A judge and a murder defendant cross Bibles at sentencing.
Via Jonathan Turley, a woman and her cousin were convicted of the murder-for-hire of the woman’s husband. The families of all those involved in the case belong to a small community of Bukharian Jews in Queens. At sentencing, the cousin, Mr. Mallayev, asserted his innocence: “I didn’t kill nobody in my life…. I live by the Ten Commandments. You both laugh on that…. I feel comfortable with myself. I’m good in front of myself and in front of God.”
If Mr. Mallayev thought his religion had been disrespected by the judge and the prosecutor before, there’s no telling what he thought after Judge Hanophy in response quoted Jesus Christ and compared Mr. Mallayev to Judas Iscariot: “Mr. Mallayev, you took the 20,000 pieces of silver to murder Dr. Malakov…. You say you’re a religious man. There’s a man in the New Testament who says, ‘What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loseth his soul?’ ”
I think Judge Hanophy deserves a paycut. It’s a well-established principle, familiar to private schools with a religious affiliation, that the public purse is not to be used to pay for religious instruction. Where’s the ACLU when you need them?
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