Jury Awards Father $11M in Funeral Case

BALTIMORE - A grieving father won a nearly $11 million verdict Wednesday against a fundamentalist Kansas church that pickets military funerals out of a belief that the war in Iraq is a punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.

Albert Snyder of York, Pa., sued the Westboro Baptist Church for unspecified damages after members demonstrated at the March 2006 funeral of his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq.

The jury first awarded $2.9 million in compensatory damages. It returned in the afternoon with its decision to award $6 million in punitive damages for invasion of privacy and $2 million for causing emotional distress.

Finally there is some justice from the justice system.

How this group of hate mongers in Kansas can consider themselves to be "christians" is beyond me. The "christ" I studied when I was in Lutheran confirmation classes taught about love and turning the other cheek. These jackals are 180 degrees the opposite.

The most deplorable thing they did, of course, was to heckle those mourning the loss of their loved ones who had been killed in Bush's illegal war in Iraqnam. For that horrifically insensitive thing, they should have to pay much more than $11 million. But thats a good start.