A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Madison County man accused of setting fire to Mississippi’s largest synagogue early this year will undergo a psychiatric examination.
U.S. Magistrate Judge LaKeysha Greer Isaac granted a request from Stephen Spencer Pittman’s attorney, who wrote in a sparsely worded court filing last week that he believed Pittman is suffering from a mental illness.
“As such, the defense counsel believes this undefined mental disease makes the defendant unable to understand the nature of the proceedings against him or participate in possible plea negotiations,” Mike Scott, a federal public defender, wrote in the Aug. 20 motion.
Pittman, who usually goes by his middle name, has remained in jail since his arrest hours after the fire in the predawn hours of Jan. 10. He was swiftly indicted on state and federal charges after investigators said he broke into the Beth Israel Congregation synagogue in northeast Jackson, doused the lobby in gasoline and set it on fire. Security camera footage showed a person splashing a liquid inside the building’s lobby shortly before a fire ignited.
In state court, Pittman is facing an enhanced first-degree arson charge under a Mississippi law punishing “offenses committed for discriminatory reasons.” He has not been charged with a federal hate crime. But in February, federal prosecutors obtained a superseding indictment against Pittman, accusing him of targeting the historic synagogue “because of the religious character of the property.”
In an affidavit, an FBI agent in the Jackson division wrote that Pittman laughed as he confessed to his father and referred to the congregation as the “synagogue of Satan.”
Pittman comes from an affluent suburb of Mississippi’s capital city and attended a private Catholic school, where he was a multiyear honor roll student and varsity baseball player. But his friends and family noticed a change in his behavior in the months leading up to his alleged arson attack, according to court testimony and interviews conducted by Mississippi Today.
Weeks before the fire, Pittman allegedly began making antisemitic statements and behaving in such a way that the “family pets were afraid” of him and his mother was considering “locking their bedroom doors at night,” according to testimony from an FBI agent earlier this year.
The fire reduced the historic synagogue’s library and administrative offices to charred ruins and left smoke damage throughout the building, the same one the Ku Klux Klan bombed in 1967 for its rabbi’s support of civil rights.
READ MORE: Raw eggs, ‘Scripture-backed fitness’ and a Porsche: The online world of the man accused of burning Mississippi’s largest synagogue
Hence then, the article about alleged synagogue arsonist will undergo psych exam federal judge rules was published today ( ) and is available on Mississippi Today ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Alleged synagogue arsonist will undergo psych exam, federal judge rules )
Also on site :
- Absher carries out over 50 million electronic transactions in July
- Iconic NBC Comedy Starring Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin Set For 20th-Anniversary Reunion At Historic NYC Venue
- ‘Below Deck Med’ Fans Stunned as Max Takes Show From Yacht Drama to Crime Thriller: ‘What Is Happening?!’