The Dangerous Lives of Judges

What Goes On When the Robes Come Off

BY BARBARA GALLETLY

SITTING ON THEIR BENCHES, judges occupy a unique situation within the law. They are the bridge between the ideal and the real, the cerebral and the practical. And while it is their duty to remain as removed and impartial from their decisions as possible, their very profession and the decisions they make can sometimes put their lives in peril.

What's The Big Deal?

On March 1, far away in Baghdad, a judge and a lawyer involved in the trial of Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity were killed. The judge, Parwiz Muhammad Mahmoud al-Merani, was 59; the lawyer, Aryan Mahmoud al-Merani, was 26 and Muhammad Mahmoud's son. The two were gunned down at 9 a.m. while getting into their car, presumably on their way to work. Witnesses watched three men commit the crime from an unmarked station wagon outside of the al-Merani home. The two men were, according to the language of the New York Times, just "the first" to be killed for their involvement in the newly elected Iraqi government and its legal proceedings.

Unfortunately, little information is available in any other major international news sources, but according to The Jawa Report (mypetjawa.mu.nu), an international blog, the judge was a leading Kurdish politician whose political and geographical ties put him at strong odds with Hussein's Baathist terrorist followers. The murders, not surprisingly, were described in the blog as "further evidence that a key component of the insurgency is in Saddam Hussein loyalists." They are not, however, receiving much attention as car bombs and military actions continue to overwhelm headlines. There are still over a hundred more judges in place for the tribunals that should start by the end of this year.

All Because Of A Trademark Infringement?

On the night of February 28, US District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow arrived home to find her husband and mother shot to death in the basement. The Edgewood suburb of Chicago is a place where pot lucks and block parties are more common than brutal murders, and the Lefkows were a loving family. Michael, Joan's husband, was a well-dressed, well-liked lawyer, heavily involved in social justice work. He marched alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. in the '60s. Her mother, Donna, was 90 and an avid quilter who made sure that each of her 23 grandchildren had a quilted token of her affection.

Upon discovering the bodies, the Chicago Tribune reported, Judge Lefkow ran screaming into the street. Michael Hale, a white supremacist and leader of the World Church of the Creator who was convicted last year for soliciting her murder, is the primary suspect in the case. The story dates to 2000 when the Oregon-based group Te-Ta-Ma Truth Foundation, also commonly called Church of the Creator, sued Hale for trademark infringement in Judge Lefkow's court. Despite their common name, the two organizations are ideologically opposed: according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Hale's WCOTC is a neo-Nazi group working for a "Whiter and Brighter World" whereas the family-oriented Te-Ta-Ma promotes "Love, Light And Peace." Lefkow ruled in Hale's favor, but her decision was overturned in appellate court and her enforcement of the higher court's ruling enraged Hale. In 2003, he went so far as to hire a man to kill Lefkow.

Currently, Hale is held in Chicago's Metropolitan Correctional Center under special measures taken against suspected terrorists since Sept. 11, 2001. The Center prohibits prisoners from communicating by media, mail or telephone, and from having visitors. It is thus likely that anonymous online solicitations for the murder of the Lefkows prompted a follower to take action without a direct request by Hale. Perhaps too, as some government officials fear, the Lefkow murders could have been avoided if enough funding had been provided for the full investigation of threats on the lives of federal judges. After Hale was caught last year, the FBI presumed no threat persisted, but it is paying attention now.

Investigations continue as Judge Lefkow and her five daughters, all now closely protected by the FBI mourn their losses. "This whole assault and who did it does threaten American justice," said Reverend Jacqueline Schmitt in her sermon at Saturday's funeral mass.

Protecting The Law

Since 1979, only three Federal Judges have been killed in the United States as a result of their occupations, so the Lefkow murders stand out. The al-Meranis, however, are part of a new government that is still struggling to prove its stability. It is unsurprising to some commentators that the same insurgents angered by the new Iraqi government's rise to power would continue to employ violence to manipulate their opponents. It is less often noted that domestic groups like the Aryan Nation, whose followers range from mild to extreme protesters against the American government, can be just as dangerous and prolific a threat as foreign terrorist groups. The Lefkow and al-Merani murders serve to weaken the illusion that these judges are, for their role in upholding the government, somehow elevated from the violent world over which they preside.

BARBARA GALLETLY B'05 keeps the peace

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