Colorado Court Of Appeals Rejects Request To Free Mennonite Woman
DENVER (CBS4) - The Colorado Court of Appeals on Friday turned down a request to free a Mennonite woman who was jailed for refusing to testify in a death penalty case due to her religious beliefs.
Greta Lindecrantz says she's steadfastly opposed to putting another human being to death.
Lindecrantz has been in the Arapahoe County Detention Center since last Monday after a judge sent her there. She was subpoenaed to testify in the case of Robert Ray, who is seeking to have his death penalty overturned.
Writing the opinion for the Court of Appeals Judge Jerry Jones wrote, "Ms. Lindecrantz is in a tough spot -- caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. We take to pleasure in declining to extricate her. But the state of law being what it is, decline we must."
The other two Judges Robert Hawthorne and Diana Terry concurred.
Lindecrantz was an investigator hired by the defense to try to find mitigating circumstances to overturn Ray's death sentence.
He was convicted in the murders of Javon Marshall-Fields and Vivian Wolfe. Marshall-Fields, whose mother is State Sen. Rhonda Fields, was to testify in a murder case when he was gunned down. The hearing where Lindecrantz would not testify was to determine if Ray had received ineffective counsel in his case.
From jail this week, Lindecrantz told reporters it was the hardest thing she had ever done. That statement was made before the Court of Appeals made its ruling. Her attorney could appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court.