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Federal Appeals Court Overturns Hate Crime Ruling in Amish Beard Cutting

A federal appeals court has reversed the convictions of an Amish splinter sect leader and 15 of his followers who were found guilty in 2012 of federal hate crimes after forcibly shaving the beards and hair of breakaway members of the religious community.

The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 on Wednesday that a federal trial judge in Ohio had improperly instructed the jury on the motive element of the crime, which was brought under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act.

At issue in the ruling was whether the trial jury had been properly instructed on how to determine if the crimes met the motive element of the federal hate crime act, which required that the faith of the victims be a primary cause of the assault and not simply a “significant factor.” If federal prosecutors decide to appeal, the case could go to the U.S. Supreme Court. Alternatively, prosecutors could decide to retry the case, correcting the jury instruction that resulted in the ruling.

The sect’s leader, Samuel Mullet Sr., was sentenced to 15 years in prison in February 2012 after a U.S. District Court jury returned convictions the previous fall in Cleveland. Mullet’s 15 followers were given lesser sentences ranging from one year and a day to seven years. The federal hate crime charges evolved from a series of assaults in 2011 that were carried out by Mullet’s followers, at his direction, against breakaway members of the Amish community. The assaults, which were photographed by the attackers, involved the shearing of the beards and hair of Mullets’ perceived enemies –– an act intended to disgrace them as punishment for “previous and ongoing religious disagreements” with Mullet and his followers.

During the trial, witnesses “portrayed the bishop [Mullet] as a fire-and-brimstone preacher and iron-fisted autocrat who imposed strict, and often bizarre, discipline on his flock,” the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported.

Mullet “read and censored all incoming and outgoing mail, punished wrongdoers with spankings and confinement in chicken coops, and engaged in sexual relations with several of the young married women under the guise of marital counseling and absolution,” the newspaper reported.

“We hope this is one step closer to bringing Mr. Mullet home to his family and his community,” Mullet's attorney, Edward Bryan, told the Cleveland newspaper.

The U.S. Attorney's office in Cleveland issued a statement saying, “We respectfully disagree with the two judges who reversed the defendants' hate-crime convictions based on a jury instruction.”

“We remain in awe of the courage of the victims in this case, who were subject to violent attacks by the defendants. We are reviewing the opinion and considering our options,” the federal prosecutors said.

In their appeal, the defendants also argued that the court had erred in allowing prosecutors to tell the jury about sexual misconduct, whether the crimes should have been characterized as kidnapping for sentencing purposes, and whether the federal hate-crime statute exceeds Congress’s Commerce Clause powers as applied to the facts of this case.

“While these other arguments present not-inconsequential issues, we need not address them given our conclusion that the erroneous jury instructions require a new trial,” the appeals court ruled.

The appeals court's ruling does not mean Mullet and his imprisoned followers will be set free immediately, the newspaper reported. Defense attorneys will have to ask the trial judge to release the defendants pending appeal or re-trial.

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