Update On Jan David Clark

You might remember Jan David Clark.

He's the Odessa, Texas man who killed his 59-year-old wife, Susan, while allegedly attempting to rid her body of a demon back in Feb 2008.

His murder trial concluded last week.

The good news (if anything in cases like this can be called good news) is that a jury convicted him after just 20 minutes of discussion.

It then sentenced him to life in prison after another 20 minutes of discussion.

He could have been sentenced to as little as 5 years.

As it is, it seems that other human beings are now safe from his attempts to exorcise Satan's minions from their bodies unless they happen to be unlucky enough to share a cell with him.

The bad news is that we can hardly dismiss his beliefs as those of a lone nut.

According to an Oct 19 story by Jim Mustian, 66 prospective jurors were interviewed before the trial began - and more than a dozen of them said that they believe in demonic possession.

That's about 1 in 5 adults in Ector County, Texas chosen at random for jury duty (or perhaps from a more selective list of registered voters).

Yikes!

How many are parents who might also end up believing that the best cure for their child's tantrums or autism or schizophrenia or homosexuality is a good old-fashioned exorcism?

How many might be spouses who think their own marital problems might be solved by simply beating the devil out of their life partner?

How many might actually be nodding in agreement with Rush Limbaugh's recent insinuation that President Obama is demonically evil?

The vast majority of us may now be safe from the madness of Jan David Clark - but when will any of us ever be truly safe from the madness of all those who share the same basic belief that apparently prompted his murderous behavior?