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Italian Cops Fine Nuns Speeding to See Pope
By Neal Colgrass
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Posted Jul 19, 09 7:52 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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Italian police pulled over a Ford Fiesta doing 112mph and found it full of nuns desperate to see the Pope, the Guardian reports. "The police were shocked to find three nuns of a certain age in the Fiesta," says the driver, who wanted to help the Pope recover from his broken wrist. "But we were afraid of getting there late." Police fined the nun $529 and suspended her license for a month. She is appealing.
"She is planning to appeal and we think we can invoke the 'state of necessity' in the law that allows speeding," says her lawyer, Anna Orecchioni. Orecchioni is also defending a priest who claims communion wine from four masses compelled him to drive drunk. Orecchioni has triumphed for clergy before: She successfully defended a Muslim imam in Rome who said his asthma medicine raised his blood alcohol to twice the legal limit.