On Oct. 4, Pope Francis published his third papal encyclical, Fratelli Tutti. Like all titles, Fratelli Tutti is revealing. Not only does it allude to the writings of the Pope’s namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, it also previews the themes…
Arkansas Supreme Court declines to prevent pastor/judge from hearing attorney general’s cases
The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday refused to bar a Little Rock judge from handling cases involving the office of the state attorney general who in 2017 got him removed from execution cases after he demonstrated against the death penalty in his extrajudicial role as a Baptist pastor.
Arkansas Supreme Court, Attorney General, continue to tangle with pastor/judge
The Arkansas Supreme Court won’t restore the authority of a circuit judge who also serves as pastor of a Baptist church to decide death-penalty cases, and the state’s top lawyer wants him barred from any civil cases involving her office in separate but intertwined controversies that began with a prayer vigil protesting capital punishment on Good Friday in 2017.
Arkansas Supreme Court refuses to step down from case challenging its own ruling against anti-death penalty judge
Justices of the Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday refused to recuse themselves from a case claiming they improperly barred a Little Rock judge from hearing death penalty cases because he exercised his religious liberty by attending a execution vigil in his other role as a Baptist pastor.
Clergy ask Texas to end policy banning chaplains from execution chamber
Interfaith clergy, including leaders in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, released a statement July 23 calling on the state of Texas to drop its ban on prison chaplains from its execution chamber, imposed after the United States Supreme Court ruled that the state could not execute an inmate without allowing a Buddhist chaplain to be in the room at his time of death.
Judge Wendell Griffen wants power to hear death penalty cases restored
An Arkansas judge cleared of ethics charges stemming from his participation in an anti-death penalty demonstration two years ago has petitioned the state’s Supreme Court to restore his power to hear and decide capital cases.
Report: Ethics complaint against anti-death penalty pastor/judge dismissed
The Arkansas state Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission has dismissed an ethics charge against a judge who also is a Baptist pastor for participating in an anti-death penalty demonstration on Good Friday 2017.
Pastor, judge, activist, agitator: As he strives for justice, Wendell Griffen stretches the lexicon of adjectives
Wendell Griffen, 66, is all of these things. But his persona is so large, his reputation so loud, his “rightness” so locked in and eagerly defended, that the man’s depth can be lost in the shallows in which he must wade.
Racially diverse church occupies campus where Baptist pastor once proclaimed racist views
In one of life’s delicious little ironies, New Millennium Church now meets on the campus associated with one of Little Rock’s most ardent racists of the 1950s.
Photo Gallery: Wendell Griffen
View the photo gallery of Wendell Griffen.
Supreme Court denies appeal to pastor/judge barred from death penalty cases
The United States Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to take up the case of an Arkansas judge claiming civil rights violations based on religious beliefs he exercised in his other job as a Baptist pastor. Without comment, the high court…
Panel says Arkansas Supreme Court justices violated ethics by removing pastor/judge from death penalty cases
A state government commission tasked with investigating claims concerning the ethical conduct or disability of judges on Thursday filed formal charges against six members of the Arkansas Supreme Court for their handling of a case involving a Little Rock judge…