{"id":22881,"date":"2011-04-09T13:11:21","date_gmt":"2011-04-09T17:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=22881"},"modified":"2011-04-09T16:46:40","modified_gmt":"2011-04-09T20:46:40","slug":"just-a-glimmer-but","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=22881","title":{"rendered":"Just a glimmer, but…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hico man acquitted in Westboro Baptist spitting trial<\/a><\/p>\n

CHARLESTON, W.Va. —\u00a0A Fayette County man was acquitted Friday of battery charges for spitting on a member of the Westboro Baptist Church during a protest outside a Catholic church last year.Billy Spade of Hico told the jurors that as the son of a deceased coal miner, he was offended by protesters holding signs that said “Thank God for dead coal miners.”<\/p>\n

But it was the sign that said “Thank God for dead Marines” that sent him over the edge.<\/p>\n

A roadside bomb killed a friend whom he looked upon as a little brother while he was serving as a Marine in Afghanistan, Spade said. So he took aim at Shirley Phelps-Roper’s sign and spat at it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sometimes we hillbillies do the right thing.<\/p>\n

Senior Assistant City Attorney Gene Webb, who served as a prosecutor during the trial, told the jury to ignore Westboro’s message and focus on the act of spitting.<\/p>\n

“We have a victim who, I assure you, no one in the city agrees with [her] message,” he said, “but the Constitution of the United States protects their right to free speech, no matter how despicable it might be.”<\/p>\n

In defense of Spade, Kanawha County Public Defender George Castelle said Phelps-Roper’s actions and signs were carefully calculated to goad others into responding.<\/p>\n

“They were signs designed to make [Spade] angry. They were signs designed to provoke him,” he said. “They got what they wanted because they invited it.”<\/p>\n

Castelle noted that the counter-protesters, who numbered between 50 and several hundred, applauded Spade as he calmly left the scene with police officers.<\/p>\n

“Billy Spade is not a criminal,” Castelle said. “If anything, he’s a hero.”<\/p>\n

The jury deliberated for less than an hour before returning its not-guilty verdict to Municipal Judge Ann Charnock.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sadly, in light of the SCOTUS decision this is probably NOT over.<\/p>\n

[added]<\/strong> Looking at the comments I have to offer a further reminder akin to what Susan noted.\u00a0 Nullification is a local phenomenon. This particular case has been de Facto\u00a0 decided by SCOTUS. The civil\/tort issues are way out of my purview.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hico man acquitted in Westboro Baptist spitting trial CHARLESTON, W.Va. —\u00a0A Fayette County man was acquitted … Just a glimmer, but…<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":467,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-protestsrallies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/467"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}