Beard Cutting Verdicts Upheld in Federal Court

From Cleveland.com:

CINCINNATI, Ohio — A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld the criminal convictions against more than a dozen members of an Amish community who orchestrated a series of beard-cutting attacks against its enemies.

A three-judge panel from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled that the 15 defendants who challenged their convictions did so too late. This is their second appeal and the arguments raised the second time around were waived because they weren’t brought up the first time, the opinion says.

If you missed hearing about this bizarre case which first made national news in 2011, here are some other posts on the events:

The Amish Beard Attacks
Are the Bergholz Beard-cutters a Cult?
Amish testify in beard trial
Some Amish want life sentence for Sam Mullet
Sam Mullet sentenced to 15 years
Donald Kraybill on Renegade Amish
Donald Kraybill on the hate crimes reversals

Sam Mullet, bishop and leader of the Bergholz, Ohio group, is the only one of the 15 convicted who remains imprisoned, serving a near-11-year prison sentence.

Mullet’s lawyer argues that the sentence was out of scale to the other punishments:

He said he is disappointed with the ruling and feels the judges did not recognize that Mullet’s sentence is disproportionately long compared to those in the case who were convicted of more serious offenses.

He said his client “pays the toll for everyone else’s conduct.”

Based on the fear Amish people have shown towards Mullet, many had to be glad for this news.

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    5 Comments

    1. Janice

      Beard cutting verdicts

      I have to wonder just how holy or spiritual any person who commits such crimes, can be? Yes, I know that even the Amish community has bad people, but still, how does anyone follow such a group of thugs without doing something about it? Since when does one Amish community fight another? When do they have the time???

    2. Amish Girl - Rebecca

      Janice, Please understand that this situation greatly horrified and saddened other Amish, too. This group though they identified themselves as Amish were considered more as a cult, by the way they conducted themselves. You will not find Amish communities fighting each other. This was a sad , hopefully, one-time happening. Believe me no one would ever have imagined such a thing happening. Most of his followers were his family or otherwise innocently led into the group and stayed , because of fear of retaliation. You should read the book about this. It greatly helped me understand the situation better. let’s hope and pray we never have to deal with anything like that again.

      1. Helen

        What is the name of the book regarding the beard cutting incident

        1. Mark -- Holmes Co.

          The title of the book is “Renegade Amish” by Donald Kraybill.

    3. Alice Mary

      Who knew that the Rolling Stones would be the ones to make my all-time favorite motto popular: “You can’t always get what you want…” It truly “fits” in many life situations, including this one.

      Alice Mary