Prosecutor won't use domestic violence laws to protect gay people, calls Islam 'evil belief system'
A Tennessee district attorney is under fire after saying he won’t use domestic violence laws to protect people in same-sex marriages and making anti-Muslim comments.
More than 200 Nashville, Tennessee, lawyers signed an open letter asking for an ethics investigation of the prosecutor, Coffee County District Attorney Craig Northcott, report the Nashville Tennessean and the Washington Post.
The open letter cites Northcott’s statements on domestic assault prosecutions, made in 2018 to pastors on a recently unearthed video, as well as Facebook comments calling Islam an “evil belief system.”
The Tennessee Holler, a liberal publication, was first with both stories, here and here. The Huffington Post, Newsweek, NBC News and News Channel 5 also have stories.
In the 2018 video, Northcott said a domestic violence conviction carries enhanced punishment to recognize and protect the sanctity of marriage. Northcott said he disagreed with “the social engineers on the Supreme Court” who found a right to same-sex marriages. Because there is no marriage to protect in same-sex unions, he doesn’t prosecute assaults as domestic violence, he said.
“DAs have what’s called prosecutorial discretion,” Northcott said in the video. “We can choose to prosecute anything, or we can choose not to prosecute anything up to and including murder. It’s our choice. … To deal with that, you elect a good Christian DA.”
Northcott repeated his assertion about same-sex marriages in an interview with the Washington Post. “There’s no marriage to protect with homosexual relationships, so I don’t prosecute them as domestic,” he said.
In Tennessee, people can be prosecuted for domestic assault even if they were never married. The law says domestic abuse victims can include current or former spouses, people who live together or who have lived together, people who are dating or have dated, and people who are in or have had a sexual relationship.
Northcott made the statements about Muslims in a Facebook conversation. He asserted that Muslims’ belief system, Islam, “is evil, violent and against God’s truth,” and Muslims “are evil because they profess a commitment to an evil belief system.”
“There are no constitutional rights,” Northcott said at the conclusion of the Facebook conversation. “There are God-given rights protected by the Constitution. If you don’t believe in the one true God, there is nothing to protect. No one other than God has given us any rights.”
Northcott told the Tennessee Holler that he could be fair, despite his comments about Muslims. “There is a difference between ideology and the individual. I will judge each individual and each circumstance as I find them. They’re two separate things,” he said.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations has called for Northcott’s resignation. The CAIR has filed an ethics complaint with the Board of Professional Responsibility of the Tennessee Supreme Court citing the anti-Muslim posts.
08 - 2018 CTS - Craig Northcott - The Local Church’s Role in Government from Dean Bible Ministries on Vimeo.
