Priests offer no-contest pleas after judge disallows torture evidence

Published: 2007-09-11

SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) -- Two Catholic priests arrested last November while attempting to deliver a letter denouncing torture at Fort Huachuca in Arizona entered no-contest pleas in the case after an Arizona judge agreed with a government motion to preclude evidence of systematic torture on the part of the U.S. military. The decision prevents defense attorney William Quigley, the lawyer for Jesuit Father Steve Kelly and Franciscan Father Louis Vitale, from presenting any evidence about the training of soldiers in torture techniques, the extradition of prisoners to countries known for torture, the defense of international law and the legality of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Father Vitale, 74, retired pastor at St. Boniface Church in San Francisco, and Father Kelly, 58, who worked with Redwood City's Catholic Worker community, both face charges in Tucson, Ariz., of trespassing at Fort Huachuca near Sierra Vista. Tucson Magistrate Judge Hector Estrada's order, issued Sept. 4, also denied a defense motion for a jury trial.

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