SALT LAKE CITY—
The Elizabeth Smart kidnapping trial resumed Monday with defense attorneys urging the jury to be compassionate and consider deep-rooted mental illness surrounding the accused kidnapper.Brian David Mitchell's publicly-appointed defense attorney, Parker Douglas, showed the jury photos of Mitchell's life before he became the fundamentalist Mormon street preacher known as "Emmanuel," who now stands accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart to make her a polygamous wife.
"His life is marked by intense, idiosyncratic set of beliefs," Douglas said. "Please take particular note of the evidence you'll hear on this. This is a pattern for Brian, a search for a deep connection. A belief that he has found something that has given him a certainty and meaning in life."
As is typical in these proceedings, Brian David Mitchell was escorted out of the courtroom for singing hymns. On Monday, he began by singing "In Memory of the Crucified." He kept singing as the jury was brought into the courtroom.
"Mr. Mitchell you have a constitutional right to be present unless you continue to sing and otherwise disrupt proceedings," U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball said.
Mitchell kept singing, and Kimball had U.S. Marshals remove him to another room where he could observe the proceedings.
Douglas resumed his opening statements after it was halted last week when a federal appeals court considered whether Mitchell could get a fair trial in Utah. The court ultimately ruled on Friday that he could; Mitchell's defense team has contended the massive pre-trial publicity surrounding the case has made it impossible for him to get an impartial jury.
Elizabeth Smart, then 14, was kidnapped from her bedroom back in 2002. She was found nine months later, in the company of the homeless street preacher and his wife, Wanda Barzee. Smart testified at a mental competency hearing for Mitchell that she was forced to "marry" him. She says she was raped almost daily during her ordeal.
The trial is scheduled to last until Dec. 10. The first witness on the stand, Elizabeth Smart's mother, Lois, who is expected to testify about hiring "Emmanuel," a.k.a., Brian David Mitchell, to do chores around the family's home. She will be followed by Elizabeth's sister, Mary Katherine. Elizabeth Smart herself is to be the third witness.
UPDATE at 9:26 a.m. - WARNING: GRAPHIC TESTIMONY PRESENTED: In opening statements, Parker Douglas described a long history of mental illness. He spoke of how Brian David Mitchell met his wife, Wanda Barzee, and decided to "leave the world." They built a handcart, later built a covered wagon and pulled it from Idaho to Utah, and began wearing the robes everyone is so familiar with. They take on the names "Hephzibah" and "Immanuel."
Around 2000, Mitchell began believing he was receiving revelations, Douglas said.
"He is regularly claiming revelations and this is when he declares it was revealed to him to restore the law of celestial marriage, plural marriage, by taking additional wives," he said. "Taking celestial wives is meant to bring the coming of a new Zion."
Mitchell stated that he would take seven wives, and then seven times seven wives, or 49. Barzee was to be "the mother of all the wives," Douglas said.
He wrote a book, called "The Book of Immanuel David Isaiah," which will come into evidence later in the trial, Douglas said. Fox 13's Ben Winslow, who has read it, reports the book is a ranting manifesto of Mitchell's beliefs that describes his beliefs and ideals for a new world.
"Brian is fearing that he is rebelling against the commandments of God," Douglas said, suggesting a motive for the kidnapping.
The Elizabeth Smart kidnapping trial resumed Monday with defense attorneys urging the jury to be compassionate and consider deep-rooted mental illness surrounding the accused kidnapper.
Brian David Mitchell's publicly-appointed defense attorney, Parker Douglas, showed the jury photos of Mitchell's life before he became the fundamentalist Mormon street preacher known as "Emmanuel," who now stands accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart to make her a polygamous wife.
"His life is marked by intense, idiosyncratic set of beliefs," Douglas said. "Please take particular note of the evidence you'll hear on this. This is a pattern for Brian, a search for a deep connection. A belief that he has found something that has given him a certainty and meaning in life."
As is typical in these proceedings, Brian David Mitchell was escorted out of the courtroom for singing hymns. On Monday, he began by singing "In Memory of the Crucified." He kept singing as the jury was brought into the courtroom.
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