Article:
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Mormon church took another step toward transparency Tuesday with the first published pictures of a small sacred stone it believes founder Joseph Smith used to help translate a story that became the basis of the religion.

 The third volume of the Joseph Smith papers, which includes the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon is shown following a news conference Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, in Salt Lake City. The Mormon church... (Associated Press)

 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints historian Steven E. Snow displays the third volume of the Joseph Smith Papers, which includes the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon, during a news... (Associated Press)

 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints historian Steven E. Snow rests his hand on the third volume of the Joseph Smith papers, which includes the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon, during... (Associated Press)

 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints historian Steven E. Snow displays the third volume of the Joseph Smith Papers, which includes the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon, during a news... (Associated Press)

 People look at pictures of the smooth, brown, egg-sized rock shown in the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon following a news conference Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, at the Church of Jesus Christ of... (Associated Press)

 A picture of a smooth, brown, egg-sized rock is shown in the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon following a news conference Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints... (Associated Press)

 People look at pictures of the smooth, brown, egg-sized rock shown in the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon following a news conference Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, at the Church of Jesus Christ of... (Associated Press)

 Pictures of smooth, brown, egg-sized rocks are shown in the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon following a news conference Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints... (Associated Press)

 Pictures of a smooth, brown, egg-sized rock are shown in the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon following a news conference Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints... (Associated Press)

 Flowers bloom in front of the Salt Lake Temple Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, at Temple Square, in Salt Lake City. The Mormon church is taking another step in its push to be more transparent, and is releasing... (Associated Press)

 The new photos peel back another layer of secrecy for a relatively young world religion that has come under scrutiny for some of its beliefs as its numbers swelled in the Internet age.

 The pictures of the smooth, egg-sized rock are part of a new book that also contains photos of the first printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon. Officials with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints unveiled the photos at a news conference in Salt Lake City.

 The religion's drive in recent years to open its vaults and clarify sensitive tenets is aimed at filling a void on the Internet for accurate information as curiosity increased while church membership tripled to 15 million over the past three decades, Mormon scholars said.

 Church historian Steven E. Snow acknowledged that dynamic, saying: "The Internet brings both challenge and opportunities. We're grateful for the opportunity to share much of collection through the use of the Internet."

 The church's campaign seems aimed at preventing current members from leaving and showing non-Mormons the faith has nothing to hide, said Terryl Givens, professor of literature and religion and the James Bostwick chair of English at the University of Richmond.

 As an American-born religion much younger than most world religions, the origins of Mormonism have come under greater scrutiny and put pressure on the church to prove its stories, Givens said.

 "The other churches' origins are concealed by the mist of history," Givens said. "Mormonism is the first world religion in which the origins were exposed to public view, to documentation, to journalists and newspaper reporting."

 The pictures in the new book show different angles of a stone that is dark brown with lighter brown swirls. The photos also show a weathered leather pouch where the stone was stored that is believed to be made by one of Joseph Smith's wives, Emma Smith.

 The church has always possessed the stone, which was transported across the country during Mormon pioneers' trek from Illinois to Utah in the mid-1800s. But it decided to publish the photos to allow people who prefer visuals to words to better understand the religion's roots, said Richard Turley, assistant church historian. The stone will remain in the vault.

 "The picture brings a kind of tangibility to something that has been previously been talked about just in words," Turley said. "That helps people connect with the past."

 Mormons believe that 185 years ago, Smith found gold plates engraved with writing in ancient Egyptian in upstate New York. They say God helped him translate the text using the stone and other tools, and it became known as the Book of Mormon.

 The manuscript in the new book belongs to the Community of Christ, a faith that was created by early Mormons who stayed behind when most members of the religion moved west to Utah. A Community of Christ leader joined LDS officials at the press event Tuesday in what both said demonstrated the two faiths have moved on from past squabbles.

 The church has been releasing books containing historical documents that shed light on how Smith formed the faith. It also has issued a series of in-depth articles that explain or clarify some of the more sensitive parts of the religion's history that it once sidestepped, such as its past ban on black men in the lay clergy and its early history of polygamy.

 The church paid a price for its past decisions to stay silent on topics or keep key artifacts in the vault, said Richard Bushman, a Mormon historian and emeritus professor at Columbia University.

 "Their faithful members would stumble on information on the Internet. Not having heard about them, they were shocked and disillusioned," Bushman said.

 Today the church is taking a new approach by saying, "We can face up to the facts. We don't have to make the picture prettier than it is," he said. ||||| He dictated the narrative to various scribes, including schoolteacher Oliver Cowdery, who took down the LDS leader's words in longhand. Cowdery then painstakingly copied the original manuscript for the printer to set in type. More than 70 percent of that original document suffered water damage. The LDS Church History Library in Salt Lake City has most of what's left.

 The "printer's copy," however, remained with Smith's followers who stayed in the Midwest rather than trekking to Utah, and, in 1903, it was purchased by the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, now the Community of Christ.

 Through the years, tensions simmered between those two wings of Mormonism. But, during the past couple of decades, historians have built scholarly bridges between the Community of Christ and the much-larger, Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

 Community of Christ officials have been "careful stewards of the manuscript," Snow said Tuesday. "Both faiths are trying to move forward in sharing their collections."

 Community of Christ minister and Seventy Robin Linkhart, who was at the news conference, praised her Utah colleagues for their part in the joint project.

 The two-volume work, Linkhart said, "truly is an exceptional contribution to the study of LDS history and culture, representing decades of research."

 Begun by Mormon scholar Royal Skousen in 1988, she said, "it's been a long, long journey to the finish line."

 The Community of Christ long ago accepted the notion that "revelation includes a human component," said Lachlan Mackay, coordinator of the denomination's historic sites.

 The Independence, Mo.-based faith published articles about the seer stone as early as the 1960s, he said, but "it might still be news to some people."

 "I'm incredibly excited," Mackay said Tuesday. "These efforts have served to unite us."

 Both he and Richard E. Turley Jr., assistant LDS historian, said physical objects "help us connect to the past, make it more realistic, more tangible."

 In a recent essay, the LDS Church explained how Smith, according to some accounts, used the seer stone. He peered into a hat, to block out exterior light, and "read aloud the English words that appeared on the instrument."

 "As a young man during the 1820s, Joseph Smith, like others in his day, used a seer stone to look for lost objects and buried treasure," the essay said. "As Joseph grew to understand his prophetic calling, he learned that he could use this stone for the higher purpose of translating scripture."

 Smith also used two bound stones — known as the Urim and Thummim — as "interpreters."

 "Some accounts indicate that Joseph studied the characters on the plates," the essay added. "Most of the accounts speak of Joseph's use of the Urim and Thummim (either the interpreters or the seer stone)." ||||| Joseph Smith said that the Book of Mormon was “the most correct of any Book on earth & the keystone of our religion & a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts than by any other Book.” 1 The Book of Mormon came into the world through a series of miraculous events. Much can be known about the coming forth of the English text of the Book of Mormon through a careful study of statements made by Joseph Smith, his scribes, and others closely associated with the translation of the Book of Mormon.

 “By the Gift and Power of God”

 Joseph Smith reported that on the evening of September 21, 1823, while he prayed in the upper room of his parents’ small log home in Palmyra, New York, an angel who called himself Moroni appeared and told Joseph that “God had a work for [you] to do.”2 He informed Joseph that “there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang.” The book could be found in a hill not far from the Smith family farm. This was no ordinary history, for it contained “the fullness of the everlasting Gospel as delivered by the Savior.”3

 The angel charged Joseph Smith to translate the book from the ancient language in which it was written. The young man, however, had very little formal education and was incapable of writing a book on his own, let alone translating an ancient book written from an unknown language, known in the Book of Mormon as “reformed Egyptian.”4 Joseph’s wife Emma insisted that, at the time of translation, Joseph “could neither write nor dictate a coherent and well-worded letter, let alone dictat[e] a book like the Book of Mormon.”5

 Joseph received the plates in September 1827 and the following spring, in Harmony, Pennsylvania, began translating them in earnest, with Emma and his friend Martin Harris serving as his main scribes. The resulting English transcription, known as the Book of Lehi and referred to by Joseph Smith as written on 116 pages, was subsequently lost or stolen. As a result, Joseph Smith was rebuked by the Lord and lost the ability to translate for a short time.6

 Joseph began translating again in 1829, and almost all of the present Book of Mormon text was translated during a three-month period between April and June of that year. His chief scribe during these months was Oliver Cowdery, a schoolteacher from Vermont who learned about the Book of Mormon while boarding with Joseph’s parents in Palmyra. Called by God in a vision, Cowdery traveled to Harmony to meet Joseph Smith and investigate further. Of his experience as scribe, Cowdery wrote, “These were days never to be forgotten—to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven.”7

 The manuscript that Joseph Smith dictated to Oliver Cowdery and others is known today as the original manuscript, about 28 percent of which still survives.8 This manuscript corroborates Joseph Smith’s statements that the manuscript was written within a short time frame and that it was dictated from another language. For example, it includes errors that suggest the scribe heard words incorrectly rather than misread words copied from another manuscript.9 In addition, some grammatical constructions that are more characteristic of Near Eastern languages than English appear in the original manuscript, suggesting that the base language of the translation was not English.10

 Unlike most dictated drafts, the original manuscript was considered by Joseph Smith to be, in substance, a final product. To assist in the publication of the book, Oliver Cowdery made a handwritten copy of the original manuscript. This copy is known today as the printer’s manuscript. Because Joseph Smith did not call for punctuation, such as periods, commas, or question marks as he dictated, such marks are not in the original manuscript. The typesetter later inserted punctuation marks when he prepared the text for the printer.11 With the exceptions of punctuation, formatting, other elements of typesetting, and minor adjustments required to correct copying and scribal errors, the dictation copy became the text of the first printed edition of the book.12

 Translation Instruments

 Many accounts in the Bible show that God transmitted revelations to His prophets in a variety of ways. Elijah learned that God spoke not to him through the wind or fire or earthquake but through a “still small voice.”13 Paul and other early apostles sometimes communicated with angels and, on occasion, with the Lord Jesus Christ.14 At other times, revelation came in the form of dreams or visions, such as the revelation to Peter to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, or through sacred objects like the Urim and Thummim.15

 Joseph Smith stands out among God’s prophets, because he was called to render into his own language an entire volume of scripture amounting to more than 500 printed pages, containing doctrine that would deepen and expand the theological understanding of millions of people. For this monumental task, God prepared additional, practical help in the form of physical instruments.

 Joseph Smith and his scribes wrote of two instruments used in translating the Book of Mormon. According to witnesses of the translation, when Joseph looked into the instruments, the words of scripture appeared in English. One instrument, called in the Book of Mormon the “interpreters,” is better known to Latter-day Saints today as the “Urim and Thummim.” Joseph found the interpreters buried in the hill with the plates.16 Those who saw the interpreters described them as a clear pair of stones bound together with a metal rim. The Book of Mormon referred to this instrument, together with its breastplate, as a device “kept and preserved by the hand of the Lord” and “handed down from generation to generation, for the purpose of interpreting languages.”17

 The other instrument, which Joseph Smith discovered in the ground years before he retrieved the gold plates, was a small oval stone, or “seer stone.”18 As a young man during the 1820s, Joseph Smith, like others in his day, used a seer stone to look for lost objects and buried treasure.19 As Joseph grew to understand his prophetic calling, he learned that he could use this stone for the higher purpose of translating scripture.20

 Apparently for convenience, Joseph often translated with the single seer stone rather than the two stones bound together to form the interpreters. These two instruments—the interpreters and the seer stone—were apparently interchangeable and worked in much the same way such that, in the course of time, Joseph Smith and his associates often used the term “Urim and Thummim” to refer to the single stone as well as the interpreters.21 In ancient times, Israelite priests used the Urim and Thummim to assist in receiving divine communications. Although commentators differ on the nature of the instrument, several ancient sources state that the instrument involved stones that lit up or were divinely illumined.22 Latter-day Saints later understood the term “Urim and Thummim” to refer exclusively to the interpreters. Joseph Smith and others, however, seem to have understood the term more as a descriptive category of instruments for obtaining divine revelations and less as the name of a specific instrument.

 Some people have balked at this claim of physical instruments used in the divine translation process, but such aids to facilitate the communication of God’s power and inspiration are consistent with accounts in scripture. In addition to the Urim and Thummim, the Bible mentions other physical instruments used to access God’s power: the rod of Aaron, a brass serpent, holy anointing oils, the Ark of the Covenant, and even dirt from the ground mixed with saliva to heal the eyes of a blind man.23

 The Mechanics of Translation

 In the preface to the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith wrote: “I would inform you that I translated [the book], by the gift and power of God.” When pressed for specifics about the process of translation, Joseph repeated on several occasions that it had been done “by the gift and power of God”24 and once added, “It was not intended to tell the world all the particulars of the coming forth of the book of Mormon.”25

 Nevertheless, the scribes and others who observed the translation left numerous accounts that give insight into the process. Some accounts indicate that Joseph studied the characters on the plates. Most of the accounts speak of Joseph’s use of the Urim and Thummim (either the interpreters or the seer stone), and many accounts refer to his use of a single stone. According to these accounts, Joseph placed either the interpreters or the seer stone in a hat, pressed his face into the hat to block out extraneous light, and read aloud the English words that appeared on the instrument.26 The process as described brings to mind a passage from the Book of Mormon that speaks of God preparing “a stone, which shall shine forth in darkness unto light.”27

 The scribes who assisted with the translation unquestionably believed that Joseph translated by divine power. Joseph’s wife Emma explained that she “frequently wrote day after day” at a small table in their house in Harmony, Pennsylvania. She described Joseph “sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us.”28 According to Emma, the plates “often lay on the table without any attempt at concealment, wrapped in a small linen table cloth.” When asked if Joseph had dictated from the Bible or from a manuscript he had prepared earlier, Emma flatly denied those possibilities: “He had neither manuscript nor book to read from.” Emma told her son Joseph Smith III, “The Book of Mormon is of divine authenticity—I have not the slightest doubt of it. I am satisfied that no man could have dictated the writing of the manuscripts unless he was inspired; for, when acting as his scribe, your father would dictate to me for hour after hour; and when returning after meals, or after interruptions, he would at once begin where he had left off, without either seeing the manuscript or having any portion of it read to him.”29

 Another scribe, Martin Harris sat across the table from Joseph Smith and wrote down the words Joseph dictated. Harris later related that as Joseph used the seer stone to translate, sentences appeared. Joseph read those sentences aloud, and after penning the words, Harris would say, “Written.” An associate who interviewed Harris recorded him saying that Joseph “possessed a seer stone, by which he was enabled to translate as well as from the Urim and Thummim, and for convenience he then used the seer stone.”30

 The principal scribe, Oliver Cowdery, testified under oath in 1831 that Joseph Smith “found with the plates, from which he translated his book, two transparent stones, resembling glass, set in silver bows. That by looking through these, he was able to read in English, the reformed Egyptian characters, which were engraved on the plates.”31 In the fall of 1830, Cowdery visited Union Village, Ohio, and spoke about the translation of the Book of Mormon. Soon thereafter, a village resident reported that the translation was accomplished by means of “two transparent stones in the form of spectacles thro which the translator looked on the engraving.”32

 Conclusion

 Joseph Smith consistently testified that he translated the Book of Mormon by the “gift and power of God.” His scribes shared that testimony. The angel who brought news of an ancient record on metal plates buried in a hillside and the divine instruments prepared especially for Joseph Smith to translate were all part of what Joseph and his scribes viewed as the miracle of translation. When he sat down in 1832 to write his own history for the first time, he began by promising to include “an account of his marvelous experience.”33 The translation of the Book of Mormon was truly marvelous.

 The truth of the Book of Mormon and its divine source can be known today. God invites each of us to read the book, remember the mercies of the Lord and ponder them in our hearts, “and ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true.” God promises that “if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.”34

 Resources

 Wilford Woodruff journal, Nov. 28, 1841, Church History Library, Salt Lake City. On the identity of the angel, see Karen Lynn Davidson, David J. Whittaker, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jenson, eds., Histories, Volume 1: Joseph Smith Histories, 1832–1844, vol. 1 of the Histories series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2012), 223 n 56. Davidson et al., Joseph Smith Histories, 223; punctuation regularized; Joseph Smith, “Church History,” Times and Seasons 3 (March 1, 1842): 706–7. See also Joseph Smith—History 1:33–34. Mormon 9:32. See also 1 Nephi 1:2. “Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” Saints’ Herald 26 (Oct. 1, 1879), 290. Joseph Smith History, 1838–ca. 1841, 8–11 (draft 2), in Karen Lynn Davidson, David J. Whittaker, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jenson, eds., Histories, Volume 1: Joseph Smith Histories, 1832–1844, vol. 1 of the Histories series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2012), 252–3; available at josephsmithpapers.org; Doctrine and Covenants 3:5–15. Joseph Smith History, ca. summer 1832, in Joseph Smith Histories, 16; Oliver Cowdery to William W. Phelps, Sept. 7, 1834, in Messenger and Advocate 1 (Oct. 1834): 14; italics in original. Most of the manuscript disintegrated or became otherwise unreadable due to water damage between 1841 and 1882, as a result of being placed in the cornerstone of the Nauvoo House in Nauvoo, Illinois. Most of the surviving pages were later archived in the historian’s office of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. The extant original manuscript has been published in The Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon: Typographical Facsimile of the Extant Text, ed. Royal Skousen (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2001). A complete copy of this original, known as the printer’s manuscript, was made by Oliver Cowdery and two other scribes between August 1829 and early 1830. It was used to set the type for most of the printing in Palmyra. The printer’s manuscript is published in The Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon: Typological Facsimile of the Entire Text in Two Parts, ed. Royal Skousen (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2001). Both the printer’s manuscript and the original manuscript will be published in future volumes of The Joseph Smith Papers. (Dean C. Jessee, “The Original Book of Mormon Manuscript,” BYU Studies 10, no. 3 [Spring 1970]: 261–72; Royal Skousen, “Piecing Together the Original Manuscript,” BYU Today 46, no. 3 [May 1992]: 18–24.) For example, when Joseph translated the text that is now in 1 Nephi 13:29, the scribe wrote “&” in one place where he should have written “an.” At 1 Nephi 17:48, the scribe wrote “weed” where he should have written “reed.” (See Royal Skousen, “Translating the Book of Mormon: Evidence from the Original Manuscript,” in Noel B. Reynolds, ed., Book of Mormon Authorship Revisited: The Evidence for Ancient Origins [Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1997], 67; see also Grant Hardy, “Introduction,” in The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text, ed. Royal Skousen [New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009], xv–xix.) John A. Tvedtnes, “Hebraisms in the Book of Mormon” and “Names of People: Book of Mormon,” in Geoffrey Kahn, ed., Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics (Brill Online, 2013); M. Deloy Pack, “Hebraisms,” in Book of Mormon Reference Companion, ed. Dennis L. Largey (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2003), 321–25; John A. Tvedtnes, “The Hebrew Background of the Book of Mormon,” in John L. Sorenson and Melvin J. Thorne, eds., Rediscovering the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1991), 77–91; Donald W. Parry, “Hebraisms and Other Ancient Peculiarities in the Book of Mormon,” in Donald W. Parry and others, eds., Echoes and Evidences of the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2002), 155–89. You are about to access: http://www.encquran.brill.nl You are now leaving a website maintained by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We provide the link to this third party's website solely as a convenience to you. The linked site has its own terms of use, privacy policies, and security practices that differ from those on our website. By referring or linking you to this website, we do not endorse or guarantee the content, products, or services offered. On the role of the typesetter John Gilbert, see Royal Skousen, “John Gilbert’s 1892 Account of the 1830 Printing of the Book of Mormon,” in Stephen D. Ricks and others, eds., The Disciple as Witness: Essays on Latter-day Saint History and Doctrine in Honor of Richard Lloyd Anderson (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2000), 383–405. Some grammatical constructions that sound odd to English speakers were edited out of later editions of the Book of Mormon by Joseph Smith or others in order to render the translation into more standard current English. See Richard E. Turley Jr. and William W. Slaughter, How We Got the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2011), 44–45. Approximately five-sixth of the 1830 first edition of the Book of Mormon was typeset from the printer’s manuscript. The other one-sixth was typeset from the original manuscript. (Royal Skousen, “Editor’s Preface,” in The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text, xxx.) 1 Kings 19:11–12. Acts 9:1–8; 12:7–9. Acts 11:4–17; 16:9–10; Exodus 28:30; Leviticus 8:8; Numbers 21:9. Michael Hubbard MacKay, Gerrit J. Dirkmaat, Grand Underwood, Robert J. Woodford, and William G. Hartley, eds., Documents, Volume 1: July 1828–June 1831, vol. 1 of the Documents series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, Richard Lyman Bushman, and Matthew J. Grow (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2013), xxix. Mosiah 28:14–15, 20; see also Mosiah 8:13, 19; and Ether 4:5. Joseph Smith seems to have used the terms “interpreters” and “spectacles” interchangeably during the early years of the Church. Nancy Towle, an itinerant Methodist preacher, recounted Joseph Smith telling her about “a pair of ‘interpreters,’ (as he called them,) that resembled spectacles, by looking into which, he could read a writing engraven upon the plates, though to himself, in a tongue unknown” (Nancy Towle, Vicissitudes Illustrated in the Experience of Nancy Towle, in Europe and America [Charleston: James L. Burges, 1832], 138–39.) Joseph’s 1832 history referred to “spectacles.” (Joseph Smith History, ca. summer 1832, in Joseph Smith Histories, 16.) In January 1833, the Latter-day Saint newspaper The Evening and the Morning Star, edited by William W. Phelps, equated “spectacles” and “interpreters” with the term “Urim and Thummim”: the Book of Mormon “was translated by the gift and power of God, by an unlearned man, through the aid of a pair of Interpreters, or spectacles— (known, perhaps, in ancient days as Teraphim, or Urim and Thummim).” (“The Book of Mormon,” The Evening and the Morning Star, January 1833, [2].) By 1835 Joseph Smith most often used the term “Urim and Thummim” when speaking of translation and rarely, if ever, used the terms “interpreters” or “spectacles.” (Joseph Smith, Journal, Nov. 9–11, 1835, in Journals: Volume 1: 1832–1839, 89; Joseph Smith, History, 1834–1836, in Davidson et al., Histories, Volume 1, 116; John W. Welch, “The Miraculous Translation of the Book of Mormon,” in John W. Welch, ed., with Erick B. Carlson, Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844 [Provo, UT, and Salt Lake City: Brigham Young University Press and Deseret Book, 2005], 123–28.) Joseph Smith probably possessed more than one seer stone; he appears to have found one of the stones while digging for a well around 1822. (Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism [Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1984], 69–70.) According to Martin Harris, an angel commanded Joseph Smith to stop these activities, which he did by 1826. (See Bushman, Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism, 64–76; and Richard Lloyd Anderson, “The Mature Joseph Smith and Treasure Searching,” BYU Studies 24, no. 4 [Fall 1984]: 489–560.) Joseph did not hide his well-known early involvement in treasure seeking. In 1838, he published responses to questions frequently asked of him. “Was not Jo Smith a money digger,” one question read. “Yes,” Joseph answered, “but it was never a very profitable job to him, as he only got fourteen dollars a month for it.” (Selections from Elders’ Journal, July 1838, 43, available at josephsmithpapers.org.) For the broader cultural context, see Alan Taylor, “The Early Republic’s Supernatural Economy: Treasure Seeking in the American Northeast, 1780–1830,” American Quarterly 38, no. 1 (Spring 1986): 6–33. Mark Ashurst-McGee, “A Pathway to Prophethood: Joseph Smith Junior as Rodsman, Village Seer, and Judeo-Christian Prophet” (Master's Thesis, Utah State University, 2000). For example, when Joseph Smith showed a seer stone to Wilford Woodruff in late 1841, Woodruff recorded in his journal: “I had the privilege of seeing for the first time in my day the URIM & THUMMIM.” (Wilford Woodruff journal, Dec. 27, 1841, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.) See also Doctrine and Covenants 130:10. Cornelius Van Dam, The Urim and Thummim: A Means of Revelation in Ancient Israel (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1997), 9–26. Exodus 7:9–12; 30:25; 40:9; Leviticus 8:10–12; Numbers 21:9; Joshua 3:6–8; John 9:6. Preface to the Book of Mormon, 1830 edition. Minutes, Church conference, Orange, OH, Oct. 25–26, 1831, in Minute Book 2, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, available at josephsmithpapers.org; Welch, “Miraculous Translation,”,121–9. Virtually all of the accounts of the translation process are reproduced in Welch, “Miraculous Translation.” Two accounts of the translation process, including the use of a seer stone, have been written by members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and published in Church magazines. Historians have also written about the seer stone in Church publications, both in the Ensign and in The Joseph Smith Papers. (See Neal A. Maxwell, “‘By the Gift and Power of God,’” Ensign, Jan. 1997, 36–41; Russell M. Nelson, “A Treasured Testament,” Ensign, July 1993, 61–63; Richard Lloyd Anderson, “‘By the Gift and Power of God,’” Ensign, Sept. 1977, 78–85; and Documents, Volume 1: July 1828–June 1831, xxix–xxxii.) Alma 37:23–24. “Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” Saints’ Herald 26 (Oct. 1, 1879), 289–90. Some outside reports describe the spectacles being placed in the hat during the translation process. A Palmyra newspaper published the earliest known account of the translation in August 1829: Jonathan Hadley, a Palmyra printer who may have spoken with Joseph Smith about translation, claimed that the plates were found with a “huge pair of Spectacles,” and that “by placing the Spectacles in a hat, and looking into it, Smith could (he said so, at least,) interpret these characters.” (“Golden Bible,” Palmyra Freeman, Aug. 11, 1829, [2].) In the winter of 1831, a Shaker in Union Village, Ohio, spoke of “two transparent stones in the form of spectacles” through which the translator “looked on the engraving & afterwards put his face into a hat & the interpretation then flowed into his mind.” (Christian Goodwillie, “Shaker Richard McNemar: The Earliest Book of Mormon Reviewer,” Journal of Mormon History 37, no. 2 [Spring 2011]: 143.) “Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” 289–90. “One of the Three Witnesses,” Deseret Evening News, Dec. 13, 1881, 4. Here Martin Harris uses the term “Urim and Thummim” to refer to the interpreters found with the plates. A. W. B., “Mormonites,” Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate 2 (Apr. 19, 1831): 120. Goodwillie, “Shaker Richard McNemar,” 143. For additional accounts of translation by one of the Three Witnesses, see David Whitmer Interviews: A Restoration Witness, ed. Lyndon W. Cook (Orem, UT: Grandin Book, 1991). Joseph Smith History, ca. Summer 1832, 1, in Histories, Volume 1, 1832–1844, 10; available at josephsmithpapers.org. Spelling modernized. Moroni 10:3–5.

 The Church acknowledges the contribution of scholars to the historical content presented in this article; their work is used with permission.

 Originally published December 2013. ||||| A "series of miraculous events" led to the Book of Mormon first being made available for the public to purchase on March 26, 1830.

 It takes an average of five years to translate and produce the Book of Mormon in another language, according to LDS Church Public Affairs.

 Yet as the Book of Mormon Translation topic page on lds.org states, Joseph Smith translated “almost all of the present Book of Mormon text” from the gold plates in just three months, from April to June of 1829 — long before computers, electronic encyclopedias and the Internet.

 That “series of miraculous events,” as the topic page refers to it, involved in the translation of the text came to a climax 185 years ago today on March 26, 1830, when the Book of Mormon was first made available for the public to purchase.

 Although all the details of exactly how Joseph translated the Book of Mormon are not known, Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles pointed out in a 1997 Ensign article (“By the Gift and Power of God”) that this might have been intentional.

 “Perhaps the Lord wanted to leave the Book of Mormon in the realm of faith, though it is drenched with intrinsic evidence,” he wrote.

 Elder Maxwell indicated, however, that there is value in learning more about the Prophet Joseph, the translation process and those who assisted.

 “Our primary focus in studying the Book of Mormon should be on the principles of the gospel anyway, not on the process by which the book came forth,” Elder Maxwell wrote. “Yet because its coming so amply fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy of a ‘marvellous work and a wonder,’ we may find strengthened faith in considering how marvelous and wondrous the translation really was.”

 'By the gift and power of God'

 Among those who have wondered about the specific details of the Book of Mormon's translation was Hyrum Smith, an older brother of the Prophet Joseph.

 According to “History of the Church,” Joseph responded to his brother's curiosity by saying that “it was not intended to tell the world all the particulars of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon” and “it was not expedient for him to relate these things.”

 “Thus what we do know about the actual coming forth of the Book of Mormon is adequate, but it is not comprehensive,” Elder Maxwell wrote.

 Robin Jensen, associate managing historian and project archivist for the Joseph Smith Papers, said in an interview with the Deseret News that because the Prophet Joseph didn’t leave a detailed account of the translation process, historians and members of the church must rely on the reminiscences of scribes and those who witnessed the translation in order to understand the mechanics.

 Jensen said that in his studying of the process, he has come to see the translation as a “development” with multiple “different phases” in which Joseph “grew and developed and better understood his role.”

 It was a “monumental task” as Joseph was asked to “render into his own language an entire volume of scripture amounting to more than 500 printed pages,” the lds.org topic page states. So “God prepared additional, practical help in the form of physical instruments” to aid in the different phases of the translation process.

 “The Book of Mormon tells us the way is prepared for this record to be translated, and that’s a very physical, very mechanical process, much more so than we perhaps might envision that,” Jensen said.

 The topic page refers specifically to two types of instruments. The first, known as the Urim and Thummim, was “a clear pair of stones bound together with a metal rim” that was found in the Hill Cumorah with the gold plates.

 “The Book of Mormon referred to this instrument, together with its breastplate, as a device ‘kept and preserved by the hand of the Lord’ and ‘handed down from generation to generation, for the purpose of interpreting languages,’” the topic page states.

 The second, known as a seer stone, was a “small oval stone” that Joseph “discovered in the ground years before he retrieved the gold plates,” according to the lds.org topic page, that he later learned could be used in the translation process. Jensen said the idea of seer stones was common during Joseph’s time. They were seen as “a way to confront the spiritual, supernatural world.”

 Witnesses of the translation process recorded that “when Joseph looked into the instruments, the words of scripture appeared in English,” according to the topic page.

 Joseph was in his early 20s at the time and had “very little formal education and was incapable of writing a book on his own, let alone translating an ancient book written from an unknown language,” according to the topic page.

 Joseph repeatedly testified that it was “by the gift and power of God” that he was able to complete the translation, a fact his wife, Emma, affirmed.

 “The Book of Mormon is of divine authenticity — I have not the slightest doubt of it,” Emma told their son Joseph III on one occasion. “I am satisfied that no man could have dictated the writing of the manuscripts unless he was inspired; for, when acting as his scribe, your father would dictate to me for hour after hour; and when returning after meals, or after interruptions, he would at once begin where he had left off, without either seeing the manuscript or having any portion of it read to him.”

 The topic page also asserts the idea that the original Book of Mormon manuscript, 28 percent of which has survived through the years, also supports statements that Joseph dictated the text from another language in a short period of time.

 “For example, it includes errors that suggest the scribe heard words incorrectly rather than misread words copied from another manuscript,” the topic page states. “In addition, some grammatical constructions that are more characteristic of Near Eastern languages than English appear in the original manuscript, suggesting that the base language of the translation was not English.”

 ‘Days never to be forgotten’

 Joseph may have been the one called to translate the Book of Mormon, but Jensen emphasized that he was not completely alone in the process.

 “We have a lot of faithful individuals who believed in the Book of Mormon, believed in the power of the Book of Mormon and who were willing to put up with a lot of drudgery, and then of course later in church history, a lot of trial, a lot of hardship,” Jensen said.

 Jensen highlighted Joseph's scribes as examples of others who performed “time-intensive” work during the process.

 Oliver Cowdery is known as the primary scribe for the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon, but many others took up a quill to assist Joseph during the translation, according to Jensen. They include Martin Harris, a friend of Joseph’s who later was one of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon and who financed the printing; Emma Smith; Samuel Smith, one of Joseph’s younger brothers; Reuben Hale, Joseph’s brother-in-law; and Christian Whitmer, one of the sons of the Whitmer family who allowed Joseph to finish translating in their home in Fayette, New York. Christian’s brother John Whitmer also may have served as scribe for a time, and there is handwriting of an additional unidentified scribe found in the original manuscript.

 After completing the first manuscript, Joseph also asked Cowdery to take charge on creating a second copy of the text to provide to E.B. Grandin’s printing office in Palmyra, New York. Although Hyrum Smith and another unidentified scribe assisted, Cowdery wrote the bulk of the scripture by hand twice, according to Jensen.

 “Think of the hand cramps that Oliver Cowdery had to endure,” Jensen said.

 But for Cowdery, the opportunity to assist with the translation and publication of the Book of Mormon was a treasured one.

 “These were days never to be forgotten — to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven,” Cowdery said, according to the translation topic page.

 The “drudgery” that set the stage for the coming forth of the Book of Mormon extended into the realm of housework and farm chores. One person known for providing assistance with the everyday matters was Mary Whitmer, the mother of the Whitmer family.

 Jensen said Mary Whitmer’s grandson John C. Whitmer told of her being “bogged down” with the additional cooking, cleaning and other house chores that came as a result of Joseph and other visitors staying in her home during the translation process. One day while she was milking the cows, Mary Whitmer saw an angel who acknowledged her hard work and proceeded to show her the gold plates.

 “From that moment, my grandmother was enabled to perform her household duties with comparative ease, and she felt no more inclination to murmur because her lot was hard,” said John C. Whitmer, as cited in an article Jensen wrote titled “A Bit of Old String” on history.lds.org.

 Jensen also pointed out that contributions were even made by some who didn’t believe in the Book of Mormon as a book of divine origin, including John H. Gilbert, who was the principal typesetter at Grandin’s printing office. As Joseph dictated the translation to the scribes, he “did not call for punctuation.” Therefore, both the original manuscript and the printer’s manuscript were devoid of it, according to the topic page. The task of punctuating the Book of Mormon and setting the type, letter by letter, was left to Gilbert, a job he “took pride” in later in life, Jensen said.

 The Book of Mormon today

 The Book of Mormon has gone a long way since it first hit the shelves of Grandin’s bookshop in the small town of Palmyra, New York. More than 168 million copies have been distributed since March 1830, according to LDS Church Public Affairs, and an average of 4.5 million physical copies are distributed each year. With 110 different language translations of the book and digital translations available in 40 different languages on scriptures.lds.org and the Gospel Library app, the Book of Mormon continues to expand the church’s reach.

 “You could very much make the case that the LDS Church was founded on the publication of a book,” Jensen said. “Word of mouth only has a limited radius. It really was the publication of this book, and therefore this dissemination of this information through missionaries and others, that people began to hear about and then believe in Joseph Smith, his prophetic calling and the Restoration.”

 Email: wbutters@deseretnews.com, Twitter: WhitneyButters |||||Summary:

– To most people, it just looks like a smooth, egg-sized rock, but it was part of the founding of the Mormon church and photos of it have now been published for the first time. The images of the "seer stone" that Mormons believe founder Joseph Smith used to translate buried gold plates he said he found in upstate New York 185 years ago were released as part of what the church says is an effort to be more transparent about its past, the AP reports. The photos have been published in a book that also includes pictures of the "printer's manuscript" of the Book of Mormon—a handwritten copy of the original manuscript that was produced by one of Smith's scribes. The book, which Smith said he translated from "reformed Egyptian" with the stone, recounts a visit from Jesus Christ to North America, reports the Salt Lake Tribune. As for the translation, the church has this to say: "Joseph placed ... the seer stone in a hat, pressed his face into the hat to block out extraneous light, and read aloud the English words that appeared on the instrument." It says the translation occurred over three months in 1829 as part of a "a series of miraculous events." Indeed: In March, the Deseret News reported that the church says it takes roughly five years to translate and then produce the Book of Mormon in another language. The church says it is trying to make its history more "tangible" with the release, but Terryl Givens, professor of literature and religion at the University of Richmond, tells the AP that the church is also trying to show skeptics it has nothing to hide. "Other churches' origins are concealed by the mist of history. Mormonism is the first world religion in which the origins were exposed to public view, to documentation, to journalists, and newspaper reporting." (Last year, the church admitted that Smith had up to 40 wives.)


Write a summary based on this article:

BALTIMORE (AP) — The latest on the first court hearing for six Baltimore police officers who are charged in the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who died a week after suffering a critical spine injury in custody (all times local):

 Members of the media stand in line to enter the Baltimore Circuit Court, as the first court hearing was set to begin in the case of six police officers criminally charged in the death of Freddie Gray,... (Associated Press)

 Baltimore police officers form a line at the Inner Harbor on Pratt Street as protestors gathered, blocking traffic, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015 in Baltimore, as the first court hearing was set to begin in... (Associated Press)

 Pastor Westley West, from Faith Empowered Ministries, leads protesters as they march towards Pratt Street and the Inner Harbor, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015, in Baltimore, as the first court hearing was set... (Associated Press)

 12:15 p.m.

 Judge Barry Williams rejected a defense motion asking for the Office of the State's Attorney to be removed from the Freddie Gray case. The decision came at a pretrial hearing Wednesday, shortly after Williams had denied a defense motion seeking to have the charges dropped.

 Williams said that while he was "troubled" by some of the comments Mosby made during a May 1 news conference, they did not compromise the defendants' right to a fair trial.

 Williams said prosecutors' chief responsibility is to investigate and prosecute cases, and that the office conducted an independent investigation is not unusual.

 Williams also said the assertion that Mosby's judgment was impacted by the fact that her husband, Nick Mosby, is a councilman in a district that experienced a disproportionate amount of violence during the riots that Gray's death sparked is "condescending. Being married to a councilman is not a reason for recusal."

 Gray, a 25-year-old black man, died a week after suffering a severe spinal cord injury while in police custody on April 12.

 ___

 11:45 a.m.

 A Baltimore judge has refused to dismiss charges against six police officers accused in the death of a black man who was in their custody.

 During a hearing Wednesday, Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams denied a defense motion for the charges to be dropped because of prosecutorial misconduct on the part of State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby.

 The officers are facing charges in connection with the death of Freddie Gray. The 25-year-old Gray received a severe spinal cord injury while in police custody on April 12. He died a week later.

 ___

 10:10 a.m.

 A hearing has gotten under way at a courthouse in Baltimore for six police officers charged in the death of a black man in their custody in April.

 Officers Edward Nero, Garrett Miller, William Porter and Caesar Goodson, as well as Lt. Brian Rice and Sgt. Alicia White, face charges in connection with the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray. All the officers face second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office charges. Rice, Porter and White also face manslaughter charges, and Goodson faces an additional charge of second-degree murder.

 The 25-year-old Gray suffered a severe spinal cord injury on April 12 while in police custody. He died a week later.

 ___

 10 a.m.

 Dozens of protesters have been rallying for more than an hour outside the Baltimore courthouse where a hearing will take place for six police officers charged in the death of a black man.

 Many protesters marched in the street to the city's Inner Harbor area, where they blocked a main road briefly. Police lined up behind them, and directed them out of the road. Police handcuffed one protester while he was on his stomach in the street.

 The situation was tense outside the courthouse ahead of the hearing in the death of Freddie Gray. The 25-year-old black man suffered a severe spinal cord injury on April 12 while in police custody. He died a week later.

 ___

 8:25 a.m.

 Protesters are demonstrating outside the downtown Baltimore courthouse where the first hearing in the case of six city police officers charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray is to get underway.

 The protesters gathered near the Baltimore Circuit Court more than 90 minutes before the hearing was set to begin Wednesday. They are carrying yellow signs with slogans including, "Stop racism now" and "Indict, convict, jail." A banner says "Justice 4 Freddie Carlos Gray."

 They chanted: "Indict, convict, send those killer cops to jail. The whole damn system is guilty as hell" and "Tell the truth and stop the lies, Freddie Gray didn't have to die."

 Freddie Gray was a black man who died April 19, a week after suffering a critical spinal injury in custody. His death led to protests and a riot in Baltimore.

 The six officers face charges ranging from second-degree assault, a misdemeanor, to second-degree "depraved-heart" murder

 Lee Paterson says he's concerned charges could be dropped. He also said: "You know, this whole thing is bigger than Freddie Gray. It's about poverty."

 ___

 8:05 a.m.

 Dozens of sheriff's deputies are patrolling the streets around Baltimore Circuit Court, where the first hearing in the case of six city police officers charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray is to get underway.

 About 7:45 a.m. Wednesday, around 15 journalists were lined up, waiting for the courthouse doors to open at 8 a.m. A deputy briefed reporters on what equipment they could bring inside.

 The officers face charges that range from second-degree assault, a misdemeanor, to second-degree "depraved-heart" murder.

 On Wednesday, prosecutors and defense attorneys will present arguments on three issues: whether State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby should recuse herself, whether the officers should be tried together or separately, and whether the charges should be dismissed.

 ____

 4:50 a.m.

 The first court hearing is set to begin since six Baltimore police officers were criminally charged in the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who died a week after suffering a critical spinal injury in custody.

 Protesters are planning to gather Wednesday outside the Baltimore Circuit Court, where prosecutors and defense attorneys will present arguments on three key issues: whether State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby should recuse herself, whether the officers should be tried together or separately, and whether the charges should be dismissed.

 The officers face charges that range from second-degree assault, a misdemeanor, to second-degree "depraved-heart" murder.

 Gray's death led to protests in Baltimore, and a riot that prompted the National Guard to intervene and the city's mayor to declare a citywide curfew. ||||| A circuit judge ruled Wednesday that the case against six Baltimore police officers charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray will go forward in separate trials, with Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby remaining at the helm of the prosecution.

 During a day of hearings in a downtown courtroom, Judge Barry Williams swiftly sliced through complex legal arguments in the first motions hearing. In three key rulings issued from the bench, he refused to dismiss the charges or recuse Mosby and decided that the case should be split to ensure that each officer gets a fair trial.

 Williams said that trying the officers together would not be "in the interest of justice" because key evidence that's admissible with regards to one officer may be inadmissible for another. The officers are charged with a range of offenses, from murder to misconduct, as each played a different role in Gray's arrest and transport.

 The case has sparked widespread protests in Baltimore — which continued Wednesday — and has become part of a national dialogue about police treatment of black citizens. Gray, 25, died in April one week after suffering a severe spinal cord injury while in police custody.

 Outside the courtroom, dozens of protesters gathered in peaceful demonstrations and marches through downtown that resulted in one arrest and snarled traffic. Even at this early stage of the court proceedings, organizers said they wanted their voices heard.

 "It's a step in the right direction," Malcolm Wilson said of Williams' rulings on defense motions to recuse Mosby and dismiss the case. The 23-year-old East Baltimore resident, who said he knew Gray, clutched a white cardboard sign that read, "I am here for Justice for Mr. Gray."

 Police, who had been criticized for their response to previous demonstrations and rioting, repeatedly ordered protesters to "remain on the sidewalk" and quickly responded to one tense moment near the Inner Harbor in which a protester was arrested and an officer suffered minor injuries.

 Interim Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said police wanted to treat "a protest like a protest," and that "by and large, that's exactly what happened." Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake praised the department, saying she and police "will vigorously defend the First Amendment rights of the protesters, but we will also vigorously enforce the order in our city."

 In the courtroom, filled with legal observers and media after months of sharply written legal filings filled with accusations lobbed between the defense and prosecution, Williams sought to maintain order.

 He stopped the proceedings to remind those present to turn off all electronics, warning that he would remove everyone but the attorneys. He frequently interrupted the attorneys during their arguments, to seek clarification on a key point, wryly disagree or keep the attorneys on topic.

 The officers had waived their rights to attend Wednesday's hearing, and Gray's family did not attend.

 While the oral arguments on the dismissal and recusal motions largely reflected those made in written filings — which often centered on Mosby's actions — the arguments over whether to try the officers separately provided new insights into defense and prosecution theories.

 Officer Caesar R. Goodson Jr., the driver of the police van in which Gray was injured, is charged with second-degree depraved-heart murder. Sgt. Alicia D. White, Lt. Brian W. Rice and Officer William G. Porter are charged with manslaughter. Officers Edward M. Nero and Garrett E. Miller face lesser charges, including second-degree assault. All six have been charged with misconduct in office.

 Partially redacted statements by several of the officers were submitted to the court on Wednesday, though under seal, as were police dispatch tapes.

 Prosecutors previously indicated that they wanted to try Goodson, White, Nero and Miller together in one trial, and Porter and Rice together in a second trial.

 However, at the hearing Wednesday, they only sought to have Goodson, White and Nero tried together. Deputy State's Attorney Janice Bledsoe argued that much of the evidence in the case was relevant to those three officers.

 She said all of the evidence related to what happened to Gray from his arrest to his arrival unresponsive at the Western District police station would be needed to prove reckless endangerment on their part.

 But Marc Zayon, Nero's attorney, said Gray's arrest and transport constituted two separate incidents. He said evidence brought to support the felony charges against Goodson and White, including expert witness testimony on Gray's injuries sustained in the van and evidence regarding how Goodson was driving, would be highly prejudicial if introduced in a case against Nero.

 Defense attorneys also raised concerns that statements by the officers could incriminate one of the co-defendants, pitting one's right not to take the stand with another's right to confront his or her accuser.

 Matthew Fraling, an attorney for Goodson, also said he was concerned about a "transfer of guilt" and a "spillover effect" in the minds of jurors trying to categorize evidence against different defendants.

 In denying the state's motion to join the cases, Williams agreed that much of the evidence would not be "mutually admissible." His ruling means there will be six trials.

 Arguments over dismissing the charges and recusing Mosby came after a flurry of heatedly written motions over the past four months. In court Wednesday, Williams cautioned both sides to tone down their rhetoric.

 "The unnecessary name calling and over-the-top rhetoric to which this court has been required to wade in order to get to the heart of the legal issues in this case is remarkable," Williams said. |||||

– Written motions finally evolved into verbal arguments this morning in Baltimore, where defense attorneys for two of the six officers charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray tried to have said charges dismissed and the office of State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby recused from the case—attempts that were both rejected by Judge Barry Williams, the Baltimore Sun reports. The defense attorneys argued, among other things, that Mosby had influenced the jury pool by "[adopting] and [encouraging] the public's cry of 'no justice, no peace'" when she publicly announced the charges against the officers in May. Another complaint by the defense: Mosby's judgment was influenced by her husband serving as councilman for a local district that saw a "disproportionate amount of violence" in the days after Gray's death, the AP reports. Williams called that assertion "condescending" and said while he was "troubled" by some of Mosby's comments during her May 1 news conference, the defendants' right to a fair trial wasn't compromised by her statements, per the AP. The hearing is expected to continue this afternoon to determine whether the trial for the six officers should be split up. (In a unrelated story, members of Freddie Gray's family, including Gray himself, were victims of lead poisoning and may have been misled by a settlement company.)


Here is a news article: Sen. John McCain John Sidney McCainFive Takeaways from West Virginia's Senate debate Trump's Russia ambassador Jon Huntsman reveals cancer diagnosis Scarborough rips Graham for saying he’ll introduce legislation to end birthright citizenship: He’s ‘degrading’ himself for Trump MORE’s (R-Ariz.) announcement that he will oppose the latest GOP ObamaCare repeal bill has left both parties wondering about the health care law’s future.

 Some Republicans are still pushing for repeal, given the tiny chance that they could still scrounge up enough votes before Sept. 30, the deadline for using budgetary rules that prevent a filibuster on the measure.

 Vice President Pence said Friday that he and President Trump are “undeterred” in their effort to repeal the law, while Democrats say that they are on guard and will keep up the pressure.

 But it seems more likely that the debate could be moving into a new stage.

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 Democrats are pushing for bipartisan talks in the Senate Health Committee, which Republicans shut down earlier this week.

 McCain cited those talks in opposing the new bill, and Trump has given more nods toward working with Democrats in recent weeks. The president also wants to turn to tax reform, which is taking up an increasing amount of his workload.

 A key issue in the bipartisan talks would be addressing payments known as cost-sharing reductions that help insurers provide coverage to low- and middle-income people.

 Trump has threatened to cancel those payments in an effort to make ObamaCare “implode.” And he still could.

 The bipartisan Senate talks were aimed at providing congressional approval for those funds to cement their legality and prevent Trump from canceling them. Insurers say that step would be critical in giving them certainty and preventing premium increases.

 Sen. Lamar Alexander Andrew (Lamar) Lamar AlexanderOvernight Health Care — Presented by Purdue Pharma — Judge urges insurers to drop challenge over non-ObamaCare plans | Azar vows to push ahead with drug pricing proposal | No increase for ObamaCare outreach budget Dems blast Trump rule changes on ObamaCare Overnight Health Care — Presented by the Coalition for Affordable Prescription Drugs — Senate blocks Dem measure on short-term health plans | Trump signs bill banning drug price 'gag clauses' | DOJ approves Aetna-CVS merger | Juul ramps up lobbying MORE (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Health Committee and the lead Republican negotiator, has not yet commented after McCain’s announcement.

 It is highly unlikely that an end to the ObamaCare repeal effort would usher in an era of bipartisanship on health care.

 House conservatives and liberal Democrats in the House and Senate have very different ideas on how to move forward on health care, something underlined by a CNN debate scheduled for Monday. Its participants include Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernard (Bernie) SandersFive Takeaways from West Virginia's Senate debate Election Countdown: 5 days to midterms | Steve King faces his toughest test | Oprah stumps for Abrams in Georgia | Trump stokes controversy with immigration ad | Dems keep focus on health care | Polls show West Virginia, Indiana Senate races tightening Former Maryland Governor predicts gubernatorial race will narrow MORE (I-Vt.), whose single-payer system is gaining steam with Democrats, and the authors of the latest GOP ObamaCare repeal bill, Sens. Bill Cassidy William (Bill) Morgan CassidyDyslexia is more common than society realizes. Here’s what we can do to help children struggling in the shadows. Congress must protect eye care patients from frightful prescriptions Trump signs bills banning drug pricing 'gag clauses' MORE (La.) and Lindsey Graham Lindsey Olin GrahamThe birthright citizenship debate explained GOP Senate candidates dodge on Trump's plan to end birthright citizenship Kobach: 'Misimpression' that 14th Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship MORE (S.C.).

 Without any bipartisan action or a final long-shot repeal attempt, ObamaCare, which has extended coverage to roughly 20 million people, will remain on the books.

 Despite worries that there would be counties next year without any insurance options, insurers have stepped in to fill every area. Standard & Poors found in July that ObamaCare markets are “stabilizing.”

 Democrats believe there are plenty of risks to the law, however, as long as Trump is in the White House.

 They accuse the president of threatening to “sabotage” the law — both with his threats on the insurer payments and a 90 percent cut to funds used to advertise and enroll people in the insurance exchanges.

 Within hours of McCain’s statement on Friday, Democrats were pointing to an announcement that the administration would be taking healthcare.gov offline from 12 a.m. to 12 p.m. every Sunday during the enrollment period.

 “More sabotage of our health care system,” Matt House, a spokesman for Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer Charles (Chuck) Ellis SchumerMcSally accuses Arizona media of 'protecting' Dem opponent Sinema Scarborough tears into GOP candidates promising protections for pre-existing conditions: ‘They’re all lying’ Manchin wrestles with progressive backlash in West Virginia MORE (N.Y.), wrote on Twitter.

 A spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said the downtime is part of regularly scheduled “maintenance outages” that happen every year. “This year is no different,” the spokesman said.

 Frederick Isasi, executive director of Families USA, a leading pro-ObamaCare group, said that repeal is still a “very, very real threat for millions and millions of Americans.”

 But beyond that threat, he warned: “It's a real concern that the administration is trying to sabotage the ability of Americans to get high-quality affordable coverage.”

 He warned that if enrollment efforts fall off, fewer healthy people will be enrolled in ObamaCare, which will harm the long-term sustainability of the exchanges.

 McCain’s opposition is a major blow to the seven-year effort to repeal the law.

 It almost certainly dooms the current legislation, given opposition to the bill from Sen. Rand Paul Randal (Rand) Howard PaulOvernight Defense: Trump says 15,000 troops could deploy to border | Mattis insists deployment is not 'stunt' | Pompeo calls for Yemen peace talks in November GOP senators press Trump to halt nuclear energy talks with Saudi Arabia Tester fights for survival at home MORE (R-Ky.), and Sen. Susan Collins Susan Margaret CollinsFlake: Trump 'can't' and 'shouldn't' nix birthright citizenship Judiciary's GOP chairman says ending birthright citizenship would require rewriting Constitution Avoid temptation to seek partisan advantage from pipe bomb arrest MORE (R-Maine) said in a statement that she is leaning against it. Collins is seen as a long-shot to vote for repeal, and Republicans can only afford two defections.

 It’s also possible there are other GOP senators who do not want to back the bill.

 It’s of course still possible Republicans could make another effort at repeal either before or after Sept. 30.

 Sen. Orrin Hatch Orrin Grant HatchOn The Money: Dow, S&P; turn negative for 2018 | Maxine Waters among Dems targeted by bomb threats | Senate Finance chair says new Trump tax cuts 'unlikely' this year Senate Finance chair: Trump's new tax cut 'highly unlikely' this year Romney on suspicious packages: 'Hate acts follow hate speech' MORE (R-Utah) has even floated the idea of pairing ObamaCare repeal with tax reform under a new budget resolution that would again allow Republicans to avoid a Democratic filibuster.

 Yet such a plan would put tax reform at risk, something that seems unlikely at this stage.

 Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, sounded a note of disappointment but did not criticize McCain after his announcement.

 “Certainly today's news is not a positive sign for people yearning for lower insurance premiums but to criticize Senator McCain would be to allow my disappointment to manifest itself in a manner that won't produce a different outcome,” Meadows said. “Amendments and a floor vote should still be allowed.”

 Scott Wong contributed. ||||| Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| When John McCain cast the decisive vote against Obamacare repeal two months ago, Chuck Schumer waved an arm to quiet fellow Democrats as they burst into audible elation.

 Don’t gloat or cheer over the GOP’s failure, Schumer signaled — a move he made again on Friday in a statement, after McCain delivered what looks like a fatal blow to his party’s seven-year drive to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.

 Story Continued Below

 Far from celebrating, Democrats tempered their responses to McCain with reminders of the bipartisan health care talks that Republicans had walked away from when they took one last shot at repealing Obamacare. And even as their liberal base turned a rally to pressure McCain into a thank-you celebration, Democrats stopped far short of declaring repeal dead.

 “John McCain shows the same courage in Congress that he showed when he was a naval aviator,” the Senate minority leader said in his statement about the Arizona Republican’s opposition to repeal. “I have assured Senator McCain that as soon as repeal is off the table, we Democrats are intent on resuming the bipartisan process.”

 A senior Senate Democratic aide summed up the next step: "Now we extend the olive branch to bipartisanship."

 The latest Obamacare repeal gambit, shepherded this time by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.), caught many Democratic lawmakers and liberal activists off-guard. They reminded one another publicly and privately on Friday that, McCain's opposition aside, only the Sept. 30 expiration of Republicans' ability to push through repeal with 50 votes can give Obamacare supporters room to breathe easy.

 "This bill is not dead yet," Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) tweeted. "You can relax on October 1. They never let up, and neither can we."

 Sign up here for POLITICO Huddle A daily play-by-play of congressional news in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time.

 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office did not immediately respond to questions about whether he will still hold the vote on the bill, which would turn Obamacare funding into block grants for the states, make deep cuts to Medicaid and undermine protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Proponents say it would provide needed flexibility to governors to administer health care.

 One Democratic aide advised the party to maintain a dual mission: "Democrats need to stay vocal about the dangers of this bill and keep pushing for bipartisan solutions."

 Liberal groups that had hustled their grass-roots cavalry back to Democrats' side are staying vocal, despite some lingering frustration over Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) cutting a short-term fiscal deal with President Donald Trump.

 Anti-repeal activists are pressing ahead with their plans for dozens of rallies this weekend, with the Progressive Change Campaign Committee maintaining a five-figure ad campaign it rolled out Friday that targets GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Dean Heller of Nevada, Susan Collins of Maine, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Jeff Flake of Arizona.

 "Until we have three rock-solid nos that are public, we shouldn’t assume that everything is completely off the table next week," MoveOn.org Washington director Ben Wikler said in an interview.

 In a move sure to please Democrats, McCain's lengthy statement on his opposition to the Graham-Cassidy bill also included an encouragement of the bipartisan talks led by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) to shore up insurance markets, which GOP leadership had all but quashed earlier this week.

 “I fear that the prospect of one last attempt at a strictly Republican bill has left the impression that their efforts cannot succeed,” McCain said of Alexander and Murray. “I hope they will resume their work should this last attempt at a partisan solution fail.”

 Murray quickly released a statement describing herself as "still at the table ready to keep working," adding, "I remain confident that we can reach a bipartisan agreement as soon as this latest partisan approach by Republican leaders is finally set aside.”

 Minutes after McCain's announcement, Pelosi blasted out an email to her colleagues, urging them to move ahead with plans to hold events in opposition to the bill this weekend despite the likelihood that repeal cannot move forward.

 "This weekend, we will continue to highlight the devastating costs Republicans are trying to inflict on hard-working Americans,” Pelosi said. “Together, we will finally put the stake in the heart of this monstrous bill.”

 Pelosi will also hold a conference call with health care advocates and progressive allies on Saturday and talk health care on NBC’s "Meet the Press" on Sunday.

 Before McCain upended the latest Republican repeal drive, several Democratic aides had privately echoed some liberal activists' complaints that Schumer and Pelosi's debt-limit deal backfired — clearing the September calendar and giving Republicans more time to turn their focus to health care. But Pelosi brushed aside the insinuation when asked by reporters, saying the two issues “aren’t even related.”

 Other Democrats had fretted about the timing of Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders’ splashy single-payer health care rollout, which Republicans quickly seized on as a talking point to rally their troops behind repeal. Democrats publicly dismissed that claim but say privately they don’t want to antagonize Republicans until the Sept. 30 deadline is past.

 Part of Democrats' guarded tone on Friday is rooted in lessons learned from previous exultation earlier this year, when they thought the GOP had been thwarted, only to see another repeal push roar to life.

 Pelosi’s tone, while more aggressive than Schumer's, is a far cry from those previous celebrations.

 "I call upon Speaker [Paul] Ryan to now initiate a bipartisan effort in the House to improve and update the Affordable Care Act," she said. |||||
A summary of this is?

– John McCain's opposition to the latest GOP effort to repeal ObamaCare didn't quite kill the legislation's chances, though it came pretty close. Still, Democrats are taking pains not to declare victory in public or do anything that smacks of gloating, reports Politico. As Democratic Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz tweeted, "This bill is not dead yet. You can relax on October 1. They never let up, and neither can we." (After that date, Democrats will be able to easily kill any repeal effort with a filibuster.) McCain joins Rand Paul as a definite no, meaning Mitch McConnell can't afford one more defection even as Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska both were leaning in that direction. So what next? McConnell isn't saying yet whether he will proceed with a vote on the bill from Bill Cassidy and Lindsey Graham regardless, reports the Washington Post. If the repeal effort does indeed fail this month, Democrats want to resurrect bipartisan talks aimed at improving ObamaCare, rather than dismantling it. But given the vast differences in ideas on the left and right about what is necessary, the Hill doesn't see much hope for an "era of bipartisanship" on health care. On Friday night, President Trump called McCain's decision "horrible" but suggested that Republicans continue with the vote. “The most we’ll be is one or two votes short,” he said, per the New York Times. "You can’t quit when you have one or two votes short. You can’t do it." Meanwhile, co-author Graham didn't sound too peeved at McCain. "My friendship with @SenJohnMcCain is not based on how he votes but respect for how he’s lived his life and the person he is," he tweeted.


Article:
Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, D.C., said Tuesday he would soon travel to Rome to discuss his resignation with Pope Francis, laying the groundwork for the exit of one of the highest officials in the U.S. Catholic Church as it is engulfed by a growing sexual-abuse scandal.

 The end of Cardinal Wuerl’s career as archbishop of Washington—one of the most influential positions in the U.S. church—would mark a new phase in this year’s crisis, with accountability moving toward those who covered up abuse, not... ||||| (Reuters) - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh said on Wednesday it had removed Cardinal Donald Wuerl’s name from a high school after a grand jury report on sex abuse in the Church found he had reassigned priests who had been accused of abusing children, rather than taking stronger action.

 FILE PHOTO: Cardinal Donald William Wuerl attends before Pope Francis leads a consistory at the Vatican, February 12, 2015. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi/File Photo

 Prior to his current role as archbishop of Washington, Wuerl was bishop of Pittsburgh from 1988 to 2006. The grand jury report did not accuse him of personally sexually abusing children.

 The Pittsburgh diocese said in a statement that following the release of the report, Wuerl asked last week for his name to be removed from Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic High School, saying he did not want to be a distraction. The school has been renamed North Catholic High School.

 A two-year investigation into abuse in Pennsylvania found evidence that at least 1,000 people, mostly children, had been sexually abused by some 300 clergymen during the past 70 years. The report said the numbers of actual victims and abusers could be much higher.

 The report found that Wuerl notified the Vatican in 1989 of several priests who had been accused of sexually abusing children but that over subsequent years he granted requests by some to be reassigned to other parishes or to retire early, and in one case approved a loan to assist one such priest with personal debts.

 On Saturday, Wuerl canceled a planned speech at this week’s World Meeting of Families in Dublin, the second high-ranking U.S. Church official to do so.

 Last week’s report was the most wide-ranging U.S. investigation into sexual abuse by priests since the scandal burst into the public eye in Boston in 2002. ||||| (CNN) Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the embattled archbishop of Washington, will travel to the Vatican "in the very near future" to ask Pope Francis to accept his resignation, a spokesman said.

 In a letter to priests in the diocese, Wuerl said he will meet with Francis about the resignation he presented nearly three years ago at age 75, the mandatory age for Catholic bishops to submit their retirement to the Pope. He said a decision about his future "is an essential aspect so that this archdiocesan church we all love can move forward."

 "Our discernment here, I believe, has indicated the way forward to bring healing and a new beginning at the service of this church," Wuerl said.

 Ed McFadden, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Washington, said on Wednesday that Wuerl will ask Pope Francis to accept his resignation. McFadden said he did not know when the meeting would occur. A contingent of American bishops is meeting on Thursday with the Pope in Rome, but Wuerl is not among them, according to the Vatican.

 At a recent meeting with the Pope in Vatican City, Wuerl said in his letter, the Pope asked him to consider the best course of action "as we face new revelations of the extent of the horror of the clergy abuse of children and the failures in episcopal oversight."

 Read More ||||| Facing an uproar over revelations that he mismanaged past cases of clerical sexual abuse, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Washington, sent a letter informing his priests on Tuesday that he plans to discuss his resignation with Pope Francis in Rome.

 Cardinal Wuerl has faced calls for his resignation by some of his priests and parishioners since the release of a bombshell grand jury report last month in Pennsylvania. Cardinal Wuerl previously served as the archbishop of Pittsburgh, and the report included accounts of his allowing several priests accused of sexually abusing children to remain in ministry, after relying on the advice of psychologists who had assessed the priests.

 The cardinal had gained the confidence of both Francis and his predecessor, Benedict XVI, who relied on the low-key bureaucrat to steer international gatherings of bishops at the Vatican.

 But Cardinal Wuerl has been tarred by association with his predecessor in Washington, the former Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, who recently stepped down as a cardinal after accusations that decades ago, he molested an altar boy and coerced seminary students to sleep in his bed. |||||Summary:

– Since last month's grand jury report describing how the former archbishop of Pittsburgh reassigned priests accused of abusing children, Cardinal Donald Wuerl has had his name scrubbed from a school, been the subject of protests by Catholic schoolteachers, and faced calls from priests and parishioners to resign. Resignation is now on the table, the 77-year-old archbishop of Washington wrote in a Tuesday letter to priests, laying out a plan to discuss the subject with Pope Francis in Rome. Wuerl submitted his resignation at age 75 as is required of Catholic bishops, but the pope kept him on as one of his top US advisers, per the New York Times and CNN. During a meeting two weeks ago, the pope told Wuerl to consult with priests about the best way forward, reports the Wall Street Journal. Amid questions over whether he knew about molestation claims against his predecessor, former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, he heard calls for him both to stay and resign. That showed the need for "some decision, sooner rather than later, on my part," Wuerl writes. Noting abuse survivors "have personally suffered so much," his letter adds non-victims "have also been wounded by the shame of these terrible actions and have questions about their bishop's ability to provide the necessary leadership." The letter doesn't say whether Wuerl will ask the pope to accept his resignation, however. (Carlo Maria Vigano, the Vatican's former ambassador to the US, said Wuerl was complicit in a coverup.)


Article:

A condemned killer's trial was so tainted by the racially influenced decisions of prosecutors that he should be removed from death row and serve a life sentence, a judge ruled Friday in a precedent-setting North Carolina decision.

 Superior Court Judge Greg Weeks' decision in the case of Marcus Robinson comes in the first test of a 2009 state law that allows death row prisoners and capital murder defendants to challenge their sentences or prosecutors' decisions with statistics and other evidence beyond documents or witness testimony.

 Only Kentucky has a law like North Carolina's Racial Justice Act, which says the prisoner's sentence is reduced to life in prison without parole if the claim is successful.

 "The Racial Justice Act represents a landmark reform in capital sentencing in our state," Weeks said in Fayetteville on Friday. "There are those who disagree with this, but it is the law."

 Race played a "persistent, pervasive and distorting role" in jury selection and couldn't be explained other than that "prosecutors have intentionally discriminated" against Robinson and other capital defendants statewide, Weeks said. Prosecutors eliminated black jurors more than twice as often as white jurors, according to a study by two Michigan State University law professors Weeks said he found highly reliable.

 Robinson's case is the first of more than 150 pending cases to get an evidentiary hearing before a judge. Prosecutors said they planned to challenge Weeks' decision, and District Attorney Billy West declined further comment.

 Weeks ruled race was a factor in prosecution decisions to reject potential black jurors before the murder trial of Robinson, a black man convicted of killing a white teenager in 1991. The jury that convicted Robinson had nine whites, two blacks and one American Indian.

 Robinson and co-defendant Roderick Williams Jr. were convicted of murdering 17-year-old Erik Tornblom after the teen gave his killers a ride from a Fayetteville convenience store. Tornblom was forced to drive to a field, where he was shot with a sawed-off shotgun.

 Robinson came close to death in January 2007, but a judge blocked his scheduled execution. Williams is serving a life sentence.

 Nearly a dozen members of Tornblom's family left the courtroom without commenting. Robinson's mother, Shirley Burns, said she would advocate for the law, which a new Republican majority in the state's General Assembly is trying to eliminate.

 "Everybody is not guilty, everybody is not innocent, but at least be fair," Burns said after the ruling. "It wasn't all about Marcus. It's about anyone who suffers discrimination."

 Central to Robinson's case was the Michigan State University study. It reported that, of almost 160 people on North Carolina's death row, 31 had all-white juries, and 38 had only one person of color.

 Study co-author and Michigan State professor Barbara O'Brien told a North Carolina legislative panel last month the review of more than 7,400 potential capital jurors couldn't find anything other than race to explain why potential black jurors were rejected by prosecutors more than twice as often as whites.

 Robinson defense attorney James Ferguson of Charlotte told Weeks, who decided the case without a jury, that the study showed race was a significant factor in almost every one of North Carolina's prosecutorial districts as prosecutors decided to challenge and eliminate black jurors.

 "This case is important because it provides an opportunity for all of us to recognize that race far too often has been a significant factor in jury selection in capital cases," Ferguson said when the hearing opened in January.

 Union County prosecutor Jonathan Perry, who helped the Cumberland County District Attorney's Office argue the case against Robinson, said the study was untrustworthy because it was based on a too-limited sample of death penalty cases to provide meaningful results. The study also failed to detect numerous nonracial reasons that a person might be struck from a jury, Perry said.

 The Republican-led Legislature tried to repeal the Racial Justice Act earlier this year, but lawmakers failed to override a veto by Gov. Beverly Perdue, a Democrat.

 In 1998, Kentucky was the first state to enact a similar law. But the American Bar Association said in a report it was unclear exactly how often it has been used except for during the 2003 trial of an African-American man accused of kidnapping and killing his ex-girlfriend, who was white. In that case, the defendant's lawyers used the Kentucky Racial Justice Act during jury selection to include questions that would address the issue of racial discrimination. The defendant, Nathaniel Wood, was convicted of wanton murder and other crimes and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

 ___

 Associated Press writer Janet Cappiello contributed to this report from Louisville, Ky. ||||| Prosecutors called other prosecutors, judges and a political scientist to bolster their claims that race is not among their considerations when weighing whether to strike a potential juror.

 That study found that qualified black jurors  those not released for cause, such as opposition to the death penalty  were struck by prosecutors at nearly twice the rate as qualified white jurors. In Cumberland County, they were struck at 2.6 times the rate, according to the researchers.

 Defense attorneys used a sweeping study of capital cases in North Carolina done by Michigan State University law school researchers to bolster their claims.

 In selecting that panel, Robinsons defense team claimed, prosecutors struck half the blacks eligible for the jury and only 15 percent of those who were not black.

 Defense attorneys for Robinson argued earlier this year that prosecutors struck blacks from the jury pool at a much higher rate than whites. The jury that sent Robinson to death row included nine white jurors, one American Indian and two blacks, according to court filings.

 Cases he has presided over: In the mid-1990s, he presided over the court proceedings in Robeson County against the two men accused of killing James Jordan, father of basketball star Michael Jordan.

 Other legal jobs: Weeks worked several years in private practice and was an assistant Cumberland County public defender for 10 years.

 On the bench: 23 years. Recently announced plans to retire at the end of this year.

 — Marcus Reymond Robinson will soon gather his few belongings from the cell on North Carolina’s death row where he has spent the past 18 years and make a historic move to a maximum-security prison cell.

 The 39-year-old convicted murderer is the first North Carolina death row inmate to have his sentence converted to life without possibility of parole using the state’s fledgling and unique Racial Justice Act.

 Under the 2-1/2-year-old law, Judge Gregory Weeks was able to weigh statistics while considering Robinson’s claims that racial bias played a role in his trial and sentence.

 Prosecutors announced plans to appeal the Robinson decision, a challenge that could slow rulings in similar claims from 154 other death row inmates.

 Weeks, Cumberland County’s chief resident Superior Court judge, read a summary of his findings Friday in a courtroom full of people keenly aware that they were witnessing a landmark ruling.

 Robinson, wearing a white shirt and light-colored pants, sat at a table with his lawyers. The family of Erik Tornblom, the man Robinson killed in 1994, watched silently, though the disappointment showing on their faces spoke volumes. The family left the courthouse without commenting.

 Weeks said that “race was a materially, practically and statistically significant factor” in the selection of a jury for Robinson’s trial.

 Prosecutors, according to a Michigan State University Law School study, used peremptory challenges to remove blacks from juries more than twice as often throughout North Carolina as they used them for whites.

 In Cumberland County, it was almost three times as often.

 “When the government’s choice of jurors is tainted with racial bias, that overt wall casts down over the parties, the jury and the court to adhere to the law throughout the trial,” Weeks said. “The very integrity of the court is jeopardized when a prosecutor’s discrimination invites cynicism respecting the jury’s neutrality and undermines public confidence.”

 Effect on other cases

 Weeks’ findings that potential black jurors systematically had been left out of the process of capital cases in North Carolina and Cumberland County at the time of Robinson’s trial could play significantly in the cases of other death row inmates. Weeks said such decisions by prosecutors to strike African-Americans from potential jury pools undermined the courts and had a sweeping impact on the integrity and trust the community could place in the process.

 Only a few inmates on North Carolina’s death row did not file Racial Justice Act claims.

 The ruling, the first of its kind in this country, came two days before the 25th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that opened the door for states to adopt such laws as the Racial Justice Act.

 North Carolina and Kentucky are the only two states that have done so, though.

 The Racial Justice Act, which was narrowly adopted in 2009 along party lines, has been praised by supporters as a way to address blatant and subtle racism undermining the integrity of the state’s courts.

 Weeks had harsh words for prosecutors, saying the evidence presented earlier this year by Robinson’s attorneys was enough “to support an inference of intentional discrimination.”

 The judge and many of the defense lawyers and death penalty critics said they hoped the ruling Friday would mark the beginning of a new chapter in North Carolina justice.

 “We had hoped for this decision, we had worked for this decision. We thought the judge’s decision was powerful,” said James Ferguson, a Charlotte civil rights attorney who represented Robinson. “We know our work is not over, but we think this is a beginning.”

 District attorneys issued a statement strongly disputing that race is a significant factor in capital murder cases.

 Legal scholars and death row critics from across the nation have watched with interest as the Robinson case went through the courts.

 “The North Carolina legislation is a commendable attempt to do what the Supreme Court attempted to brush under the tablecloth,” said James Acker, a criminal justice professor at the State University of New York-Albany who is putting on a symposium this weekend about the death penalty and race. He was referring to the 1987 Supreme Court decision that opened the door for states to adopt laws that give judges the authority to consider statistics in racial bias challenges.

 Robinson, who has been incarcerated at Central Prison only with death row inmates since his conviction, will move to a general prison population. For the first time in years, he will be among those who are not awaiting execution.

 Shirley Burns, Robinson’s mother, described the moment as bittersweet. Her thoughts were with the Tornbloms, but she said the justice system should treat people fairly.

 “There’s justice at last,” Shirley Burns said. “You’ve got to treat people right. You’ve got to treat people fair. That’s what we depend on when we go through the system.”

 Blythe: 919-836-4948 |||||
What is a summary?

– A black inmate in North Carolina came off death row today thanks to a controversial new law in the state. A judge reduced the sentence of Marcus Reymond Robinson to life without parole after ruling that prosecutors purposely sought to keep blacks off his jury, reports the News & Observer of Raleigh. The landmark ruling is the first under the state's Racial Justice Act, and about 150 other death row inmates in the state have cases pending, notes AP. Among other things, the law allows the judge to take statistical patterns on race into account. In this case, Robinson's legal team showed that prosecutors rejected about 50% of potential black jurors and only 15% of non-black jurors. The jury ended up with only two black people. That disparity is enough "to support an inference of intentional discrimination," wrote the judge, according to the New York Times. Robinson was convicted of murdering a white teenager in 1994.