Question about judicial committee appeals

cognac

What do you think are the best ways to get the d'ffing overturned in the appeal? I read the flock book about it but wanted to find out if any of you had or heard of any experiences?

Also, the new elders book... Is it out in PDF yet?

lepermessiah

Hi Cognac,

In all my years as an elder, and with several friends being disfellowshipped and appealing, I have never seen a successful appeal.

The whole process is geared toward the elders - the original committee makes the decision, and once an appeal is submitted, the Circuit Overseer chooses an appeal committee. He typically selects 3 elders from the circuit and the appeal committee then gets to deliberate with the original committee before the appeal hearing. The appeal hearing has all 6 elders in the room, so the original committee has a great amount of influence. I recall one case I was on where I was on the original committee and once we filled the appeal committee on the details, there minds were made up even before the girl came in the room! (She had been living with a man out of wedlock, it was an "easy" JW case, but still, she deserved an unbiased hearing!)

Even in cases where there was certain elder bias against an individual, the appeal committee upheld the decision. Its very sad and even more humiliating for the poor person who is disfellowshipped.

OnTheWayOut

Flipper successfully appealed his DF and the only real success I have heard of is with lack of real evidence of a WT-defined sin- not having a confession nor 2 credible witnesses to the act. That allows the accused to simply deny the charges.

The problem with most appeals is that the accused may be able to make a case, but the elders on the appeal committee typically uphold the DF and say that the accused made some valid points but was not "repentant." It's like a catch-all.

Mad Sweeney

I doubt you could get off on a technicality but one possibility I noticed was in the CO letter on how to deal with suspected apostates. The elders are told repeatedly in that letter that they have to make extensive efforts to correct the thinking of the accused. Very rarely is this EVER done before they set up the JC and DF a guy. I doubt it would work but you could probably embarrass the original body/committee in front of their peers on the appeal committee by bringing out that they never did a damn thing to help you or save you from being misled; they just booted you. At least you'd show them up for the callous insensitive jackasses that they are.

blondie

I have seen 2 appeals succeed. The elders in both jumped the gun without adequate proof and were not able to supply any the second go round. In each case the CO inserted himself into the proceedings. It is rare but it does happen.