Pastor gets life sentence for third sex-related conviction
Pastor Dale Morgan
Pastor gets life sentence for third sex-related conviction*
03:26 PM CST on Saturday, March 10, 2007
Associated Press
BATON ROUGE -- A state court judge sentenced a minister to life in
prison Friday after the Rev. George Spears' third conviction for a
sex-related crime.
Judge Todd Hernandez said he had received 62 letters on behalf of
Spears, whose conviction last year for indecent behavior with a juvenile
triggered a state law mandating life in prison without parole for
habitual offenders.
But the defense argued that law shouldn't apply in Spears' case because
his earlier convictions involved the same girl. Spears, a pastor at
Cornerstone Ministries, pleaded guilty in 1991 to carnal knowledge of a
juvenile and again later to the same charge.
Spears' attorney, Michele Fournet, said a life sentence is cruel and
unusual punishment and that Spears is not a "pedophile," as a prosecutor
had painted him. A hearing was set for May 17, after Fournet made a
motion to reconsider the sentence.
"Having this man die in Angola, because he had two relationships with
teenaged girls over a 10-year period, isn't just," she said.
Authorities said Spears, 44, began a sexual relationship with a
16-year-old girl in his congregation whom he'd been counseling.
The courtroom Friday was filled with Spears' supporters; some in the
crowd cried when the sentence was read.