Jury continues deliberations in white supremacist's murder-solicitation trial

<br>CHICAGO (AP) _ Jurors deciding the case of a white supremacist charged with trying hire someone to kill a judge who ruled against him have asked to review the testimony of a former follower who said

Friday, April 23rd 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

CHICAGO (AP) _ Jurors deciding the case of a white supremacist charged with trying hire someone to kill a judge who ruled against him have asked to review the testimony of a former follower who said his leader asked him to carry out the deed.

Jon Fox, now a 44-year-old North Dakota farm worker, testified over two days that Matthew Hale in late 2002 asked him if he or anyone he knew could kill the judge and attorneys involved in a trademark lawsuit over Hale's use of a church name.

Fox testified that his response was ``no.''

Jurors were expected to resume deliberations Friday.

Hale, 32, is charged with two counts of soliciting the murder of a federal judge and three counts of obstruction of justice. He could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors say Hale was furious after U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow ordered him to stop using the name World Church of the Creator. Lefkow, who was never attacked, ordered Hale to stop using the name because it had been trademarked by an Oregon-based religious group, TE-TA-MA Truth Foundation _ Family of URI Inc. The group has no ties to Hale and disavows his views.

Fox said he left Hale's group and felt abandoned by fellow ``white racial loyalists'' after another Hale follower got his 13-year-old daughter pregnant. He also acknowledged he had been diagnosed in 1996 with bipolar disorder and that he considers Hale his enemy.

Jurors heard more than a dozen tapes of Hale using racial slurs, including one in which he laughs about a 1999 shooting rampage by one of his followers, Benjamin Smith, who targeted minorities and killed two people, including former Northwestern University basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong.