Murder case puts religion on trial
Man’s defense in death-penalty case: Scientology made him do it
PRESCOTT — He stands accused of using a hatchet to bludgeon his sister-in-law and her boyfriend to death and setting the house on fire to destroy any evidence. In a bid to escape the death penalty, he is trying a novel defense:
Scientology made him do it. Kenneth Wayne Thompson is not arguing that Scientology turned him violent in March 2012. But he is saying his belief in the religion of Scientology helps explain his actions. In particular, he says, his devotion to Scientology’s tenets led him on a 24-hour plus drive from his home in rural Missouri to the eventual murder scene in Arizona.
Prosecutors say the marathon drive helps
show Thompson committed the crimes with premeditation, an element of the first-degree murder convictions they are seeking. On each, the state of Arizona will ask for the death penalty.
Thompson’s attorneys will argue to the jury that the act was rational, if understood through the lens of Scientology. Thompson felt he needed to rescue a child, a nephew to his wife, because the boy’s spiritual well-being was at risk.
Neither the boy nor his sister was in the house at the time of the killings.
Raising the defense will make the Scientology belief system part of the court case.
Attorneys for Thompson have already subpoenaed records from the Florida-based church. They have also asked for testimony from Scientology experts, including the actress Leah Remini, who has produced documentaries critical of the religion.
The defense has listed the Scientology “tone scale,” a chart that purports to diagram all human emotions,among its evidence.
Potential jurors were asked their thoughts about the religion. Tom Cruise’s name was mentioned during opening arguments.
Prosecutors had tried to get the judge to disallow the Scientology defense. In a brief filed before the trial began, the state said followers of any religion believe the theology to varying degree and it would not be clear to what extent Thompson hewed to Scientology’s.
Prosecutors also warned that the trial risked veering down a Scientology rabbit hole.
“Presentation of evidence would have to be proceeded by a complex explanation of exactly what ... followers of Scientology believe,” prosecutors wrote in a March 2018 argument to the court.
Yavapai Superior Court Judge Patricia Trebesch, who is presiding over the proceedings, ruled in January that the Scientology defense would be allowed.
The role of a religion
Scientology was developed in the 1950s by L. Ron Hubbard, then a science-fiction writer. The first meetings of Scientologists were held at Hubbard’s home at the base of Camelback Mountain in Phoenix.
The religion is based on humans being able to achieve spiritual growth by walking a set path and reaching particular milestones. Critics of the religion say those milestones come with a hefty price tag that involve buying books and paying for sessions of introspection called auditing.
In opening arguments last week in Prescott, Kenneth Thompson’s defense attorney, Robert Gundacker, asked the jury to see the events that led to the killings through the eyes of Thompson, a devoted Scientologist.
Thompson became a Scientologist as a child, the attorney said, following his mother’s marriage to a devotee.
Gundacker told the jury that Thompson had heard that his wife’s nephew was undergoing mental health-related treatment, which was anathema to his beliefs as a Scientologist.
“One of the central tenets, and it was core to the whole wider system of beliefs, is that psychology is evil, probably the most evil thing on planet earth,” Gundacker told jurors. “Think back to Tom Cruise.”
Cruise, the movie actor and Scientologist, famously railed against psychology during an interview on NBC’s “Today” show in 2005.