From the Huffington Post:
An East Tennessee serpent-handling pastor’s legal woes are over for now.
After a hearing on Wednesday (Jan. 8), a grand jury decided not to indict the Rev. Andrew Hamblin on charges of violating a state ban on possessing venomous snakes.
In November, state officials seized 53 serpents — including rattlesnakes, copperheads and exotic breeds — from the Tabernacle Church of God in LaFollette, Tenn., where Hamblin is pastor.
Hamblin and his church say the Bible commands them to handle the snakes in worship. They’ve been featured in a National Geographic television series, “Snake Salvation.”
But state law bans the possession of venomous snakes.
Officials from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency cited Hamblin with 53 counts of violating the ban. Each count carried a maximum sentence of almost a year in jail.
Hamblin argued that the ban violates congregations’ religious liberty.
He was thrilled by the grand jury’s decision.
“I’m ecstatic,” he said in a phone interview Wednesday. “All the headlines should read ‘Snake handlers have religious rights in Tennessee.’”
Hambin said he was allowed to address the grand jury for half an hour at the hearing. His defense was simple. The snakes weren’t his, he said. They belonged to the church, and Hamblin said the wildlife officials had no business raiding a church.
. . . Since 1947, Tennessee law has banned venomous snakes during church services or public settings. The state Supreme Court upheld that ban in the 1970s.
Matt Cameron, a spokesman for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, said its officers acted correctly in raiding Hamblin’s church.
Most of the snakes were in ill health when they were seized, said Cameron. More than half died since the raid, and the rest are being cared for at a Knoxville zoo.
That’s where they will remain, said Cameron.
“As far as returning the snakes — that is not an option,” he said.
State officials don’t plan to take any other action toward the church or Hamblin, said Cameron.
This falls short of establishing a free exercise right to handle snakes from what I can see. He doesn't get his snakes back. He's just not being charged with violating the law. No word on whether he can acquire venomous snakes for religious exercise, or whether the state can confiscate those snakes if he has them.
Here's more on the religious liberty issues raised by snake handing.
- Snake Handling and the Law.
- Tennessee: Where 'Religious Freedom' Frees Snake Handlers to Abuse Animals.
- SACRAMENTAL PRACTICES AND PROVISIONS.
Here's a you tube of Andrew Hamblin speaking after he was no billed.
