US church fined millions for picketing military funeral in anti-gay protest
BALTIMORE, United States (AFP) — A US jury ordered an evangelical church Wednesday to pay nearly 11 million dollars in damages for picketing the funeral of a Marine killed in Iraq and claiming the war was punishment for tolerating gays.
The nine-member federal jury ruled that members of the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church caused mental suffering to Albert Snyder, who says he became depressed after they paraded outside the funeral of his 20-year-old son Matthew in 2006.
They waved signs reading "Thank God for dead soldiers," and "Fag troops."
A video of the protests was played in court during the week-long trial of Fred Phelps, who founded the church in 1955, and two of his daughters, Shirley Phelps-Roper and Rebekah Phelps-Davis.
Their lawyer Jonathan Katz said the funeral was a public event and their actions were protected by the constitutional rights to free speech and religious expression.
But the jury decided the church members should pay 2.9 million dollars in compensatory damages and a further eight million dollars in punitive damages, said Snyder's attorney Craig Trebilcock.
The church says the United States is losing troops because it tolerates gays, including in the military -- hence the many protests it has held at military funerals such as Snyder's.
The late soldier's sexuality was not an issue at the trial.
Church members say they have carried out similar pickets more than 30,000 times, but the Baltimore case was the first time they had been taken to court.
