Neo-Nazi Alex Linder Comes to Convicted Killer鈥檚 Defense
Neo-Nazi Alex Linder took the stand in a Kansas courtroom Tuesday, attempting to assist his friend and fellow racist Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. avoid a ticket to death row.
Miller, just convicted of killing three people last year outside two Jewish facilities in Overland Park, Kan., apparently is attempting to convince the same jury in the penalty phase that his hatred of Jews drove him to commit capital murder.
The 74-year-old former KKK leader from North Carolina and one-time leader of the White Patriots Party called Linder as a penalty-phase witness, but the 49-year-old former member of the racist National Alliance only was able to provide limited testimony.聽
Like Miller, Linder blames Jews for almost everything, including what the fellow anti-Semitic racists view as the decimation of the white race.
Miller and Linder apparently thought they could turn the penalty phase of Miller鈥檚 murder trial 鈥� where the jury will decide on either the death penalty or life in prison 鈥� into an anti-Semitic soap box in a public courtroom.
But Johnson County District Judge Kelly Ryan would have none of that. When Assistant District Attorney Chris McMullen raised various objections to Miller鈥檚 line of questions to Linder, the witness continued addressing the jury from the witness stand.
The judge admonished Linder to stop talking when objections were raised, telling him this is 鈥渘ot a soap box. This is not a demonstration. This is not a speech,鈥� Kansas news station reported.
Linder, who was threatened with ejection from the courtroom for his uncontrolled outbursts from the stand, described the convicted killer as 鈥渁 man of my own thinking鈥� and 鈥渁 good man,鈥� the reported.
The judge reminded Linder he was in a court of law and not a forum. Linder responded, 鈥淵ou have the power, but Miller and I have the authority,鈥� the Kansas station reported.
During cross-examination by the prosecution, Linder testified that his admiration of Miller wasn鈥檛 changed after he was convicted Monday of murdering three people who he mistakenly thought were Jewish.
When McMullen asked if Linder condoned the killings on April 13, 2014, Linder responded, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to answer that.鈥�
The prosecutor said he was asking a simple 鈥測es-or-no鈥� question, but Linder still refused to answer, saying he would only if given an hour to fully explain his reasoning.
Earlier, the assistant district attorney described Miller, also known as Frazier Glenn Cross Jr., as a 鈥減roud and remorseless killer鈥� who deserves to be executed for the murders he committed.
The prosecution only called one witness during the penalty phase, a detective who testified about a flyer promoting a teen-age singing competition at the Jewish Community Center the day the shootings occurred. A copy of the flyer was found in Miller鈥檚 car after he was arrested.
Miller, acting as his own attorney, began the penalty phase by taking the stand, rambling on uninterrupted about his anti-Semitic belief that Jews control the government, banks and the media. Occasionally chuckling, he told the jury those life-long beliefs 鈥渞attled his cage鈥� and 鈥渕ade him want to do something about it,鈥� the Springfield newspaper reported.
Miller called himself a 鈥減atriot鈥� and said it was his duty to stop genocide against the white race by carrying out the killings, which he described as 鈥渞ighteous鈥� and 鈥渉onorable.鈥�
The shootings, on the eve of Passover, claimed the lives of William Corporon, 69, his 14-year-old grandson, Reat Griffin Underwood, at the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, and Terri LaManno, 53, at the nearby Village Shalom retirement center. None of the victims were Jewish.
