Accused Kansas City shooter opens trial with anti-Semitic allegations

(JTA) — The white supremacist on trial for murdering three people outside Jewish institutions in suburban Kansas City said in his opening statement that he plans to prove that white people are the victims of genocide at the hands of the Jews.

At his capital murder trial Monday in Olathe, Kansas, Frazier Glenn Miller said he will also prove that Jews control the media, and that he has photos and videos to prove his claims, the Kansas City television station KSHB reported.

Miller, 74, who is also known as Frazier Glenn Cross, is representing himself in the trial in Johnson County District Court. He is charged with murdering three people in Overland Park, Kansas, on April 13, 2014. None of his victims were Jewish. The crimes were committed outside a Jewish community center and outside a nearby Jewish assisted living facility.

During his opening statement, Miller also said to the jury, “If you believe that our people have a right to survive on the earth, and the right to preserve our heritage and our culture and Western civilization itself, and the right to ensure a safe future for white children, then I’m confident that your consciences and your love for our people will cause you to find me innocent of all charges.”

Judge Thomas Kelly Ryan interrupted Miller’s statement and sent the jury out of the room, telling Miller that his ideas about Jews are not relevant in this phase of the trial, according to Reuters.

“If I can’t explain why I did it, then I have no chance of being found not guilty,” Miller responded.

The prosecution in its opening statements, which preceded Miller’s, focused on the three victims: William Corporon and his 14-year-old grandson, Reat Underwood, and Terri Lamanno. The prosecution also noted that in a phone call to a friend six months after the shooting, Miller said, “I did it and I’m proud of it. I planned it, I plotted it, I schemed it.”

If convicted, Miller could receive the death penalty.