Ohio Woman in Amish Case Seeks her Release
August 29, 2014
Cleveland, Ohio - The attorney for a woman serving time in connection with beard- and hair-cutting attacks targeting Amish is asking a federal judge to release her.
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August 27, 2014
Court Overturns Convictions in Amish Hair Attacks
An appeals court panel on Wednesday overturned the hate-crime convictions of 16 Amish men and women in beard- and hair-cutting attacks on fellow members of their faith in Ohio, ruling that religion wasn't their driving motive.
A 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel sided with arguments brought by attorneys for the Amish, convicted two years ago in five attacks in 2011. The attacks were in apparent retaliation against Amish who had defied or denounced the authoritarian style of Sam Mullet Sr., leader of the Bergholz community in eastern Ohio.
In a deeply divided decision, two of the three judges on the panel concluded that the jury received incorrect instructions about how to weigh the role of religion in the attacks. They also said prosecutors should have had to prove that the assaults wouldn't have happened but for religious motives.
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