Documentary record Bound by Fear
← Explore all cases
Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Other or denomination not established Georgia, USA · 2005

United States: church youth-choir director convicted of molesting a boy from his choir

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Church youth-choir director

Organization

Unnamed church congregation, Georgia (choir/youth ministry)

Spiritual nexus

Marshall was choir director for the church youth choir R.H. belonged to; he built the relationship through discussions of 'religious matters' and gifts, and R.H. was with him 'almost every day' without his parents' knowledge, despite his father's warning to stay away from Marshall.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority
  • Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. Date in cited record · trial

    Superior Court, Georgia. Jury convicted McLance Marshall on numerous child-sex-offense counts and one count of making false statements, arising from his abuse of R.H., a fourteen-year-old member of his church's youth choir.

  2. 2021-10-08 · appellate

    Court of Appeals of Georgia. Convictions affirmed. The court rejected Marshall's claims of a coercive Allen jury charge and improper denial of a general demurrer.

Appellate history

  1. 2021-10-08

    Georgia Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • religious mentorship and 'religious matters' discussions used to build isolating one-on-one trust
  • gifts and favors from a trusted church leader used to secure secrecy and daily unsupervised access

Primary record

Sources

court opinion appellate opinion Marshall v. State, No. A21A0948 (Ga. Ct. App. Oct. 8, 2021).

Full appellate opinion describing Marshall's role as church youth-choir director, his grooming of R.H. through religious discussion and gifts, and the affirmance of his convictions.

Related record

Related cases · Christian institutions & contexts

← Explore all cases