Free Republic

Utah man will be sent to a state hospital Updated: 5:26 p.m. ET July 26, 2005 SALT LAKE CITY - The man charged in the kidnapping of Utah teenager Elizabeth Smart was declared mentally incompetent to stand trial Tuesday. The decision by Judge Judith Atherton will send Brian David Mitchell to a state hospital until he is deemed capable of standing trial. Atherton issued her decision after six days of hearings over the past seven months. Mitchell repeatedly shouted Biblical admonitions and sang hymns during the hearings, prompting him to be removed from court several times.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Elizabeth Smart's uncle has faulted the police investigation into her disappearance in a new book, claiming the teen would still be a kidnap victim if the family had not gotten involved. ``I don't think she would be back,'' Tom Smart said. ``There's five or six things that had to happen, and all those things, thank God, happened, including help from the community, which raised awareness to find Elizabeth.'' The book, ``In Plain Sight: The Startling Truth Behind the Elizabeth Smart Investigation,'' went on sale Monday. Elizabeth was allegedly kidnapped from her home in June 2002...

Lawyers for the man accused of kidnapping US teenager Elizabeth Smart have filed a motion for the jury to be sequestered during the trial and the Bibles removed from their hotel rooms. Lawyers for Brian David Mitchell, 50, argued in motions that intense media coverage of the case could influence jurors if they are not sequestered. They asked that Bibles and other religious texts be removed from jurors' hotel rooms to "prevent prejudicial exposure". Authorities have said Mitchell, a self-proclaimed prophet, wrote a manifesto before kidnapping Utah teenager Elizabeth in which he declares himself a messenger of God and says...

By PAUL FOY Associated Press Writer December 11, 2003, 9:36 PM EST SALT LAKE CITY -- A judge on Thursday scheduled closed-door competency hearings in January for the homeless couple charged with kidnapping Elizabeth Smart. After each hearing, Judge Judith Atherton will decide whether the defendants are capable of standing trial. Atherton announced the hearing dates Thursday during a competency proceeding for Wanda Barzee in which her lawyers contested the findings of two experts who examined her mental state. The findings were not made public. "I hope they both will be held responsible for their actions, convicted and sentenced," Salt...

I was amazed by the response I got to last week’s column. I wrote about a report on CBS’s "The Early Show" concerning a young man named Brian Simpson. Simpson had so severe a case of asthma that doctors despaired of his ever living a normal life. In fact, they despaired of his living a normal life span; they feared he would die in a few more years, and that he would be terribly incapacitated in the interim. To make the time remaining to him as pleasant as possible, Simpson turned to the oboe. It seemed a perverse idea. Oboes...

They are real-life survivors whose perils captured the hearts and prayers of millions, not to mention the pixels and ink of the American media. Tonight, they become made-for-TV movie heroines as NBC's Saving Jessica Lynch goes head-to-head with CBS' The Elizabeth Smart Story. Both real-life women-in-jeopardy stories occurred in the spring, and both biopics were fast-tracked by their networks so they would be ready for the November sweeps. In a bizarre but not unprecedented coincidence, both are airing from 8 to 10 tonight. Each network blames the other for the scheduling conflict; neither would step forward and change its air...

Couric Defends Elizabeth Smart Interview 3 minutes ago By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer NEW YORK - NBC's Katie Couric says kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart's first television interview was conducted with her parent's consent and included nothing that might traumatize her. Couric's interview with the 15-year-old Elizabeth, who was snatched at knifepoint from her Utah home and rescued nine months later, will be televised Friday at 10 p.m. EDT. As part of a media blitz attached to her parents' upcoming book, CBS will air a television movie about the kidnapping next month, less than eight months after Elizabeth was found...

The widow of the man once considered the top potential suspect in the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping is suing Salt Lake City police and the Utah Department of Corrections. Angela Ricci Johanna Workman, Deseret Morning News In the civil lawsuit filed Friday in federal court, Angela Ricci says Salt Lake City police wrongfully blamed her husband, Richard Ricci, for Elizabeth's kidnapping and that the Department of Corrections ignored her husband's documented medical problems, which ultimately contributed to a fatal brain hemorrhage. "All the focus Salt Lake City police put on Richard was done with the knowledge he was not a viable...

<p>LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The story of Elizabeth Smart's nine-month abduction and miracle return is about to hit the small screen and the bookstores.</p> <p>CBS has reached an agreement with the family of the Utah teen for a TV movie about her ordeal, which was the subject of intense network interest, sources said. Dylan Baker and Lindsay Frost are set to play the girl's parents, Ed and Lois Smart, and Canadian actress Amber Marshall will play Elizabeth.</p>

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The story of Elizabeth Smart's nine-month abduction and miracle return is about to hit the small screen and the bookstores. CBS has reached an agreement with the family of the Utah teen for a TV movie about her ordeal, which was the subject of intense network interest, sources said. Dylan Baker and Lindsay Frost are set to play the girl's parents, Ed and Lois Smart, and Canadian actress Amber Marshall will play Elizabeth. Meanwhile, Doubleday Books, a division of Random House, has signed a deal with the Smarts to tell their story in "Bringing Elizabeth...

Tabloid targets Trib Newsroom angry over $20,000 Enquirer deal Copyright 2003 Deseret News By Lucinda Dillon Kinkead Deseret News staff writer The National Enquirer has demanded a retraction from the Salt Lake Tribune and threatened legal action, citing "false and defamatory" statements in a column by Salt Lake Tribune Editor James "Jay" Shelledy. "If a prominent and accurate correction and retraction is not immediately published, we will be left with no alternative but to file legal proceedings without further notice," wrote Enquirer attorney Michael B. Kahane in a letter, faxed early Monday and addressed to Shelledy. "I am hopeful that...

Smarts, tabloid settle Enquirer falsehoods are linked to 2 S.L. Tribune reporters Copyright 2003 Deseret NewsBy Lucinda Dillon KinkeadDeseret News staff writer       The family of Elizabeth Smart and the National Enquirer have reached a settlement that retracts salacious comments published by the tabloid last summer. Part of the settlement includes a rare apology to the family and admission it printed false information about Smart family members.       As an important side note, the Deseret News also has learned two Salt Lake Tribune reporters were paid $20,000 by the tabloid for information the Enquirer used to...

<p>There is a debate under way--an ethical debate, apparently--over whether it would be proper for NBC to make a movie about the life of the former POW, Pfc. Jessica Lynch, without her permission. When a news person shouted a question about this matter at her father, Mr. Lynch said it was "on the back burner." But simmering.</p>

Smart Family Hires Entertainment Lawyer SALT LAKE CITY, April 5, 2003 width="1" height="7" border="0"> Elizabeth Smart with her father, Ed (AP/Deseret News, Tom Smart) Elizabeth with her parents Lois and Ed (AP Photo/Deseret News, Tom Smart) (AP) Elizabeth Smart's family has hired a Los Angeles entertainment attorney to help them screen movie and book proposals about Elizabeth's abduction and remarkable return. Kelly Crabb, who reportedly has negotiated contracts for Paul McCartney, Dave Matthews and Muhammad Ali, was hired a week ago, said Chris Thomas, the family's spokesman. According to his firm's Web site, Crabb's areas of practice include motion picture, television and other...

The Secret Meetings The night Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped at knifepoint from her bedroom by mad messiah Brian David Mitchell was NOT the first time she'd been alone with him! Shockingly the then 14 year old had met the raving self- proclaimed prophet six times before, says sources. At least four of those times, the tenderhearted teen--who was raised in a religious home where charity to the less fortunate was encouraged--secretly sneaked off to see the 49-year old Mitchell in a bid to help him, say insiders. The first time Elizabeth met Mitchell and Wanda was in November 2001, when...

<p>SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Elizabeth Smart's younger sister Mary Katherine is among those nominated for the $295,000 in rewards offered in the kidnapping case, a family spokesman said. Mary Katherine told her father in October that the homeless handyman they knew only as Emmanuel might have been the one who abducted her sister from their bedroom in June.</p>

In an open letter to the House, Ed Smart, father of Elizabeth Smart, apologized for his excitement last week in criticizing Congressman James Sensenbrenner. I found this little detail is in the midst of a story about the House considering creation of a national child kidnapping notification network, the Amber Alert, although not in the form that Elizabeth Smart's parents had pleaded for before being reunited with their daughter. Now, the interesting thing, when you boil all this down, is that the Democrats voted against the Amber Alert and prevention measure. Smart ended up attacking Sensenbrenner for not moving the...

"Divine Revelation" Unlikely to Influence Court BY Stephen Hunt Wednesday March 19, 2003 THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee may believe God ordered them to kidnap Elizabeth Smart, but legal experts say divine revelation will be little help to them in the courtroom. "Being egged on by another is not a defense," said Assistant Utah Attorney General Michael Wims. "It is not a defense that God urged them to do it." Mitchell, 49, and Barzee, 57, were charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court with aggravated kidnapping and five other felonies in connection with the June...

Self-proclaimed prophet Brian Mitchell and his wife were charged with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and aggravated burglary Tuesday in the abduction of Elizabeth Smart. Mitchell, a drifter whose writings promoting polygamy had raised questions about whether Elizabeth was sexually abused during her nine-month ordeal, has told his attorney that he considers the 15-year-old girl his wife and wants her to be renamed "Remnant Who Will Return." Attorney Larry Long said Mitchell - whom he referred to as "the perpetrator" - considers the girl's nine-month disappearance a "call from God," not a kidnapping.

Julie Adkison says she told kidnapping suspect Brian Mitchell he was "crazy' when he proposed to her two years ago. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune) BY MICHAEL VIGH and KEVIN CANTERA © 2003, THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE Accused Elizabeth Smart kidnapper Brian David Mitchell proposed marriage to a 20-year-old woman two years ago, telling her God wanted her to become his plural wife and join him and wife Wanda Barzee in the rugged foothills east of Salt Lake City. "You are the only woman that God sent us to . . . We are one, even as I am...