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Murdered Barrington Pastor's Husband Not Guilty by Reason of InsanityStaff reports
iBerkshires
02:56PM / Wednesday, May 27, 2009
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The husband of a beloved Great Barrington pastor was found not guilty by reason of insanity Wednesday morning of her 2007 murder.
Henry E. Dozier Jr., 65, has been been held at Bridgewater State Hospital, a medium security facility for evaluating and treating suspects and housing the criminally insane, since being charged with the murder of the Rev. Esther Dozier, then 65, on June 11, 2007.
Esther Dozier, the first woman pastor of Clinton AME Zion Church in Great Barrington, was found stabbed to death at about 6:30 a.m. on June 11 in couple's Railroad Street home. Henry Dozier, her husband of 42 years, was arrested in a Lenox parking lot, and taken to Berkshire Medical Center for possibly swallowing poison. He'd allegedly crashed his truck earlier that morning and walked away from the scene.
The couple were married in Clinton AME, where civil rights leader W.E.B. Dubois once regularly worshipped. Henry Dozier was also a deacon at the 139-year-old church.
According to the Berkshire County district attorney's office, he appeared before Berkshire Superior Court Judge John J. Agostini in a jury-waived trial on Wednesday.
He was found not guilty by reason of insanity on single counts of second-degree murder, leaving the scene of a property-damage accident and operating to endanger.
Agostini ordered him committeed to Bridgewater State for observation and evaluation. Dozier's case will be back in court on June 30, 2009 for an update on the evaluation process.
The investigation was conducted by members of the Great Barrington Police Department, state police detectives assigned to the district attorney's office and members of the state police Crime Scene Services Unit. |
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| Esther Dozier was my aunt. I have forgiven my uncle for this terrible crime, however, I can not believe you made a verdict of "not quilty" by reason of insanity. Don't you think "GUILTY" by reason of insanity would have been more justifiable. Not guilty is like saying he did not do it. Insane or not, he did it, and I do not think the verdict was right. Nothing will ever bring her back or erase the pain this has caused our family, but I think you made the wrong verdict. I also think he is still a danger to himself and others. | | from: Leigh Ransaw Best-niece in Alabama | on: 05-27-2009 12:00AM
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