Miss. Judge Sends Lawyer to Jail for Refusing to Recite the Pledge
A Mississippi lawyer sent to jail for refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance has no hard feelings against the judge who sent him there.
Danny Lampley spent almost five hours in the Lee County jail Wednesday because he stood for a courtroom Pledge of Allegiance, but refused to say the words, according to WTVA.com, NEMS360.com and the Associated Press.
Court documents say Lampley refused to stand and say the pledge. Lampley told WTVA that stood with his hands by his side as others recited the pledge and that the judge, Chancellor Talmadge Littlejohn, then asked Lampley to individually recite the pledge. Lampley refused, and the judge held him in contempt.
Lampley said in the WTVA interview that he doesn’t hold a grudge. “Judge Littlejohn is very sincere. We have different world views, different viewpoints,” Lampley said. “What I am afraid is, … is he is resolved as I am resolved. I’d rather talk to him privately because I like him.”
Lampley said the incident wasn’t his first run-in with a judge over the pledge. In June he was asked to leave a courtroom in Corinth for a similar refusal.
