Former radical goes on trial in slaying

Former radical goeson trial in slaying
ATLANTA -- A sheriff's deputy testified Tuesday that the 1960s radical once known as H. Rap Brown was the man who shot him and another officer as they tried to serve a warrant nearly two years ago.
Brown, now a 58-year-old Muslim cleric who changed his name to Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, is on trial on charges of murdering one Fulton County deputy and wounding another. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Defense attorney Jack Martin contended that Al-Amin is a victim of mistaken identity and shoddy police work.
Deputy Aldranon English, the first witness in Al-Amin's capital murder trial, wept as he recounted the night he and his partner, Deputy Ricky Kinchen, were shot in March 2000.
English testified that the deputies were looking for Al-Amin for failing to appear in court on minor charges.
Man helps police findsuspects in son's death
PHENIX CITY, Ala. -- Buried alive under a foot of dirt and bleeding from a throat wound, Forrest "Butch" Bowyer wouldn't give up. Not with his son's killers still on the loose.
So Bowyer, 54, clawed his way to freedom, flagged down a car and helped police arrest the men he said dumped him and the body of his son in the same shallow grave.
Based on Bowyer's information, two men were captured and charged with murder Monday.
Bowyer underwent surgery and was expected to recover.
Michael David Carruth, 43, and Jimmy Lee Brooks Jr., 22, are charged with capital murder and could be sentenced to death if convicted of fatally shooting Bowyer's 12-year-old son, Brett.
The two men also face charges of attempted murder, robbery and kidnapping, officials said. Both were being held without bond, Sheriff Tommy Boswell said Tuesday.
The men targeted Bowyer for a robbery and kidnapping because he owns a used-car lot and has a reputation for carrying large amounts of cash, Boswell said.
The men reportedly forced Bowyer and his son into a car and drove about 20 miles south of town to an area where a highway is being widened. After Bowyer gave them money, the men slit his throat and shoved him into a grave they had dug about 18 inches deep, Boswell said.
Bowyer gave officers a description of the men's automobile, which Boswell said was stopped with Carruth at the wheel early Monday. Brooks was captured later Monday in neighboring Lee County.
Presbyterians maintainban on gay clergy
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Conservatives in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) killed a proposal Tuesday that would have allowed gays to hold positions of authority within the denomination.
The conservatives won the support of a majority of the church's regional legislatures, thereby thwarting an effort to lift a 1997 ban on the ordination of noncelibate gays.
Church law says that clergy and lay officeholders must "live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness."
The church's General Assembly voted last summer to recommend a reversal of that law. Since October, the church's regional legislatures, known as presbyteries, have been voting on whether to repeal or keep the ban, with a decision requiring agreement by a majority, or 87 of the 173 presbyteries.
Conservatives got an 87th vote in favor of the ban on Tuesday. It was cast by the Presbytery of South Louisiana, said Jerry VanMarter, director of the Presbyterian News Service.
Wouldn't clone humans
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- The scientist who cloned Dolly the sheep says he's not interested in making a human copy because such a person wouldn't feel free to live however he or she wished.
"I haven't heard a reason I'd support for copying a person," said Ian Wilmut, who is spending this week at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for a series of lectures.
The problem, Wilmut said between lectures Monday, is that people would expect clones to act just like the people whose genetic code they carry. "No one should be expected to be anything," he said.
But Wilmut, who has spoken out against human cloning before, said he sees promise in the potential use of cloned human embryos to treat illnesses such as Parkinson's or cystic fibrosis, or find their causes.
"These are pretty unpleasant conditions," Wilmut said. "So let's get started."
Associated Press