‘God’s Justice’ Suggested for Suspect

Former Nation of Islam firebrand spokesman Khallid Abdul Muhammad, suggesting disregard for the criminal justice system, testified Tuesday that the man who shot him nearly two years ago should not be sent to prison--but rather have his head cut off in accordance with “God’s justice.”

Muhammad made his remarks when asked whether he could identify James Bess as the man who allegedly tried to murder him as he was addressing a crowd at UC Riverside on May 29, 1994.

Bess, 51, is standing trial for the attempted murder of Muhammad, and in previous grand jury testimony, Muhammad identified Bess as his assailant.

But on Tuesday, after staring at Bess, Muhammad remarked: “I’ve looked at this person sitting here and I can’t really say that this is the man.”

“But even if he is the right man,” he continued, “I wouldn’t feel very good . . . sending him to prison. I would want him to be judged by the law of God. And the law of God’s justice would not be for him to sit in jail the rest of his life, but for his head to be taken from his body.”

Riverside County Deputy Dist. Atty. Bill Mitchell, apparently taken aback by Muhammad’s comment, asked, “The law of justice would proclaim that his head should be taken from his body?”

“According to God’s law,” Muhammad answered.

“OK,” Mitchell reacted. “Well, we’re dealing with the government’s law at this point.”

Muhammad repeated several times that he could not identify Bess as his assailant, and said he had no quarrels with Bess, whom he knew as a Nation of Islam minister in the Seattle area years ago before Bess was defrocked.

But Mitchell said later that he did not need Muhammad’s testimony, and produced two other witnesses Tuesday--a bystander and a free-lance photographer--who unequivocally identified Bess as the gunman.

Christian Levonne testified he saw Bess with a gun and was among those who jumped on him after the shots rang out. Photographer William Lewis said that after he saw Bess fire the gun, he took a series of pictures--which he showed the jury--of the crowd pouncing on Bess.

The shots struck Muhammad in the leg and injured five other people, none seriously. Bess sustained head injuries and a dislocated shoulder before police broke up the crowd’s attack and rushed him to a hospital.

Muhammad was suspended in 1993 as the spokesman for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan after verbally assaulting Jews, Arabs and whites.

Outside the courtroom, Muhammad said that whoever shot him should face consequences outside the established court system.

“I believe he should be judged by the God of the black nation and by a jury of his black peers, in the court of the streets. . . . The only justice for [the shooter] is death, for his head to be severed from his body,” Muhammad said.

Asked whether he was suggesting that street justice should be meted out to his assailant, he said, “I’m not counting on street justice, but God guiding the court of the street.”

Sylvia Graber-Pastrone, Bess’ public defender, contends that Bess hoped to meet with Muhammad and challenge him to tone down his racist rhetoric, and was framed by Muhammad’s bodyguards after someone else shot the minister.

Police later found Bess’ vehicle, with a scope-equipped rifle and ammunition in the trunk. Near the shooting site, police found a backpack containing two other handguns that the prosecution said belonged to Bess.

Bess was convicted of manslaughter in 1964 in Mississippi and he shot and killed his brother in Fresno in 1975 in what was ruled self-defense.