Ten Commandments Monument Trial Begins
Alabama Chief Justice Goes on Trial for Judicial Ethics Charge in Ten Commandments Case
The Associated Press
MONTGOMERY, Ala. Nov. 12 - Suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore had "every legal right" to ignore an order to remove his Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the state courthouse, Moore's attorneys said Wednesday at his judicial ethics trial.
Attorney General Bill Pryor, whose office is prosecuting Moore, has asked the Court of the Judiciary to remove the chief justice for "Moore's sensational flouting of a valid federal injunction."
About 100 Moore supporters gathered on the sidewalk and plaza outside the judicial building Wednesday, some carrying "Save the Ten Commandments" signs. As Moore arrived, some women held small children up to get a glimpse.
Moore remained defiant as he entered the court building, saying the monument properly acknowledged "almighty God" and that a federal judge's order to remove the marker was unlawful based on "state sovereignty."
"I've done nothing wrong," Moore said, adding that he wished cameras would be allowed inside the courtroom.
In his opening argument, defense attorney Jim Wilson denied that U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson's order to remove the monument was valid.
"Justice Moore had every legal right to decline to obey what he deemed as an illegal order," Wilson said.
Prosecutors rested their case after about an hour, most of which was spent entering evidence. They called no witnesses, but played two videotapes depicting speeches Moore gave on Aug. 14 and Aug. 21. Moore's attorneys objected to the playing of both tapes, saying their contents already were included in written evidence.
In the Aug. 14 speech, which Moore gave six days before Thompson's deadline to remove the monument, he said he had "no intention of removing the monument."
"This I cannot and will not do," he said.
Moore moved the 5,300-pound granite monument into the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building the night of July 31, 2001.
Civil liberties groups filed suit, and Thompson ordered the monument moved, calling it an unconstitutional promotion of religion by government.
A federal appeals court upheld Thompson's order and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Moore's appeal.
The monument stayed, the deadline passed, and Moore was suspended with pay by the Judicial Inquiry Commission, which charged him with violating the Judicial Canons of Ethics. The monument was moved to a storage room.
It would take a unanimous vote to remove him from office halfway into his six-year term. He could also be reprimanded or suspended.
Moore attorney Terry Butts said the verdict could come quickly.
"We've prepared the chief justice for the worst," he said.

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