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CHICAGO, April 8,2004 (AP) -- A white supremacist leader who organized an anti-Somali gathering in Lewiston last year is about to be tried in Illinois for soliciting the murder of a federal judge.
Prosecutors in Illinois say Matthew Hale wanted U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow of Chicago murdered and said so on tape.
Defense attorneys insist an FBI informant is the only one who advocated violence on the recording.
Hale's trial is to begin Wednesday. Its outcome could boil down to how jurors interpret a few words uttered by the leader of a largely defunct group calling itself the World Church of the Creator.
About 30 of Hale's followers showed up for last year's gathering in Lewiston. More than 4,000 people gathered at a counter-rally urging Mainers to reject racism.
Hale was arrested in connection with the Illinois case a few days before the Lewiston rally, and he didn't attend because he was in jail.
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