Court rejects demon case

Press, 30 October 1981, Page 6

Court rejects demon case

NZPA-ReuterDanbury, Connecticut A judge has ruled out a test-case defence of demonic possession in the murder trial of a teenager accused of stabbing a friend to death in an argument.

The ruling by a Connecticut Superior Court judge, Robert Callahan, dealt a' shattering blow to Arne Johnson’s

His , lawyer, Martin Minnella, had argued that Johnson was possessed by demons which he challenged to enter his body from that of an 11-year-old boy whose parents said he was possessed.

It would have been the first time such a defence had been permitted in an Ameri-

can court, according to legal experts. Mr Minnella said, however, it had been used successfully twice ir English cases, in 1971 and 1376. But Judge Callahan declared; “Courts have not recognised such a defence and I’m not going to allow it. It’s irrelevant. The profession of demonology has not reached the position of reliability to which it can be acceptable to a court.” Mr Minnella had planned to call as witnesses seven Roman Catholic priests and a bishop, among others, to testify that demons do exist and can manipulate a man’s actions. Mr Minnella was setting

out the defence case when Judge Callahan interrupted him to exclude the demons defence. Johnson, aged 19, a tree surgeon, had pleaded not guilty to murdering Alan Bono, aged 49, a close friend, during an argument over Johnson’s girlfriend. The demons were said to have entered Johnson during exorcism rites on the boy originally described as possessed. The defence had planned to subpoena the priests. There was some doubt whether they could be forced to break their usual silence about exorcism cases and be compelled to testify.

Mr Minnella said other witnesses would include doctors, psychiatrists, and “psychic investigators,” and he would play tape recordings in which Johnson was heard challenging demons to "leave the boy alone and take me on.”

He said he had tapes of the possessed boy speaking in strange tongues and reciting from Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” an allegory about fallen angels. The New Catholic Encyclopedia says demons are fallen angels.

Mr Minnella said he would accept only jurors who believed in God. “If you believe in God, you must believe in the Devil,” he said.