Jim Zeigler - The Ten Commandments Monument

The Ten Commandments Monument

In 2003, a federal court judge ordered Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore to remove a monument from the state judicial building which featured the Biblical Ten Commandments, along with an assortment of historical documents which had served as bases for U.S. law. When Moore did not remove the monument, the other eight justices ordered it removed.

Thousands of citizens descended on Montgomery to protest the imminent removal of the Ten Commandments monument. Twenty-two Christian activists were arrested at the monument in the public area of the judicial building during public hours. They were charged with criminal trespass.

The "Montgomery Twenty-Two" retained Jim Zeigler as their attorney. Most later pleaded guilty and all avoided jail.

One of those who decided to fight the charge was Karen Kennedy of Prattville. Mrs. Kennedy was sitting beside the Ten Commandments monument in her wheelchair and connected to her oxygen tank when she was arrested and taken to jail.

She was found guilty by a district judge sitting without a jury. Zeigler filed an appeal for a jury trial in circuit court. Before the appeal came up, Mrs. Kennedy died. Zeigler said, "She has taken her appeal to a higher seat of judgment."