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U.S. | I'm a Death Row Pastor. They're Just Ordinary Folks

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In the early 1970s I was a North Carolinian, white boy from the South attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and working in East Harlem as part of a program. In my senior year, I visited men at the Bronx House of Detention. I had never been in a prison or jail, but people in East Harlem were dealing with these places and the police all the time. This experience truly turned my life around.

Aussie mum accused of step-daughter’s murder appears in Arizona court

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Lisa Cunningham
Lisa Cunningham, the Australian mother facing the death penalty for the alleged murder of her 7-year-old daughter has appeared in an Arizona pre-trial court hearing today.

In a hearing lasting just 3 minutes, Lisa and her husband Germayne Cunningham were granted access to parts of an autopsy report and a phone containing what police allege were incriminating text messages about their dying daughter.

Sanaa, Lisa Cunningham’s stepdaughter, suffered acute schizophrenia. She died from a sepsis infection following injuries to her head and foot in February 2017, prosecutors allege. Police allege she also had injuries on her wrist consistent with the use of zip-tie restraints and a straight jacket.

Prosecutors allege the Cunninghams neglected and abused Germayne’s daughter. Their other children are now under Arizona state foster care.

Mrs Cunningham, 43, is being held in solitary confinement and is denied contact with her surviving children.

9 news correspondent Charles Croucher reports she was seen to mouth ‘I’m doing okay’ to family members attending the hearing.

Outside the Maricopa County Superior Court, defence lawyer Eric Kessler told media: “She’s reading documents, communicating with us and from a health standpoint she’s fine.”

Kessler stated her murder charge was one of the “grossest miscarriages of justice” he’s ever seen.

He argued the Cunninghams have no case to answer: that Sanaa died from pneumonia, a known side-effect of the adult-strength antipsychotic Risperdal she had been prescribed by doctors.

Kessler said he plans meets with Australian Consulate to seek funding to continue the defence of Lisa Cunningham.

The next hearing has been set for February 28.

Source:  themercury.com.au, December 13, 2018


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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
Location: Arizona, USA
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