BALTIMORE (Maryland), Nov 1: A US jury ordered an evangelical church on Wednesday to pay nearly $11 million in damages for picketing the funeral of a Marine killed in Iraq and claiming the war was punishment for tolerating gays.

The nine-member federal jury ruled that members of the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church caused mental suffering to Albert Snyder, who says he became depressed after they paraded outside the funeral of his 20-year-old son Matthew in 2006.

They waved signs reading ‘Thank God for dead soldiers’, and ‘Fag troops’. A video of the protests was played in court during the week-long trial of Fred Phelps, who founded the church in 1955, and two of his daughters, Shirley Phelps-Roper and Rebekah Phelps-Davis.

Their lawyer Jonathan Katz said the funeral was a public event and their actions were protected by the constitutional rights to free speech and religious expression.

But the jury decided the church members should pay $2.9 million in compensatory damages and a further $8 million in punitive damages, said Snyder’s attorney Craig Trebilcock.

The church says the United States is losing troops because it tolerates gays, including in the military – hence the many protests it has held at military funerals such as Snyder’s.—AFP