The Church Punishment

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Discretion is it vised ten minute murders. In October of two thousand and three,

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a little boy died in Atlanta.
His parents, Sonia and Joseph Smith,

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called nine one one from their family
home, telling the operator that their

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son, eight year old Joseph Junior, was unresponsive. According to Joseph Senior,

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he'd gone to pick Joseph Junior up
and noticed that the child was extremely

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sweaty and warm and he wasn't waking
up. Believing that his son might have

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just gotten to hot, he carried
him to the homes car port and laid

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him on the cool concrete floor,
hoping that that coldness would revive him.

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When Joseph Junior remained unconscious, Joseph
Senor called for the ambulance. Cobb County

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first responders arrived at the scene,
where they found Joseph Junior lying flat on

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his back. He was not breathing, and they couldn't find a pulse.

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He was rushed to the children's hospital, where the staff desperately tried to save

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his life, but they were unable
to revive him. The following day,

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he was pronounced dead, but it
was immediately clear to the medical staff that

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Joseph Junior had not died because of
overheating or any other natural cause. He

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had passed away as the result of
severe, long term physical abuse. Joseph

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Senor and Sonia admitted that they'd sometimes
physically punished Joseph Junior, including locking him

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in a closet alongside a picture of
g and forcing him to pray for long

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periods of time, but they denied
that they'd ever severely physically abused him.

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The Smith's definition of severe abuse was
questionable. Under the guise of discipline,

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they would hit Joseph with belts,
glues, sticks, and coat hangers.

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Sonia said that a usual punishment session, the child being punished would receive ten

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blows at a time. Sometimes his
older brother would be ordered to hold Joseph

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Junior down to prevent him from running
away or shielding himself. They didn't just

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lock him in a closet for a
few minutes. They would bind his hands

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together with rope and keep him in
there for hours or even days at a

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time. During these periods of imprisonment, Joseph had no food, no water,

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and he was given a bucket to
use if he needed to go to

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the toilet. On the day that
the nine to one. One call was

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made. Joseph had been disciplined multiple
times by his father, who had beaten

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his stomach with a glue stick.
Later, Joseph Juran came back a dark

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brown color, and he began complaining
about having a sore stomach. When Joseph

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Senior took a break from the discipline
to have a shower, Sonia took over,

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beating Joseph Junior with the glue stick
hard enough to draw blood even through

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his clothes. Their oldest son then
forced Joseph into a small wooden box while

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still beating him, and then Sonia
wrapped an extension cord around that box so

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that Joseph could not escape. It
was only after Joseph Senior finished his shower

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and tried to let his son out
of the box that he realized that he

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was not breathing. One of the
police officers who arrived at the crime scene

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later reported that shortly after he arrived, Joseph told him quote, I'm not

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going to lie to you. He's
bruised. In December of two thousand and

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three, Sonia and Joseph Senior were
arrested for Joseph Junior death, and they

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might have been accused of horrific child
abuse and murder, but they still had

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a loyal group of supporters, and
none were more loyal than their church.

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For the past three years, the
Smiths had been regular members of the Remnant

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Fellowship Church. It was a fairly
new church founded by author and dietitian Gwen

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Chamblin in nineteen ninety nine. The
Remnant Fellowship's original followers were all people who

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had signed up for way Down Workshop, a popular Christian diet and weight loss

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program that Gwen started in nineteen eighty
six. Gwenn's program was highly controversial and

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her book The Way Down Diet,
she taught her readers to use Christianity as

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a weight loss method by attempting to
transfer their love of food into the love

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of God. She also received a
lot of criticism for attaching the label of

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christian to a weight loss business,
and the finances behind her business were put

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under inve instigation in two thousand and
one. But despite the controversy, the

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Way Down Workshop was incredibly popular.
By late nineteen ninety eight, it had

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over two hundred and fifty thousand participants
across the United States, Canada, and

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Europe. It meant that By the
time Gwynn decided to found the Remnant Fellowship

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Church, she already had a large
group of loyal followers. People who have

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since left the Remnant Fellowship Church claimed
that corporal punishment of kids was a regular

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discussed topic in church teachings about how
to correctly discipline a child. The church's

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website contained a collection of testimonies from
those who had been helped by their teachings,

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and one of the testimonies included details
of how the church had encouraged them

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to punish their children. Quote I
was hesitant and sometimes refused to properly discipline

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my children because I didn't want to
hurt them or have them hate me,

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the testimony read, going on to
claim that the member was now comfortable disciplining

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their children to save their souls from
hell, rather than being concerned about their

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flesh. The leaders of the church
did not deny that they approved corporal punishment,

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but insisted that they let parents decide
how to discipline their own children,

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and that the church believed that hitting
a child should only be a last resort.

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Soon after Joseph Junior's death, the
church purchased two web domains related to

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the case. The Smiths are Guilty
dot com and the Smiths Are Innocent dot

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com. If anybody googled the case
and clicked onto the Smiths Areguilty dot com,

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they were instantly redirected to the Smiths
Are Innocent dot com, a website

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which the Remnant Fellowship dedicated to proving
that Joseph Senior and Sonia had never abused

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their son. The website's intro currently
reads, Joseph Smith Senior and Sonia Smith

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have been accused by the police as
abusers within four minutes of a nine on

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one call placed frantically in October two
thousand and three, as their son lay

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dying of a fast acting infection and
septic shock as the child abuse seeds were

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planted. Throughout the investigation that followed
Young Joseph Smith's untimely death, the media

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frenzy began after Young Joseph's autopsy.
The Cobb County Medical examiners concluded that the

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child had died because of a combination
of acute and chronic abuse, but they

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were unable to tell whether the cause
of the death had been asphyxiation or blunt

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force trauma. But there was no
evidence to support the church's argument that Joseph

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had actually died from a septic infection, which was caused by him scratching his

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exema. According to the medical examiners, there was absolutely no chance that Joseph's

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death had been accidental or natural death
in any way. The state of the

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boy's body, which witnesses later called
one of the worst child abuse cases they

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had ever seen, proved that the
death was a homicide. The Remnant Fellowship

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Church was raided by the police in
two thousand and four, but they were

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unable to find any evidence that linked
the church's teachings to Joseph's murder. During

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Joseph Senior and Sonia's trial, their
older son, Michael Smith, testified about

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the events that led to Joseph Junior's
death. He said that the punishment began

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when Joseph Junior had behaved disruptively while
the rest of the family had been watching

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a broadcast from the Remnant Fellowship Church. According to Michael, his brother had

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been screaming, cursing, and carrying
on as well as bothering his younger brother,

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two year old James, causing his
parents to begin to beat him with

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the glue stick. And by the
way, I've mentioned these glue sticks a

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number of times. They're not the
small ones that go into these small craft

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glue guns. These are large glue
sticks, like industrial sized glue sticks that

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they were using as a weapon.
Afterwards, Joseph Sor and Sonia had ordered

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Michael to force Joseph Junior into the
wooden chest. When Joseph Junior kept struggling

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to get free, Michael tied the
chest shut to prevent him from escaping.

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For about the first ten minutes that
Joseph Junior had been trapped inside the chest,

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Michael said that his brother was yelling
and swearing, saying, quote,

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I'm going to kill all U mfors
when I get out, James is the

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first one on my list. I'm
going to slit his throat. After that,

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Joseph Junior was silent. On February
sixteenth, two thousand and seven,

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all twelve jury members were in agreement. The Smiths were both guilty of felony

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murder, false imprisonment, reckless conduct, and multiple counts of cruelty to children

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and aggravated assault. In court on
the day that the jury eventually reached their

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verdict, the prosecutors dimmed the lights
during their closing arguments and brought out a

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birthday cake. They lit the candles
and began to sing Happy Birthday to a

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young boy who would never grow older. It was the sixteenth of February two

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thousand and seven, the day that
Joseph Smith Junior would have turned twelve.

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Both Sonia and Joseph received the maximum
sentence of life in prison plus thirty years,

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and despite the unanimous verdict from the
jury, the support from the church

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did not falter. To this day, the remnant Fellowship Church still stands by

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the Smith's innocence, collecting online donations
on their behalf and paying for their legal

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fees, and throughout their incarceration,
Joseph Sor and Sonya have remained loyal members.

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That is ten Minute Murder for Today, Brief and bingeable true Crime.

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My name is Joe. I'm the
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this show grow, So thank you
so much for doing that, and quickly

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a listener email today. Good evening, Joe. I've seen some of the

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videos that you were talking about last
week where the people don't know that they're

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in a restaurant meant to harass the
customers. That's like Dick's Last Resort is

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what they're talking about. It's fun
and I laughed, but have you seen

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the video of the war happening right
now between the otters and the Orangutanes at

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a zoo. It's hilarious. Here's
the link, and then they put the

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link in there. And let me
tell you, I've clicked this link.

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It's a link to TikTok video.
I laughed so hard I cried watching this,

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didn't I had no idea there was
a secret war going on with the

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zoo between the orangutans and the otters. It's so funny. I'll try to

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remember to post the link, but
in case I don't, someone reach out

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and let me know to post the
link. I've got it right here.

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And by the way, that email
is from Maria in Lansing, and Maria,

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thank you so much for your email. If you'd like to send me

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an email, you can do that. Joe at ten Minute Murder dot com.

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Joe at ten Minute Murder dot com. Okay, that's gonna do it.

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That's the episode for today. Thank
you so much for listening to ten

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Minute Murder.