snake handling and evolution, jury nullification

Hensley himself, the founder of modern snake handling in the Appalachian Mountains, died from fatal snakebite in 1955.[3] In 1998, snake-handling evangelist John Wayne "Punkin" Brown died after being bitten by a timber rattler at the Rock House Holiness Church in rural northeastern Alabama The states of Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee have passed laws against the use of venomous snakes and/or other reptiles in a place that endangers the lives of others, or without a permit But: The practice is legal in the state of West Virginia. West VA, smokey mountains, idiot christians, take me home... Snake handling was made a felony punishable by death under Georgia law in 1941, following the death of a seven-year-old girl from a rattlesnake bite. However, the punishment was so severe that juries would refuse to convict, and the law was repealed in 1968