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Man freed, case dropped in deadly 1994 stabbing of NYC woman

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New York: A New York man’s conviction was cleared after he spent more than a quarter-century behind bars for a deadly robbery, with prosecutors acknowledging witnesses against him – including a 10-year-old boy – weren’t reliable.

Jaythan Kendrick, 62, walked out of a Queens courthouse Thursday, free for the first time since his arrest in the November 1994 death of Josephine Sanchez, a 70-year-old woman who was stabbed twice in the back.

‘I´m very, very happy today because I never thought this would happen, although I hoped and wished that it would,’ Kendrick, 62, told the court.

‘I´ve just known one thing for the last 25 years: I did not commit this crime,’ he said. ‘Nobody really understands what it is to be in prison when you are innocent, and you know you´re innocent, and you´re behind that wall.’

Queens Justice Joseph Zayas apologized to Kendrick for what he called a ‘monumental’ miscarriage of justice.

‘It took way, way too long to discover, and you, sir, deserve better than that,’ the judge said as he overturned Kendrick’s murder conviction and dismissed the case. ‘We failed you.’

Kendrick, an Army veteran and former postal carrier who is also known legally as Ernest Kendrick, had been serving a sentence of 25 years to life after being convicted of fatally stabbing Sanchez in 1995 at the Ravenswood Houses in Queens.

His conviction rested mainly on the testimony of the 10-year-old – who had looked out at the crime scene from a third-floor window and identified Kendrick as the man he saw running away – and a second witness, a man who said he saw Kendrick running past him with a purse.

A black handbag was later found by police while searching Kendrick’s apartment, which he was sharing with a woman at the time, the New York Post reported.

But recent DNA testing – which wasn’t done at the time of the trial – showed there was none of the victim’s DNA on the purse, contradicting the idea that the bag belonged to her. Tests also found another man’s DNA, not Kendrick’s, under Sanchez’s fingernails.

The now-grown child witness, who had initially picked someone else out of a lineup, recanted his later identification of Kendrick in recent years. He admitted that he wasn’t able to see the suspect clearly enough to identify him at the time of the incident.

Kendrick’s lawyers raised doubts about the veracity of the second witness, noting that the witness had two pending criminal cases and incentive to give police the testimony they needed to arrest Kendrick, Freidman said.

Additionally, four other witnesses have since emerged with accounts that conflicted with the second witnesses’ testimony.

‘This is a textbook case of wrongful conviction exposing the worst flaws in our system,’ said Susan Friedman, Kendrick’s lawyer with the Innocence Project, which worked on his case with the WilmerHale law firm.

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said prosecutors now believe jurors would probably have acquitted Kendrick if they had heard all the evidence that’s now available.

In one of her first moves when she took office this past January, Katz created a Conviction Integrity Unit to review wrongful-conviction claims, and Kendrick’s soon became one of them.

‘This case is a prime example of why the CIU exists,’ she said in a statement Thursday.

Katz’s predecessor, Queens DA Richard Brown, had refused to consider the new evidence and insisted on Kendrick’s guilt. Brown died in 2019.

‘Too many police and prosecutors remain focused on securing and maintaining convictions at all costs,’ WilmerHale attorney Ross Firsenbaum said, while praising Katz’s office, according to the New York Post.

Firsenbaum donated his time to the Innocence Project to work on Kendrick’s wrongful conviction case.

Kendrick’s cousin, Clarence Hughes, spent the past 25 years advocating for Kendrick’s innocence, writing to the FBI, the Queens DA and ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show.’

‘The family is elated … Jaythan lost a lot of his family,’ Hughes said.

Hughes said that Kendrick’s mother and sister died while he was incarcerated, adding that ‘We don’t have that many of the family left.’

Kendrick told reporters that he was looking forward to a good meal now that he’s free – ‘Shrimp, flounder, lobster, crab, any of that’ – and said he’s looking forward to traveling and catching up on technology and other things he’s missed in prison.

‘As I was told, there´s a whole new world out there,’ he told reporters. ‘OK, let’s go.’

Kendrick’s advice to anyone who might find themselves in a similar situation as he was in, back in 1994, was: ‘I would tell them to ask for a lawyer, don’t say one word.’

He added that, ‘I trusted them, I trusted the police, I trusted they’d do the right thing and see that I was innocent. That was my mistake.’

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Christian Prayer App ‘Hallow’ Banned in Europe

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Europe — Alex Jones, CEO and Co-Founder of the Christian prayer app Hallow, took to X (formerly Twitter) yesterday, announcing that the European Union (EU) would no longer allow its citizens access to the app.

Jones explained that “over-regulation” targeting all religious apps would make it impossible for Hallow to be available in the EU. This news comes shortly after China removed Hallow from its app store in July 2024.

In his post, Jones expressed his heartbreak over the news as Hallow was in the works of expanding its content to Polish, French, Italian, and German audiences. Since its launch in December 2018, Hallow has seen more than 18 million downloads across 150 countries, making its worldwide reach and influence significant.

While the details of the app’s demise in Europe are sparse, some suspect that the EU’s strict data privacy laws are to blame. EU law classifies data that reveals religious or philosophical beliefs as “sensitive” data and prohibits processing such data without explicit consent, with a few limited exceptions.

However, some are preparing to defend the app. ADF International, an international legal organization committed to free speech and religious liberty, replied to Jones on X, encouraging him to “DM them with more details,” stating they “might be able to help.”

As Europe continues to see a decline in religious affiliation, with the Pew Research Center estimating that the continent’s Christian population could shrink by 100 million before 2050, the need for Christian prayer apps and religious content is considered by many to be more important than ever. As Jones shared on X in response to the EU’s actions, “God will not be outdone.”
Sources:persecution

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‘The First Time After 2000 Years’: Israel’s Biblical Red Heifers Attract World Attention

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Israel – In September 2022, the arrival of five red heifers in Israel caught the world’s attention. Now, more than two years later, those cows are being cared for in ancient Shiloh and continue to attract international visitors.

Moriah Shapira is the manager of the visitor center at ancient Shiloh. She told us why the red heifers are so important.

“Here in Shiloh for the first time after 2000 years, we have real kosher red heifers, which is really exciting,” she explained.

She added, “In the Bible it says when a person wants to enter the Temple, which is called the House of Life, he has to go through a process using ashes of the red heifer, meaning that the red heifers are actually the key to the Temple.”

Shapira described the process is for purification to cleanse someone from death.

So, a person that got in contact with death, either in a funeral, or in a hospital, and he wants to enter the Temple which is called the House of Life, full of the Presence of God, has to go through this process. And the process is – the priest used to take the ashes of the red heifer, mix it with water that comes from a spring – life water – he’s actually taking the source of death, mixing it with source of life, and these together become the purifying water,” Shapira explained.

Jewish tradition maintains that the red heifer ashes are needed to rebuild the Third Temple. Some Christians believe a Third Temple would pave the way for the end times.

Even Hamas reportedly blamed the red heifers in part for their invasion on October 7th, 2023, because of their belief that Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque would be in danger if the heifers were used to build the Third Temple.

The animals are also mentioned in the Book of Numbers, Chapter 19:

Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “This is the statute of the law which the Lord has commanded, saying ‘Speak to the sons of Israel that they bring you an unblemished red heifer in which there is no defect and on which a yoke has never been mounted. And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be brought outside the camp and be slaughtered in his presence.'”

For a heifer to be selected these qualifications must be met:
. Be an adult cow with reddish-brown hair
. No hairs of a different color
. No blemishes
. Never used for any other purpose

We were able to see the Heifers on our visit to Shiloh. Two have already been disqualified, but only one is needed to qualify for the purification for the Temple.

Larry Borntrager, a farmer from northern Indiana, takes care of them.

He told us, “My next point is to try to find a farmer who can make hay, which is, you know, the flowers and the leaves and everything stay on them. That way it’s just better for the cow.”

Borntrager admitted, “It’s just a lot of fun to be involved in something that I see God is doing behind the scenes.”

He says what he’s experienced since arriving here is remarkable.

“While I’ve been standing here at Shiloh, every continent, countries I’ve never heard of before, were here to see the red heifers. There’s something happening in Shiloh,” he observed.

Borntrager also believes it’s biblically significant.

“Ideas are becoming a reality. In other words, the idea of a red heifer has been in the Jewish understanding over a couple thousand years. But here at Shiloh, just like it says in Genesis 49, there’s something happening here that’s drawing the nations, and it’s the red heifers.

In this area, Hannah prayed for a son where the prophet Samuel served the Lord and Joshua divided the land between the twelve tribes.

Moria Shapira identified it as “the place where many stories of the bible occurred. And today we also have here the red heifers, which is something new,” she said. “The budgets for this visitor center stopped because of the war (with Hamas and Hezbollah). So we invite whoever wants to be part with us to help this very important thing of the red heifers.”

During our visit, Bible teacher Dr. Todd Fink brought his group to see the red heifers. “Shiloh has so much significance,” he said. “It was the spiritual capital of Israel for 369 years.”

“This is huge. This is huge,” he exclaimed. “And the one gal that we, that was giving us the tour, she said that part of the reason why Hamas invaded is because of these red heifers. And according to prophecy, these red heifers are significant. From the time of Israel’s history, they say that only nine have been killed for these ashes. And so for these to be here, and Shiloh here, and for that to fit in with what appears to be prophecy on the horizon, we’re living in monumental days, unbelievable times.”
Sources:CBN News

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Texas pastor rejoices with family of hostage released by Taliban: ‘It was God’s timing’

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Pastor David Theobald rejoiced with Ryan Corbett’s family in Texas as he returned home after being held captive by the Taliban for nearly 900 days. Theobald credited God’s timing for the safe release and joined the Corbetts in celebrating their long-awaited reunion.

Corbett, who was abducted in August 2022 while on a business trip and held by the Taliban for 894 days, reunited with his relatives in San Antonio, Texas, before planning to return to his hometown of Dansville in Livingston County, Spectrum News reported.

Corbett spent his first hours back on U.S. soil with close family members after his arrival early Wednesday morning. His family later issued a statement expressing their gratitude for his release and requesting privacy while he recovers from his prolonged detention.

Theobald, who leads Grace Baptist Church in the same community where Corbett’s father once served, described a lengthy period in which only a few individuals knew of Corbett’s initial capture.

“We had been walking with them through it for a year before they did that,” he said, referring to the day Corbett’s story became public. Theobald called the knowledge of Corbett’s situation a “huge responsibility,” explaining how church members kept the family’s struggle private until authorities made the case more widely known.

Theobald first met Corbett’s family 15 years ago when he took over pastoral duties from Corbett’s father.

The pastor said the church played an integral part in providing emotional support. “For months, the family fought in silence, only finding peace in the Grace Baptist Church community,” he told Spectrum News. He credited the family for staying involved in worship activities, noting that Corbett’s children sing, play instruments and assist in the sound booth.

Corbett’s wife, Anna, teaches violin and has also performed at church events.

Upon hearing about Corbett’s release, Theobald received a phone call from Anna. He said he could sense her joy “beaming through the phone.”

The pastor added, “I was just overwhelmed. I was trying to find words. I was trying not to ball like a baby. … I just rejoiced with her.”

Corbett’s release came as part of a swap in which an Afghan national convicted of drug smuggling and extremism in the U.S. was sent back to Afghanistan, according to Reuters.

The newswire cited a spokesman for the Taliban who said two Americans were released. The other American is William McKenty.

Corbett and McKenty were transferred through Qatar before returning home last week, CBS News reported.

Afghan Foreign Ministry officials said they had traded them for Khan Mohammed, who received two life sentences in a 2008 trial in the U.S., according to The Associated Press. Mohammed, 55, had been detained on the battlefield in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province and later flown to California, where he was found guilty of securing heroin and opium bound for the U.S. and, in doing so, aiding terrorist activities.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on social media platform X that the Taliban might be holding more American hostages than publicly known. “If this is true, we will have to immediately place a VERY BIG bounty on their top leaders.”

The International Criminal Court prosecutor has filed applications for arrest warrants targeting two Taliban leaders, including supreme spiritual leader Haibatullah Akhundzada. The charges concern the alleged persecution of women and girls in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, which occurred soon after U.S. troops withdrew from the country, ending two decades of conflict.
Sources:Christian Post

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