A Colorado prosecutor says that a Mennonite woman who has been jailed for refusing to testify in an execution case because of her religious beliefs wants to be a “martyr” for the anti-death penalty movement.
“This is somebody who is trying to defeat the system,” Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler told NBC News on Thursday.
Greta Lindecrantz, a private investigator for defense attorneys, was subpoenaed by the DA to discuss the work she did in the case of Robert Ray, who is blaming his legal team for his conviction and death sentence.
The judge hearing the appeal tossed Lindecrantz, 67, in jail on Monday after she refused on the witness stand to answer any of the prosecution’s questions, citing the anti-violence tenets of her faith.
“I feel like I’m having to choose between you and God,” Lindecrantz told the judge on Wednesday when she refused, once again, to testify.
But Brauchler said Lindecrantz has no one to blame but herself for the predicament. He said she had to have known when she took the investigator job — which earned her $390,000 — that she could be called to the stand.
“Now we have a person who injected herself into the case, took a ton of taxpayer money and now that she’s asked to stand up and testify, she says she just can’t do this,” Brauchler said.
Lindecrantz’s attorney, Mari Newman, told NBC News that her client’s testimony isn’t necessary. The defense attorneys have already testified, and the investigation notes are part of the court record.
“The decision to hold her is entirely a punitive one,” said Newman, who filed emergency motions on Thursday in an effort to get her client freed.
But Brauchler said Lindecrantz’s testimony is actually key because Ray, who ordered the murder of a witness against him in another homicide trial, is claiming that she wasn’t qualified to be an investigator and didn’t do a good job of digging up information that could have spared his life.
He said that while Judge Michelle Amico listened to closing arguments on Wednesday, she left open the possibility that prosecutors could present their rebuttal to Ray’s ineffective counsel argument later, if Lindecrantz relents.
“The judge said, ‘It is indispensable to these proceedings for me to hear from her,'” Brauchler said.
Karen Steinhauser, a former prosecutor who is now a criminal defense attorney and is not involved in the Ray case, said the only way to avoid testifying is by exercising a legal privilege, like the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination or spousal privilege.
She said someone’s religious beliefs don’t constitute privilege. At the same time, she said, it’s possible prosecutors could get by without Lindecrantz’s testimony and are simply making an example of her.
Since Monday, Lindecrantz has become something of a cause celebre with Mennonite church groups and capital punishment opponents rallying outside the courtroom and packing the courtroom.
“It’s been one of [our] key practices that we do not kill people for any reason. That means not going to war but the death penalty also comes into that,” said Vern Remple, one of the pastors of the Beloved Community Mennonite Church.
“She feels like she would be aiding in a process that is seeking to kill a person.”
Remple said he spoke with Lindecrantz about her decision.
“She really struggled with this,” he said. “It wasn’t an easy or glib choice for her.”
It’s unknown how long the judge intends to keep Lindecrantz locked up, but the maximum for contempt is six months. Brauchler wouldn’t say if that’s too harsh a punishment, but added, “I don’t think she gets to flout the law.”
He also said Lindecrantz and Newman could have filed a motion to put the Ray case on hold while they appealed the judge’s order compelling her testimony. “But they were willing to go to jail to create a martyr-like aspect for the anti-death penalty position,” he said.
Newman said it was cruel for prosecutors to force someone whose faith eschews violence o testify in a proceeding that could lead to the execution chamber.
“The one and only reason she is being called as a witness for the prosecution is they are seeking to execute someone,” the lawyer said. “If the death penalty weren’t on the table, she would testify.”