She watched a jury convict her kidnapper, the culmination of a long legal battle that featured Smart's calm, methodical testimony about the unspeakable things that Brian David Mitchell did to her during her captivity.
"The beginning and end of this story is
a woman with extraordinary courage and extraordinary determination," Acting U.S. Atty. Carlie Christensen told reporters after the verdict was read. Smart recounted her travails, Christensen said, "with a candor and clarity and a truthfulness that I think moved all of us. She is a remarkable young woman."
Later, Smart spoke to reporters outside the courthouse. "I hope that not only is this an example that justice can be served in America, but that it is possible to move on after something terrible has happened," she said.
The abduction of Smart petite, blond and a member of a devout Mormon family attracted worldwide attention and an outpouring of prayers for her safe return. The circumstance of her disappearance taken as her parents slept added to the horror, and her rescue prompted perhaps an even larger outpouring of relief and joy.
After five hours of deliberation, the jury found Mitchell, 57, guilty of transporting a minor across state lines for sexual exploitation and interstate kidnapping. He could face life in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced May 25.
Mitchell's attorneys never denied the allegations against him. "You do not have a good man here," Robert Steele, one of his lawyers, told jurors during closing arguments.
But his attorneys contended that Mitchell who said that God ordered him to abduct Smart and rape her was clinically insane and should not be convicted for his acts.
Prosecutors said that Mitchell, who had used an insanity defense to avoid a conviction in state court, was only play-acting. A gaunt man with an unruly gray beard, Mitchell regularly broke into song during the trial, which led to him being exiled to a cell, where he watched testimony via video. On Friday, as the verdict was announced, Mitchell sang a Mormon hymn called "He Died. The Great Redeemer Died."
Outside court, his stepdaughter, Rebecca Woodridge, who herself had been sexually abused by Mitchell decades ago, told reporters she thought his mental illness meant he could not be held legally responsible for his actions. "There's a difference from knowing what you're doing is wrong and continuing to do it, and knowing what you're doing could be wrong but not being able to stop it," she said.
On the night of June 4, 2002, Smart testified, she woke with Mitchell standing over her, a knife to her throat. He threatened to kill her family if she did not go with him. He took her from her family's Salt Lake City home into a canyon in the Wasatch Mountains, where his then-wife, Wanda Barzee, awaited them.
Mitchell took Smart as a "plural wife" and began raping her, telling her it was God's will and preaching a twisted version of Mormon theology. He and Barzee locked a cable around Smart's leg and chained it to a tree. She spent months living in primitive conditions, and was raped multiple times a day. As winter neared, Mitchell moved them to the hills east of San Diego.
In California, Mitchell was arrested for breaking into a church while high on prescription drugs. He didn't get out of jail for a week, and Barzee and Smart survived by drinking rainwater.
Smart's recounting of the California leg of their journey showed how, even then, she maintained her poise and wits. She used religion against her tormentor and told Mitchell that she thought God was calling them back to Salt Lake City, and he agreed to return there.
As she testified in a 2009 hearing on whether Mitchell should stand trial, she said, "California, I felt that was so far away. I felt that no one would ever find me. Even if it took 20 years to find me I thought the chances would be better in Salt Lake."
The tactic worked. Several weeks later, a biker spotted Mitchell and Barzee walking with a girl in a Salt Lake City suburb. By then Mitchell, who had done odd jobs for Smart's parents in the past, had been identified as a suspect in her disappearance.
Smart was with him, dressed in a wig and sunglasses. She testified that she was so scared of Mitchell she initially didn't identify herself to police when they picked her up.
Barzee and Mitchell were found mentally incompetent to stand trial by state courts and were held at a psychiatric hospital. Federal authorities took over the case and were able to get Mitchell declared competent at a federal court hearing last year. Barzee soon pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Now 65, Barzee testified against Mitchell, calling her ex-husband a "great deceiver." The two had spent years wandering the country as street preachers before the kidnapping.
Barzee, who along with Mitchell had belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said he manipulated her religious beliefs to get her to go along with the kidnapping. She testified that he had claimed to have had a divine revelation years earlier that God wanted him to take multiple brides.
Smart's testimony lasted for three days, but much of the trial was taken up by dueling experts discussing whether Mitchell was mentally competent.
Smart calmly sat through much of the trial, though she and her mother stormed out of court when one state psychiatrist testified that she had picked out baby names during her captivity in case she became pregnant.
After the verdict, however, Smart and her parents spoke triumphantly to a crush of reporters.
"This is an exceptionally victorious day for all of us," said Lois Smart, Elizabeth's mother.
Elizabeth Smart, who is on a break from her Mormon mission in France, said she hoped other victims of sex crimes and abductions would take heart from the verdict. "We can speak out," she said, "and we will be heard."
Until Mitchell's trial, Smart had remained largely out of the public eye and embarked on her mission work in Europe.
But last year she appeared on CNN to offer advice to Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was discovered 18 years after being kidnapped from South Lake Tahoe.
"I would just encourage her to find different passions in life and continually push forward and learn more and reach more for them," Smart said, "and not to look behind, because there's a lot out there."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-elizabeth-smart-20101211,0,7021671,print.story
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EDITOR'S NOT: Here's another related article:
Elizabeth Smart during an episode of "Larry King Live" May 4, 2006, in Los Angeles. Smart was abducted
on June 5, 2002. Nine months later, Elizabeth was found walking in a Salt Lake City suburb. |
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Smart's triumph may empower other victims
by Rosemary Winters
The Salt Lake Tribune
December 11, 2010
When Elizabeth Smart emerged from a federal courthouse Friday in Salt Lake City, she celebrated not only her own triumph but also the possibility of justice for all victims.
Eight years after Brian David Mitchell kidnapped her and subjected her to near-daily rapes, a jury found Mitchell guilty.
I am so thrilled to stand before the people of America today, said Smart, 23, and give hope to other victims who have not spoken out about what's happened to them.
Advocates for survivors of sexual violence say Smart's willingness to confront her offender under the nation's gaze will help empower other victims and dispel the stigma often associated with rape. |
Other observers say they have been inspired simply by her courage, poise and strength.
There is such shame associated with sexual violence, and to have it being talked about so openly and publicly is almost a relief to some, said Heather Stringfellow, executive director of the Rape Recovery Center in Salt Lake City. [Smart] held [Mitchell] accountable, and that's a very powerful message.
In Utah, 29 percent of women older than 18 have experienced some type of sexual assault, according to a 2007 survey by the Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice. One in nine sexual assault incidents is reported to the police.
Survivors often fear they won't be believed or that their own behavior will be questioned, said Alana Kindness, executive director of the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault.
I've been really impressed with [Smart's] candor and her ability to express herself and talk openly about her experiences, Kindness said. It does give an opportunity for people to see that you can talk about it and that you can talk about it and be supported.
After Smart began her testimony in Mitchell's trial on Nov. 8, detailing her repeated experiences of rape as a 14-year-old girl, the Rape Recovery Center saw a spike in calls and drop-in visits for a two-week period, Stringfellow said.
I hadn't anticipated the fact that so many people would be triggered by listening to her testimony and reading about the case, she said. We've been overwhelmed by calls to our crisis line and people who needed assistance because her experience reminded them of their own.
Mitchell's violence against Smart, an all-American girl, highlights how tragically common violence against girls and women is, said Theresa Martinez, a sociology professor at the University of Utah.
The way the family handled it, the way she handled it has given us a vision of healing, Martinez said. [Smart] can be a positive role model for young people. If such things are going to happen, people need to understand they can come through such an experience and survive.
Smart and her parents have not been advocates by example alone. Ed Smart has championed the creation of a national alert system for kidnappings and family preparedness to prevent child abductions.
In 2006, Elizabeth Smart and her father lobbied Congress to pass a law to create a national sex-offender registry. She watched President George W. Bush sign the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act into law.
In 2008, Smart shared her experience and words of encouragement in a booklet published by the U.S. Department of Justice, You're Not Alone, for survivors of abduction.
It is important to remember that just because something bad happened to you, it doesn't mean you are bad, Smart wrote. You are still entitled to every possible happiness in life.
Fifteen-thousand copies of the pamphlet were published. Nearly half a million digital copies have been downloaded online.
After Friday's verdict, Smart's mother, Lois, spoke of the power of mothers, women and daughters to move forward, leaving their offenders behind.
It is an exceptionally victorious day for us all, she said.
Since her abduction, Elizabeth Smart has graduated from high school, studied music at Brigham Young University and soon will return to serving an LDS mission in Paris, France. She has projected a calm and confident demeanor in her public appearances.
[Mitchell] could have totally ruined her life. Yet she had the strength to say, No. I'm going to define my own life,'? said Kalyn Denny, a Salt Lake City resident and retired teacher who has followed Smart's story. I can't imagine that any young girl wouldn't be totally in awe of her courage and her determination.
For Denny, 62, the day Smart was found and returned to her family on March 12, 2003, is burned in her memory. In the same way Denny remembers where she was when she heard about the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and John Lennon, she remembers the day another teacher hurried into her classroom at West Bountiful Elementary to share the remarkable news that Smart had been found alive.
We were both just so excited. Neither one of us could believe they found her, Denny recalled. I don't think brave even begins to convey the strength that [Smart] showed. She was just amazing.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50851353-76/smart-sexual-elizabeth-utah.html.csp?page=1
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