From: CEvans1950@aol.com
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 07:45:52 EST
Subject: Space Alien Murderer?

Hello,

Here's an interesting case. Maybe the murderer is insane... and he is... if he is not lying about his subjective experience of the event. Or perhaps he's a clever liar who is indirectly seeking an insanity-plea rescue...though the trial would have been a better place for it....so I figure he's probably telling what he believes to be the truth.

One cannot help but see the parallels between this form of lunacy and revealed-religion based lunacy.....this dude imagines he will be resurrected by the powerful, invisible entities who chose him....and folks have no problem figuring out it won't happen... and thus he is deemed insane since his understanding of reality is so far removed from from reality.

How is this different from the Christian expectation that their friendly entity will do the same?

Sincerely,
Caroline

Man Who Blamed Alien Gets New Trial

By PAUL DAVENPORT

.c The Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) -- The Arizona Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the murder convictions and death sentence of a man who admitted killing two women but said space aliens were in control of him at the time.

The ruling means that Robert Joe Moody is entitled to a new trial for the 1993 separate robbery-murders of two friends, Michelle Malone, 33, and Patricia Magda, 56.

Moody, 39, claimed his involvement in the crimes was involuntary because "extrasensory biological entities" were in control of his body and he was merely an unconscious observer of the murders.

Moody asked Superior Court Judge Howard Hantman before his 1995 trial to appoint him a new lawyer, saying he didn't trust his court-appointed attorney. Hantman refused and Moody ended up representing himself with assistance from his original public defender and later a different one.

Hantman's refusal to appoint a new defense lawyer violated Moody's constitutional right to representation, the Supreme Court said in a majority opinion signed by four justices.

The majority said there was evidence of a "deep and irreconcilable conflict" between Hantman and the defense lawyer beyond the lawyer's reluctance to advocate the space-aliens defense. Hantman had ruled that defense could not be argued because there was no evidence to support it.

Moody had asked to be executed, telling Hantman during his 1996 sentencing that the aliens would resurrect him and prove their existence.

Prosecutors said Moody killed to support a drug habit.

AP-NY-11-12-98 2216EST

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