Colorado Mennonite investigator jailed for refusing to testify in death penalty case
Greta Lindecrantz sees her work in legal defense as opposing execution as punishment, her pastor said, so she doesn't want to aid the prosecution.
A district judge in Arapahoe County, Colorado, found Greta Lindecrantz in contempt of court and put her in jail on February 26 for refusing on religious grounds to be a witness for the prosecution as it sought to reconfirm a death sentence at an appeals hearing.
Lindecrantz is a member of Beloved Community Mennonite Church, in Englewood, Colorado, which is part of a tradition opposed to executions. Vern Rempel, the congregation’s pastor, said that Lindecrantz sees her work as an investigator with legal defense teams as “resisting the use of the death penalty.” In this case, the prosecution is compelling her to testify about her investigative work in the case of a man who has been convicted of ordering two murders, according to news reports.
Before her court appearance, Rempel counseled Lindecrantz and invited her to address the congregation about whether she would testify for the prosecution in any form.
