Shari Webber-Dunn, 49, has been in prison since 1995 after she was convicted of plotting to kill her husband
A practicing Wiccan who helped boyfriend kill her husband in 1994 is now suing the prison she’s being held in for ‘imposing Christian beliefs’ on her.
Shari Webber-Dunn, 49, has been in prison in Topeka, Kansas, since 1995 after she was convicted of plotting to shoot her estranged husband.
The American Humanist Association based in Washington DC filed the suit on her behalf.
The AHA suit says inmates’ constitutional rights were violated by the state government’s coercive religious atmosphere and pressure to participate in Christian activities.
Webber-Dunn claims the prison’s eight-foot cross, Christian-themed radio and television broadcasts, and housing units full of ‘proselytizing messages’ are a violation of the First Amendment’s establishment clause.
Webber-Dunn practices a branch of Wicca called Thelema. She is currently serving a 40-year minimum sentence at Topeka Correctional Facility.
She is suing the Topeka Correctional Facility (pictured) for violating the First Amendment by imposing ‘Christian propaganda’ on her. Webber-Dunn is a practicing Wiccan
‘Prisons are not exempt from the Constitution and prisoners do not lose the shield from state-sponsored religion provided by the Establishment Clause,’ David Niose, legal director of the American Humanist Association, said to the Topeka-Capital Journal.
‘Defendants’ actions, failures to act, and policies described above lack a secular purpose, have the effect of promoting, favoring and endorsing religion — particularly Christianity — over non-religion, and result in an excessive entanglement between government and religion, thus violating the establishment clause,’ according to the suit.
Webber-Dunn was convicted of aiding and abetting in first-degree murder and of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. Evidence at her trial indicated she wanted her husband killed to resolve a child custody dispute.
Her boyfriend Victor Bansemer shot her husband and killed him in 1994. Bansemer took a deal and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for his testimony against Webber-Dunn.
Webber-Dunn will not be eligible for parole until 2034.
Pictured: The symbol for Thelema, the branch of Wicca that Webber-Dunn practices