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Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2003

Attorney General Bill Pryor, whose office is prosecuting Moore, has asked the Court of the Judiciary to remove the chief justice for "Moore's sensational flouting of a valid federal injunction."

About 100 supporters of Moore gathered on the sidewalk and plaza outside the judicial building Wednesday, some carrying "Save the Ten Commandments" signs. As he arrived, some women held small children up to get a glimpse.

Remaining defiant as he entered the court building, he said the monument properly acknowledged "almighty God" and that a federal judge's order to remove the marker was unlawful based on "state sovereignty."

"I've done nothing wrong," Moore said, adding that he wished cameras would be allowed inside the courtroom.

In his opening argument, defense attorney Jim Wilson said that U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson's order to remove the monument was invalid.

"Justice Moore had every legal right to decline to obey what he deemed as an illegal order," Wilson said.

Prosecutors rested their case after about an hour, most of which was spent entering evidence. They called no witnesses, but played two videotapes depicting speeches Moore gave on Aug. 14 and Aug. 21. Moore's attorneys objected to the playing of both tapes, saying their contents already were included in written evidence.

In the Aug. 14 speech, which Moore gave six days before Thompson's deadline to remove the monument, he said he had "no intention of removing the monument."

"This I cannot and will not do," he said.

Moore moved the 5,300-pound granite monument into the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building the night of July 31, 2001.

Some groups filed suit, and Thompson, calling it an unconstitutional promotion of religion by government, ordered the monument moved.

A federal appeals court upheld Thompson's order. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Moore's appeal.

The monument stayed, the deadline passed, and Moore was suspended with pay by the Judicial Inquiry Commission, which charged him with violating the Judicial Canons of Ethics. The monument was moved to a storage room.

It would take a unanimous vote to remove him from office halfway into his six-year term. He could also be reprimanded or suspended.

Moore's attorney Terry Butts said the verdict could come quickly.

"We've prepared the chief justice for the worst," he said.

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