Birmingham Pastor On Trial In Tax Case

By Associated Press

BIRMINGHAM (AP) - The pastor of one of the larger churches in Alabama is going on trial on income tax charges.

Jury selection is set to begin today in federal court in Birmingham in the case of Gregory L. Clarke. Clarke is pastor of Birmingham's New Hope Baptist Church, which has about three-thousand members at two locations.

Clarke was indicted in March. He is accused of willfully filing false income tax returns for 2000, 2001 and 2002. The indictment accuses Clarke of owing $30,000 in taxes.

Sam McCord is an attorney for Clarke. He says the pastor filed all the appropriate tax returns for the three years.

More:
http://www.nbc13.com/gulfcoastwest/vtm/news.apx.-content-articles-VTM-2007-07-16-0002.html

http://edbrownextendedentries.blogspot.com/2007/07/tom-cryers-trial-summary.html

July 13, 2007

We the jury find the Defendant, Tommy K. Cryer.........
ON COUNT 1, NOT GUILTY
ON COUNT 2, NOT GUILTY



It should be noted that (with Mr. Cryer's trial notes in hand) at this point the U.S. Government (the IRS and the DOJ) did not make any effort to contest any of the content of Mr. Cryer's testimonial notebook, which was organized in such a fashion that anyone with experience in legal research could follow the line of reasoning that Mr. Cryer had used in order to arrive at his heartfelt beliefs.
The U.S. Attorney held up Mr. Cryer's 108-page Memorandum and cited one phrase coined from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that pointed out... that the income tax (Internal Revenue Code) is unconstitutional--expecting a "yes" or "no" answer. Mr. Cryer kindly directed the U.S. Attorney back to the Memorandum and stated that HE didn't say that the Internal Revenue Code was unconstitutional... but that the U.S. Supreme Court had held that AS APPLIED the income tax WOULD BE UNCONSTITUTIONAL!

"No further questions your Honor."

I thought it was the 16th amendment? I'm confused.

I am among them. As I understand it, the definitions of income in the IRC start out with something like "unless otherwise exempt" and that leads to the question of wages being income or fees paid for labor.