Hospital for treatment aimed at making them well enough to face prosecution. Barzee has been at the hospital since March 2004.

During six days of hearings that began in February, Atherton listened to what she called ''radically different'' testimony from mental health experts.

Two experts claim Mitchell is so obsessed by religious delusions that he is unable to understand the legal process, form reasoned legal strategies or even communicate with his own defense team.

Another expert concedes that Mitchell's beliefs are extreme, but no more so than those held by the thousands of other Mormon fundamentalists who populate Utah's religious landscape.

Mitchell began each day's hearing by breaking into song, or yelling religious sayings and threats, forcing the judge to have him removed from the courtroom. His own attorneys said Mitchell had stopped communicating with them, except to sing.

On June 5, 2002, Mitchell allegedly kidnapped Elizabeth, then 14, from her Federal Heights home to make her the first of seven plural wives, according to prosecutors.

Nine months later, the girl was found in Sandy walking down a street with Mitchell and Barzee, who are charged with felony counts of burglary, kidnapping and sexual assault.

[Brown_Blood]

Originally Posted by Brian in Mesa

Brian David Mitchell is mentally incompetent to stand trial for the June 2002 kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, a 3rd District Court judge ruled Tuesday.

In a 60-page decision, Judge Judith Atherton said that although Mitchell has an ''adequate capacity'' to comprehend the charges against him, the possible penalties and the adversary nature of the proceedings, he fails the competency test in other areas.

All the more reason that he needs to be taken out back and shot. Too often our legal system protects the criminals more than the victims....