Colorado federal prison inmate James Howard, who is serving a 10-year sentence for car theft, has brought a lawsuit against the prison for not allowing him to practice his "religion," which is Satanism.

A federal court agreed, with U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham ruling that "we ought to give the devil his due," quoting from another case dealing with Satanism. Prison officials had warned that the materials which Howard said he needed for his devotions—candles, incense, a gong, a black robe, a chalice, and a wooden staff—could threaten prison security, but the judge said the inmate's religious rights had to take precedence.

Howard said he plans to practice "destruction rituals," which he described as a way to visualize people's death, purging anger towards them without doing them any harm. However, Dr. Carl Raschke, an author of a book on Satanism and teacher of religious studies at the University of Denver, said that such rituals are commonly intended to kill people, and he called the judge's decision "reprehensible."

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