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Woody's Request for Sanctuary
Woody's plea for
political asylum
is entirely absent from
Sorrell's report.
Interestingly, every single one of the eyewitnesses recalled
Woody's request for sanctuary.
All but Donna recalled Woody using the word 'sanctuary',
Donna recalling his words 'political asylum'.
Eyewitnesses
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source:12/2 interview, p.1
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That he was in danger and he was in here to ah be in a protected place.
Wanted sanctuary in a church.
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source:12/2 written statement
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He put his head on the podium, he was very very agitated, ask everyone
to stay to offer him sanctuary.
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He said he was seeking sanctuary in this sanctuary.
He kept repeating it over and over again.
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The minister asked him to leave and he said
"no, I want to be in sanctuary" ....
He wanted us all to go in and be in sanctuary.
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In fact we did have, in the church in the 80s, from about
'84 to '94, we were a sanctuary for a husband and wife from El
Salvador. They did not stay in the church, we provided a place for
them to live, and eventually we had ten refugees from El Salvador. I
suspect that he was simply aware that a church was a place you could
get sanctuary. It doesn't work that way in this country anymore but
it worked that way for generations in England.
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source:12/2 written statement
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At some point he asked for sanctuary in our church.
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source:12/2 handwritten statement
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This sanctuary theme was repeated more than once and
I think he said something about having visited other U. churches. '
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There were times during his verbalizations throughout
that he would make statements to the effect that he was an okay
person and someone whom we should believe.
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source:12/3 interview, p.1
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He said that he needed sanctuary and that somebody
was after him and he was expecting that the congregation would allow
him, you know, to have sanctuary, to stay at the church. And he
demanded that we agree to agree to this and he wanted us as witnesses
and he wanted us to tell other Unitarian Churches to do the same for
either himself or someone else, I'm not sure.
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He read the entire piece, but I'm ... and it sounded,
it was making much sense and I'm not sure but it was ... it had
something to do with Unitarian churches having a history
of being a sanctuary.
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He was definitely unstable because he was stating that the police
were after him and there were these stories and he had threats on
his life and he had to ... we had to give him sanctuary ..
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And this fellow was in turn saying,
"I'm here because I need asylum,"
Some things he just kept repeating which were:
"I'm here because I need you to listen to me.
I need witness. I'm here because I need political asylum, .."
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And then he said he came to the Unitarians because he
knew the Unitarians in Connecticut and Massachusetts and he knew this
was where he could come for asylum. And he was still going on.
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He started talking and asking for sanctuary in this
Unitarian Church because we are known to give sanctuary.
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source:12/2 interview, p.2
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... and he was asking us for sanctuary as a Unitarian Church.
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source:12/2 interview, p.4
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He asked if anyone had a cell phone because he wanted to
verify the veracity of his statements and that he really was a good
person.
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He said he knew other Unitarians and he really felt we
were the ones to help him.
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He seemed to stress the environment, working for that,
but the next breath, and this took over, he said he had been
threatened, he received phone calls, the police were after him, going
to be tortured, and then he went on and on. He was coming here to the
sanctuary for protection.
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And what is ... what in general is he saying?
Um ... it ... he's mostly saying he wanted some sort of sanctuary,
thta he was um ... he was being threatened and ...
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He was here at this church for sanctuary, that people
were after him and he wanted the members of the congregation to
witness what happened to him.
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He said he was trying to get all Unitarian churches to
give him like amnesty or something.
He was trying to take refuge in the Unitarian churches.
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.. he said that he had message for us and he handed us ..
I have a couple right here, said that he had messages that he
wanted to get out to all the people and he was demanding to
have sanctuary in a unitarian church ..
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.. the man was asking for sanctuary for his life.
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page last modified: 2008-07-20
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