Judge rejects defense argument in Jewish site shootings case

A judge rejected a series of defense motions in the case of the killer of three people last year at two Jewish sites in Kansas.

By Heather Hollingsworth, published in the Washington Post July 17, 2015

A judge rejected a white supremacist’s effort Friday to argue in court that the killings of three people at two Jewish sites in suburban Kansas City were necessary.

Johnson County Judge Thomas Kelly Ryan said the “compelling necessity” defense could not be used in the guilt phase of the capital murder trial of Frazier Glenn Miller, 74, of Aurora, Missouri. Ryan didn’t rule out the possibility of letting Miller use the defense if he is convicted of the killings and jurors have to decide whether he will be sentenced to death.

Miller does not deny gunning down Dr. William Lewis Corporon, 69, and his 14-year-old grandson, Reat Griffin Underwood, at the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, and Terri LaManno, 53, at the nearby Village Shalom care center on April 13, 2014. He said he felt it was his duty to kill Jewish people before he died; he didn’t know all three were Christians... Read more.