World News – USA – Alabama Snake: This is Glenn Summerford’s status after being convicted of attempted murder

HBO’s Alabama Snake unwraps the horribly bizarre case of Glenn Summerford, a preacher who forced his wife to put her hand in a box of snakes in 1991. Like the controversial Hillbilly Elegy, director Theo Love’s true crime project focuses in part on the Appalachian culture, where dealing with snakes in church services used to be popular. So what happened to Summerford? Almost 30 years after his story caught media attention, the former preacher continues to serve a 99-year prison sentence for attempted murder.

Let’s dive into context a little. Summerford was a Pentecostal preacher who kept snakes in a shed on his property. His frenzied sermons took place at the Church of Jesus Christ with the following signs near Scottsboro, AL. His services usually included speaking in tongues and dealing with snakes. According to his wife, Darlene, he accused her of cheating on him and punished her by forcing her to put her hand in a box of venomous snakes and get bitten twice. She put her hand in the box on Friday October. 4, 1991, then again the next day, although he refused to seek medical treatment for the first time.

Darlene received medical attention just in time, survived this toxic encounter, and opened her story in court. According to the Associated Press, Darlene told the jury: “He took a pipe and hit the cages really hard to make the snakes really angry. Then he grabbed my hair and said he would slide my face in if I didn’t stick my hand in there. He said I was going to die because he wanted to marry another woman. « 

A defense witness named Tammy Flippo testified that Darlene was bitten while she tried to kill her husband. Flippo said she got Summerford drunk and tried to murder him with a snake that bit her instead. She denied having a relationship with Summerford, but prosecutors found another witness who said Flippo stayed at his house for several nights.

After a two-and-a-half-day trial, the jury convicted the then 47-year-old Summerford in February 1992 for attempted murder. Summerford received a 99-year sentence for having had two previous criminal convictions. He is still serving his sentence, an additional 30 years for a second-degree escape after slipping away during a work detail. He was denied parole in June.

Snake, Dealing with Snakes in Religion, Alabama