He also has ocean front property in Arkansas for sale. Update to this previous story.
Via Arkansas Democrat Gazette:
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen said Wednesday that he was portraying a crucified Jesus on Good Friday as he lay strapped on a cot during a death-penalty protest outside the Governor’s Mansion.
Griffen also said a judicial ruling he issued Friday was about property ownership, not capital punishment.
A photograph distributed by The Associated Press of Griffen lying on the cot showed protesters standing beside him with signs reading “Abolish Death Penalty” and “No!! Executions.”
Earlier that day, Griffen had effectively blocked a series of executions planned in Arkansas when he issued a temporary restraining order that prevented the prison system from using one of three drugs — a paralytic — scheduled for use in lethal injections scheduled for this and next week.
The Arkansas Supreme Court later overturned that order and stripped Griffen of his authority to preside over any death-penalty cases. The high court’s decision also has led to an ethics investigation by a state judicial commission.
However, another judge on the 6th Circuit intervened Wednesday along the same lines as Griffen.
Some people had interpreted the photograph of Griffen on the cot as his portrayal of a prisoner lying on a gurney and awaiting execution, not that of Jesus.
The Bible speaks of Jesus being carried away for burial but does not say if a gurney, a donkey or other method was used to move the body.
Griffen was presiding over a trial in court and did not return several messages seeking comment Tuesday or Wednesday. But in a personal online blog, Griffen, who also is a Baptist preacher, described his Good Friday portrayal as a spiritual one.
He wrote that he attended the vigil with other members of the congregation where he preaches, New Millennium Church. “They led other persons in singing This Little Light of Mine and Amazing Grace, songs long associated with the religion of Jesus,” he wrote.
“So because I am a follower of Jesus and a citizen of the United States and Arkansas, I portrayed a dead person — the Jesus who was crucified by the Roman Empire on what we call Good Friday — by lying motionless on a cot in front of the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion,” Griffen wrote. “The hat shown … in photographs of my prone figure covered a black leather bound King James Version of the Bible, the book that my parents taught me to read and love as a child.”