New Effort to Put Kidnapping Suspect on Trial

NEW EFFORT TO PUT KIDNAPPING SUSPECT ON TRIAL: The man charged with the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, who was abducted from her home here in 2002 and held for nine months as a captive teenage wife, is back in court, and back under the microscope. Federal prosecutors are trying to convince a judge that the defendant, Brian D. Mitchell, is not a delusional religious zealot — as a state judge concluded in 2005 when he found Mr. Mitchell mentally incompetent to stand trial — but rather a calculating criminal who simply used the trappings of religion as a tool of control and manipulation, especially in the interest of his libido.