Smart Says She Was Raped Daily

[Existentialist1844]

http://news.aol.com/article/elizabeth-s ... y%2F457349

SALT LAKE CITY (Oct. 1) -- Taking the stand for the first time since she was snatched from her girlhood bedroom seven years ago, Elizabeth Smart testified Thursday that her captor raped her three or four times a day, kept her tied up with a cable around her leg, and threatened to kill her if she tried to escape.

Asked by a prosecutor to describe Brian David Mitchell, the self-described prophet accused of holding her captive for nine months, Smart replied: "Evil, wicked, manipulative, stinky, slimy, greedy, selfish, not spiritual, not religious, not close to God."

Smart, now a 21-year-old college student, gave her horrifying account in federal court as part of a proceeding over whether Mitchell is mentally competent to stand trial.

The 55-year-old one-time street preacher has been behind bars since 2003 — mostly in a state mental hospital — but has yet to stand trial. Twice he has been ruled mentally incompetent in state court, and he has often demonstrated bizarre behavior, including incessantly singing hymns in the courtroom and once yelling at a judge to repent.

Smart testified that within hours of her 2002 kidnapping at knifepoint, she was led away to a secluded mountain campsite and in a quickie ceremony became the polygamous "wife" of the older man.

"After that he proceeded to rape me," Smart said, sharing for the first time publicly her account of the ordeal.

She said Mitchell showed her pornography and plied her with alcohol and drugs to lower her resistance to his sexual advances. Once, Smart said, she tried to fight Mitchell off by biting him.

On the stand for nearly two hours, Smart was poised, her voice never wavering. She did not come face-to-face with her alleged tormenter. Mitchell was removed from the courtroom for disruptive behavior — singing hymns — before Smart arrived, and watched the proceedings from a holding cell.

A federal judge ruled earlier this week that Smart's testimony is relevant to the question of Mitchell's competency. Mitchell's competency hearing is not set to begin until Nov. 30, but Smart testified early because she is going on a religious mission for the Mormon church in Paris.
Smart was 14 when she was abducted from her bedroom in the middle of the night. In a surprising turn that transfixed the country, she was rescued in March 2003 after a motorist spotted her walking the streets of a Salt Lake City suburb with Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Eileen Barzee.

Smart testified that in the days immediately following the kidnapping, Mitchell held her captive with the help of a 10-foot cable bolted to her leg and tethered to a line stretched between two trees. She said Mitchell threatened to kill her if she yelled or tried to get away.

Smart said Mitchell would rape her three to four times a day. There was some respite — usually when Barzee became upset over Mitchell's relationship with

Smart — but it never lasted, Smart said.

Mitchell is charged in state court with kidnapping and sexual assault. Last year, he was indicted on federal charges of kidnapping and transporting a minor across state lines. In both the state and federal cases, experts have split over Mitchell's competency.

Mitchell's lawyers maintain he is incompetent and suggested that evidence of his delusions can be found in his religious rambling and writings, including a 27-page manifesto he called "The Book of Emmanuel David Isaiah."

Smart said he read from the book repeatedly during her captivity, often sang hymns and laced his conversations with religious language. Throughout her captivity, Smart was forced to wear a white, ankle-length robe, a head scarf and two veils across her face.

"He told me he was a prophet," Smart said under cross-examination by Mitchell's lawyer. "He said he was the voice of God on Earth and that he would reign over God's children until Jesus came."

But she also said his religious revelations seemed to come only when he wanted something, or when he was trying to calm Barzee. Smart said she believed Mitchell always knew that he could be punished for her kidnapping and understood how the court system worked.

She said he gave her an alias — Augustine Marshall — and told her what to say to police if they were ever questioned. He also bragged about skirting previous accusations of sexual abuse and fooling others, Smart said.

Never in nine months did Mitchell appear confused or out of control, Smart testified: "He was a very capable, intelligent human being."

[starr]

http://news.aol.com/article/elizabeth-s ... y%2F457349

Based on the underlined section, I guess not believing in God automatically makes one a rapist. Now, don't get me wrong, it really stinks what happened to this girl. Totally stinks. On the other hand, a statement like that implies that if you don't believe in God you're going to become a rapist. Maybe I had too much to drink tonight.

It seems that this guy very much believed in god actually (to the point of religious grandiose delusions). He thought he was a prophet and spoke for god. I would imagine that the girl saying he was "not spiritual, not religious, not close to God" was her way of rationalising how somebody who was supposedly deeply religious could do those things to her.

[Sisifo]

I don't understand it that way. Considering the guy was a preacher and "prophet", she is smartly taking away his "religious charisma immunity", that it has worked so well for other sex criminals from different religions.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

It's sad that she still believes in joseph Smith's rantings, having had first hand experience of something so similar!

[Tero]

The guy was reading the Bible plus maybe mormon texts for all his problems

"We were both going through a divorce, so normally it wasn't approved by the church that we date," Barzee continued, but she said they received rare consent from leaders at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to pursue the relationship. The two wed nine months later, on the day Mitchell's divorce became final.

The first year of marriage, she said, was "hellish," with a volatile and possessive Mitchell often storming off from their apartment in fits of anger. He told her he was "consumed by fear and doubt," and sometimes simply screamed into a pillow for long periods.

She struggled through, because of a bishop's blessing that said Satan would do everything in his power to separate the two, but that the Lord would give Barzee the strength to fight back.

Religious counsel and Bible readings gave her the remedy: "I started to be more silent, and I learned to be submissive and obedient."

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-11-18/just ... s=PM:CRIME

[mistermack]

There seems to be something wrong with the american justice system.
Convince a court that you are a loony, and not fit to plead, and you have the prospect of later convincing some psychiatrist that you are cured, and going free.

Or at least life in an institution much cushier than being in prison as a sex offender.

As christianity is a severe form of mental delusion anyway, most of the american population should qualify as unfit to plead, by that reasoning.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

There seems to be something wrong with the american justice system.

Compared to what other justice systems, please?

[laklak]

3 or 4 times a day? I need this dude's pharmacist.

[mistermack]

There seems to be something wrong with the american justice system.

Compared to what other justice systems, please?

I wasn't comparing it to any other. The same problem exists in many countries.
They give far too much respect to the psychiatric profession. ( IMO ).

The criminals have a more accurate view of psychiatrists than the courts. They instinctively know a mug when they meet one, and exploit them to the hilt.