Supernatural Actus Reus -Reply -Reply

[Marie A. Failinger]

Another story we just got at a faculty colloquium today:  Dr. Buzzard, a
St. Helena (S.C.) island conjureman, got into trouble for tampering with
the cases in district court--it was reported that an unknown white powder
would be discovered on the prosecutors' chairs and desks, and witnesses
would suddenly "seiz(e) up in the middle of crucial testimony."  Sheriff
J.E. McTeer "fancied himself as somewhat of a psychic, and he knew the
rudiments of Gullah magic.  He vowed to end the conjureman's influence on
the court.  There was--and is--no law against hexing, even within the
hallowed halls of justice, even if the hexing resulted in death."  But Dr.
Buzzard was charged and fined for practicing medicine without a license.
Hexes and counterhexes flew until Dr. Buzzard's son was tragically killed
in a car accident; then Dr. Buzzard called a truce by bringing the sheriff
a peace offering of two live chickens.  He then taught the sheriff many of
his spells, so that the sheriff was eventually "able to extract
confessions from hardened miscreants with only a single fearful glance; to
reduce pistol-firing felons to quivering inaccuracy; and in a final
virtuoso performance, to hex an opponent's television campaign commercials
into incomprehensible snow and static."

Roger Pinckney, "Hoodoo that Voodoo," Charleston magazine (date?) p.
22-23.

 On Thu, 18 Dec 1997, Emily Hartigan wrote:

> Marie F. asks if I think the Hmong woman attempted murder.  I think it is
> something we should start to consider.  It is around in the margins, such
> as the Australian movie The Wave which portrays the aborigine "hex" as
> effective, and calls us to consider what it might mean to live in a world in
> which Enlightenment notions of cause are no longer sole sovereigns.
> Emily Fowler Hartigan
> St. Mary's Law School
> San Antonio, TX 78228
> 210-431-2273 (fax 436-3717)
>


Marie A. Failinger
Hamline University School of Law
mfailing at piper.hamline.edu