An avowed anti-Semite who shot three people to death at two suburban Kansas City Jewish sites in 2014 is asking the Kansas Supreme Court to overturn his death sentence, saying he should not have been allowed him to represent himself at trial.

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The appeal from Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. is scheduled to go before the state Supreme Court on Monday. He was convicted of one count of capital murder, three counts of attempted murder, and assault and weapons charges in August 2015.

Miller's attorneys argue that the Johnson County Court judge who oversaw his trial should not have allowed him to represent himself. They say the judge did not consider whether Miller had mental health issues that would make him incompetent to represent himself in a complex capital case.

Miller, from Aurora, Missouri, also argues that the judge should have allowed him to present mitigating evidence during the penalty phase, and that the death penalty itself is unconstitutional.

Miller, who is also known as Frazier Glenn Close, testified during trial that he drove to the Kansas City area in April 2014 to kill Jews before he died. He said at the time that he didn't expect to live long because he had chronic emphysema.

He ambushed and killed William Corporon, 69, and Corporon's 14-year-old grandson, Reat Griffin Underwood, at the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, Kansas. He then shot 53-year-old Terri LaManno at the nearby Village Shalom retirement center.

All of his victims were Christians.

During the trial, Miller frequently interrupted proceedings with outbursts aimed at the judge, jury and prosecutor. After he was convicted, he said he didn't care if he was sentenced to death.

In his closing arguments during the penalty phase, Miller spent nearly an hour complaining that Jewish people were running the government, media and Federal Reserve. He yelled "Heil Hitler" when he was sentenced to death.

Miller is a Vietnam War veteran who founded the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in his native North Carolina and later the White Patriot Party. He also ran on a white-power platform during campaigns for the US House in 2006 and the US Senate in 2010 in Missouri.

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The plan was compiled in recent months by chairman of the EJA Rabbi Menachem Margolin and a team from the EJA, who consulted with experts, heads of Jewish communities throughout Europe, Jewish organizations, and parliamentarians and government ministers in various European nations. The EJA team also consulted with members of the European Parliament.

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The plan calls for wide-scale action in conjunction with European nations' formal school systems, as well as the promotion of national and European-wide legislation designed to combat anti-Semitism.

Israel Hayom has learned that some parts of the plan have already been launched as pilot programs in some European countries, with the cooperation of various governments.

In addition to the work plan, the EJA is training young Jews across Europe to identify and fight anti-Semitic activity.

Tuesday's conference is being held in cooperation with the Israelite Central Consistory of France, the Action and Protection League (APL), and the World Zionist Organization.

A booklet outlining the plan obtained by Israel Hayom states that "Anti-Semitism is back in Europe. It is on the rise. Incredibly, Jews are back in the frontline … Never again? There shouldn't need to be a question mark," the booklet begins.

The development of the plan has been heavily influenced by data showing an increase of ignorance of the Holocaust across Europe, which indicates a need to update curricula. The plan calls for the allocation of more resources to Holocaust education, along with content that teaches students about Jews' contributions to civilian life in Europe in all fields.

The EJA plan also promotes legislation that would call for more stringent punishment for the public use of anti-Semitic Jewish stereotypes. The legislation is to be based on existing laws designed to prevent discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity.

Another part of the plan seeks to prevent the private, for-profit sale of Nazi memorabilia, while keeping items deemed to be of historic or academic value in national archives, museums, and educational institutions.

Margolin said that the conference would be sending a message that "hundreds of Jewish communities were united in sending a message of an identical strategy. It is not enough to say 'Never Again.' We must all make it so.. Not shout 'Gevald,' 'anti-Semitism,' but ensure that the plan is implemented in an orderly and professional manner."

APL founder Rabbi Shlomo Koves, who also serves as the rabbi for Chabad in Hungary, added, "The Jews of Europe are facing a new era characterized by a constant rise in the number of anti-Semitic incidents. We established the European Action and Protection League to teach [people] about the phenomenon and battle it. In the next few months, we will be publishing a survey conducted in 16 European countries and includes 16,000 respondents. The results indicate a worrying lack of popularity for anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli opinions throughout Europe."

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away from Europe, President Reuven Rivlin met with students from Jewish schools in Melbourne, Australia, where he is on a state visit.

Rivlin answered students' questions, some of which touched on Israel's relations with Diaspora Jewish communities and the rise of global anti-Semitism.

Rivlin told them that Israel was "very worried" about increased anti-Semitism, particularly incidents that targeted Jewish students. The president told them that as Jews in the Diaspora, they could live "fully Jewish lives" and that anti-Semitism must meet with zero tolerance.

Eldad Beck contributed to this report.

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State and federal law enforcement officials revealed details about the months leading up to the shootings by David Anderson and Francine Graham, a couple who expressed hatred of Jews and law enforcement in notes left at the grocery shooting scene and in online posts.

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"This was a senseless and cowardly act," US Attorney Craig Carpenito said.

Anderson, 47, and Graham, 50, shot and killed Jersey City Detective Joseph Seals in a chance meeting in a cemetery Dec. 10, then drove to the market and killed Mindel Ferencz, 31, who owned the store with her husband; Moshe Deutsch, 24, a rabbinical student from Brooklyn who was shopping there; and store employee Douglas Miguel Rodriguez.

Rodriguez held the back door open for a wounded customer to escape before he was shot, authorities said Monday.

Video: Reuters

Five weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were found in the store afterward. Investigators also found a bomb in the couple's van that could have sprayed shrapnel fragments "five football fields long," Gregory Ehrie, special agent in charge of the FBI in Newark, said. The van also contained materials that could have made a second bomb, he said.

It's not known for certain what prompted the confrontation between Seals and the shooters. Officials speculated that Seals, a 13-year veteran who was meeting someone about returning a car that had been impounded, may have stopped the U-Haul van Anderson and Graham were driving because it fit the description of a vehicle connected to the slaying of a livery car driver in Bayonne a few days earlier.

In doing so, Seals may have thrown off their plans and prevented more bloodshed, Carpenito said, but he did not provide more detail.

Anderson and Graham bludgeoned and then shot the livery driver Michael Rumberger, 34, officials said, though it wasn't clear if he had been targeted. The pair also had done online research on a Jewish center in nearby Bayonne in the days before the attack in Jersey City, Carpenito said.

Barricaded in the kosher store, Anderson and Graham were killed after a lengthy gun battle with the police that sent the sound of gunfire booming for hours through the neighborhood in New Jersey's second-largest city, across the street from a school.

A gun recovered at the kosher grocery that was used by Anderson and Graham to kill Rumberger also was used to shoot out the windows of a car driven by a hassidic man on a highway near Jersey City, the investigation revealed. That man was not injured.

That shooting wasn't reported until investigators began probing the market shootings.

"Up until the attack, there wasn't anything that would have put either of them on anybody's radar," Ehrie said.

But surveillance video showed Anderson and Graham had driven past the market in their rented U-Haul van twice in the week leading up to the shootings, Carpenito said.

At the scene, a note found on Anderson contained a reference to a 1990s documentary, "The FBI's War on Black America," which explored the FBI's targeting of individuals involved in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, Carpenito said. He added that a timestamp written on the note corresponded to a segment in the documentary where an interviewee advocates killing "fascist pig cops."

Investigators found among Anderson's social media posts a reference to Jews as "imposters who inhabited synagogues of Satan."

Anderson received about $560 per month as a military veteran and may have sold property and a van to make money, officials said, but investigators have found no evidence he received outside assistance to purchase weapons or bomb-making materials.

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A federal grand jury indicted Grafton Thomas, 37, late last week with additional counts of hate crimes for the Dec. 28 stabbing of members of the Orthodox Jewish community in Monsey, New York, bringing the number of federal charges he faces to 10.

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Each count carries a maximum prison term of life.

One of the victims, a 72-year-old man who suffered devastating machete blows to his head, arm and neck, is comatose and unlikely to recover, according to family members.

Federal prosecutors have said Thomas targeted his victims because of their Jewish faith. In a criminal complaint filed last month, they cited journals they seized from the suspect's home containing references to Adolf Hitler, Nazi culture and the Black Hebrew Israelites movement, identified by experts in extremism as an anti-Jewish hate group.

Thomas also faces state charges for the attack, which his attorney, pointing to his client's long history of mental illness, has said was likely an expression of psychosis rather than bigotry.

The attack in Monsey capped a string of incidents in which Jews have been physically attacked or accosted in the New York metropolitan area in recent weeks, including a shooting at a kosher supermarket in New Jersey that left two members of the hassidic community dead.

One of the suspects in that attack had also expressed interest in the Black Hebrew Israelites. He died in the attack.

The most recent national numbers from Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism found 780 anti-Semitic incidents reported to or detected by the organization in the United States in the first half of 2019, compared to 785 incidents reported for the same period in 2018.

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"God will avenge his blood," a message from the Jewish community said.

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At the start of last week, representatives of the community arrived at Soleimanis' home to pay their condolences to his family, and took part in his funeral. Those present included Chief Rabbi of Tehran Yehuda Gerami, who even condemned the killing in an interview to state television. We can only guess how afraid the community was that the nation would vent its fury against them.

The Iranian Jewish community is one of the oldest in the world. Legend has it that the Jews arrived in then-Persia after the destruction of the First Temple. Prior to the Islamic Revolution in 1979, some 80,000 Jews lived in Iran, but after the ayatollahs took power most of them left for Israel and the US. Today, the Jewish community in Iran is estimated to number some 8,000, most of whom live in the biggest cities, such as Shiraz and Tehran.

"As far as religion goes, they enjoy freedom – more or less – because the Muslims cannot reject Judaism, which is mentioned in the Quran. So they can celebrate [Jewish] holidays and keep kosher and go to synagogue," explains Rani Amrani, the director of Israel's Farsi-language RadioRan, who made aliyah from Iran years ago. Amrani maintains close ties to Iranian Jews and non-Jews.

According to Amrani, one of the best ways for the Jewish community to ensure things stay quiet and they stay safe is to throw off any hints of Zionism.

"They are trying to distinguish between Judaism and Zionism to avoid being targeted," Amrani says.

Even messaging apps are risky

Every few years, rare footage of Jewish activity in Iran is made public, usually around the holidays. Last Sukkot, Jewish BDS activist Ariel Gold documented the traditional prayers. Of course, her visit was approved by the Iranian regime. The goal? To prove that Iran has no quarrel with Judaism, only with Zionism. Rabbi Gerami's Facebook page also shows recent prayers and rites, including the song "Maoz Tzur" sung in both Hebrew and Farsi.

Amrani says that in the past, he has reached out to Iranian Jews via the Whatsapp messaging app, but that any contact of that type comprises a clear risk.

"They are very afraid because they could easily be accused of spying. I have regular listeners and every synagogue knows my radio station, but their situation is very delicate. If a Muslim speaks with Israel it's a problem – if a Jew does, he'll be suspected of spying. So we are talking about them [Iranian Jews] less now so we won't drag them into anything. Their lives are truly in danger," he says.

Radio Ran is currently the only Israeli radio station that broadcasts in Farsi, and many residents and former residents of Iran tune in for updates on the world that are not filtered through the extremist regime.

In the past, there were Iranian Jews who somehow made it to Israel, particularly to take part in family celebrations. But it was dangerous.

"if a Jew was caught going to Israel, he would have to serve five years in prison. I know Iranian Jews who came [to Israel] and returned, but two of them were caught and given long prison sentences," Amrani says.

Now things are even more tenuous. The strike on Soleimani upended everything and strengthened Iran's opposition to the US, and as a result, to Israel. The days after the hit saw a spike in Google searches in Farsi for "revenge," and Jews in Iran are afraid for their lives.

"The Jewish community is very afraid after the strike that Muslims will point a finger at them and see Jews as a target. 'If the Jews killed Soleimani,' they'll say, 'we'll kill the Jews here.' So the Jewish community rushed to put out a message mourning Soleimani's death, and members paid condolence visits. I would do the same if I were in their place," Amrani explains.

'The state isn't helping'

Repeated attempts to contact Jews in Iran for this article were thwarted, and even new immigrants to Israel from Iran refused to be interviewed, apparently for fear of endangering their relatives in Iran. Amrani says that he is speaking to Iranians who support the regime, and has noticed a rise in anti-Semitic claims.

"They say that the Jews killed Soleimani. Some are even threatening, 'We'll do thus and such to the Jews.' In my opinion, the Jews in Iran are living on a powder keg that could blow at any moment. They are in grave danger," Amrani says.

"If there is a war between Iran and Israel, or Iran and the US, they'll be the first to be taken hostage and they'll lose everything they have. That's what happened after the Islamic Revolution – they hanged and killed all the wealthy Jews in order to seize their property, and that could happen now, too," he warns.

Despite the danger, the Jews in Iran aren't fleeing, and the economic sanctions are part of the reason. The low value of Iranian currency has made the wealthiest Iranians worth about what an average wage earner in the Israel makes, if not below that.

"There are two reasons why the Jews are staying in Iran – they're either too rich or too poor to leave. The Iranian currency is worth so little that even a person who owns two homes, won't be able to buy a single room here [in Israel]. The rich are making a simple calculation – there, they live like kings, and here they would live like a typical person, at best. Why would they do that? Meanwhile, the poor will find it difficult to start their lives fresh in Israel at age 40 or 50. The state doesn't help Jews from Iran like it once did. Someone who arrives in Israel can't do anything with the money he gets as part of the new immigrant's package," Amrani says.

"I talked to some of my family [there] and asked them what they were doing there – they should get up and come to Israel. Their answer was, 'I have a home and a business here, and if I seel them I can't even buy a room in Israel.' They have no choice – they're staying."

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The Journal News reports 73 pistol permit applications have been filed with the Rockland County Clerk's Office since the Dec. 28 attack at a rabbi's home in Monsey, a hamlet in the town of Ramapo northwest of New York City.

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That compares to 51 applications the office received during the eight weeks prior to the stabbing, County Clerk Paul Piperato told the newspaper.

Sixty-eight of the new applications came from Ramapo residents, including 31 from Monsey.

"It's definitely because of this incident," Piperato told the newspaper, referring to the attack. "In some way, shape or form, they want to defend themselves."

Chief William Barbera of the Rockland County Sheriff's Department says an application is the first step in a months-long process. Applicants are required to be fingerprinted and undergo a background check and firearms training before the paperwork is submitted to a licensing officer.

An academy run by IDF veterans has been providing weapons training in Ramapo's synagogues since the machete attack, The Journal News reports. Its trainers have been advising Jewish residents to seek unrestricted pistol permits.

"The goal is to be able to carry at synagogue and not to just possess at home and take to the range," said Yonatan Stern, the academy's director.

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Grafton Thomas, 37, was held without bail after appearing in federal court in White Plains on five counts of obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs by attempting to kill with a dangerous weapon. Five people were stabbed and slashed in the Saturday attack north of New York City.

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A bloodstained 18-inch (45-centimeter) machete was recovered from his car, along with a knife smeared with dried blood and hair, prosecutors said in a criminal complaint.

Thomas, his ankles shackled, shuffled into the courtroom in a prison jumpsuit, telling a judge who asked him if his head was clear that he was "not clear at all" and needed sleep. But he added: "I am coherent."

His court-appointed attorney, Susanne Brody, said Thomas has struggled with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Another attorney retained by his family, Michael Sussman, said Thomas had been hearing voices and may have stopped taking psychiatric medications recently.

The stabbings on the seventh night of Hanukkah came amid a series of violent attacks targeting Jews in the region that have led to increased security, particularly around religious gatherings.

A criminal complaint said journals recovered from Thomas' home in Greenwood Lake included comments questioning "why ppl mourned for anti-Semitism when there is Semitic genocide" and a page with drawings of a Star of David and a swastika.

A phone recovered from his car included repeated internet searches for "Why did Hitler hate the Jews" as well as "German Jewish Temples near me" and "Prominent companies founded by Jews in America," the complaint said.

On the day of the stabbings, the phone's browser was used to access an article titled: "New York City Increases Police Presence in Jewish Neighborhoods After Possible Anti-Semitic Attacks. Here's What To Know," the complaint said.

Sussman told reporters he visited Thomas' home and found stacks of notes he described as "the ramblings of a disturbed individual" but nothing to point to an "anti-Semitic motive" or suggest Thomas intentionally targeted the rabbi's home.

"My impression from speaking with him is that he needs serious psychiatric evaluation," Sussman said. "His explanations were not terribly coherent."

Thomas' family said he was raised to embrace tolerance but has a long history of mental illness, including multiple hospitalizations.

"He has no history of like violent acts and no convictions for any crime," his family said in a statement. "He has no known history of anti-Semitism and was raised in a home which embraced and respected all religions and races. He is not a member of any hate groups."

Thomas served in the Marines and was president of his class at a high school in Queens, Sussman said. He attended William Paterson University between 2005 and 2007, the university confirmed, where he played football as a walk-on running back.

Thomas' family said his mental health had deteriorated over the years. He would hear voices and have trouble completing sentences at times. Thomas said a voice talked to him about property that was in the rabbi's house, according to Sussman.

In court papers filed in a 2013 eviction case in Utah, Thomas said he suffered from schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety and his "conditions are spontaneous and untamed."

Thomas was arrested within two hours of the Saturday night attack in Monsey. When police pulled his car over in Manhattan, he had blood all over his clothing and smelled of bleach but said "almost nothing" to the arresting officers, officials said.

Thomas' aunt told The Associated Press that he had a "germ phobia" and obsessively washed his hands and feet with bleach.

She said Thomas grew up in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn and "lived peacefully" among Jewish neighbors. She said Thomas had not been taking his medication and recently went missing for a week.

The woman spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear she would lose her government job for speaking publicly.

"They're making him look like this monster," she said in a telephone interview. "My nephew is not a monster. He's just sick. He just needs help."

According to the complaint, Thomas, a scarf covering his face, entered the rabbi's home next door to a synagogue and said "no one is leaving." He then took out a machete and started stabbing and slashing people in the home packed with dozens of congregants, the complaint said.

The five victims suffered serious injuries – including a severed finger, slash wounds and deep lacerations – and at least one was in critical condition with a skull fracture, the complaint said.

On Sunday, Thomas pleaded not guilty to charged including five counts of attempted murder. He was detained on a $5 million bail.

In a release, US Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said Thomas "targeted his victims in the midst of a religious ceremony, transforming a joyous Hanukkah celebration into a scene of carnage and pain."

Thomas' criminal history includes an arrest for assaulting a police horse, according to an official briefed on the investigation who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. A lawyer representing Thomas at the arraignment said he had no convictions.

The criminal complaint said one passage in Thomas' journals stated that the "Hebrew Israelites" took from the "ebidnoid Israelites." The FBI agent who wrote the complaint said that appeared to be a reference to the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, some branches of which have been associated with anti-Semitism.

The attack was the latest in a string of violence targeting Jews in the region, including a Dec. 10 massacre at a kosher grocery store in New Jersey. Last month in Monsey, a man was stabbed while walking to a synagogue. No arrest has been made in that stabbing.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said Saturday's savagery was the 13^th anti-Semitic attack in New York since Dec. 8.

Monsey, near the New Jersey state line about 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of New York City, is one of several Hudson Valley communities that has seen a rising population of hassidic Jews in recent years. At a Sunday celebration that was planned before the attack, several members of the community stood guard armed with assault-style rifles.

"The Jewish community is utterly terrified," Evan Bernstein, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of New York and New Jersey, said in a statement. "No one should have to live like this."

In New York City, Rev. Al Sharpton appeared Monday with Jewish and other faith leaders at his Harlem headquarters and said he was disturbed and upset that several of the suspects in recent attacks on Jews have been black.

"We cannot remain silent as we see a consistent pattern of attacks on people based on their faith and who they are," Sharpton said. "You can't fight hate against you if you aren't willing to fight hate against everybody else."

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Visiting the scene in Rockland County, about 30 miles (50 km) north of New York City, Governor Andrew Cuomo met on Sunday with victims who had been attending the Hanukkah celebration at the home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg.

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"This is terrorism, it is domestic terrorism," Cuomo told reporters. "These are people who intend to create mass harm, mass violence, generate fear based on race, color, creed."

The suspect was identified by police as a local man from Greenwood Lake, New York. Authorities said he was arrested in New York City's Manhattan borough after fleeing the site of the attack in the small town of Monsey by car.

Ramapo Police Chief Brad Weidel said at a news conference that the suspect will be arraigned later on Sunday on five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary.

According to Yossi Gestetner, co-founder of the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council, the attacker had his face partially covered with a scarf when he stabbed five people, two of whom were in critical condition.

"One of the rabbi's children was also stabbed," Gestetner told reporters.

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The Guardian Angels are a volunteer group founded in 1979, when violent street crime was rampant in the city. Recognizable by their red jackets and berets, they provide an unarmed protective presence that the group calls a "visual deterrence."

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Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa said Saturday that "cops have not been proactive at all" in responding to the rising numbers of anti-Semitic attacks in the city.

Sliwa accused New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio of being "apathetic."

De Blasio's office responded to Sliwa's remarks in a statement that read, "We have no tolerance for anti-Semitism in New York City. The best police department in the world has increased deployment in Crown Heights, Borough Park, and Williamsburg," the statement continued.

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Tiffany Harris, 30, was released without bail after her arraignment on the attempted assault charge and misdemeanor and lower-level charges, according to the records.

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Her lawyer, Iris Ying, declined to comment, and the New York Post reported that Harris rebuffed questions as she left a Brooklyn court.

Police said Harris slapped three women, ages 22 to 31, in the face and head after encountering them on a corner in Brooklyn's Crown Heights area. The victims suffered minor pain, police said.

Around the city, police have gotten at least six reports this week – and eight since Dec. 13 – of attacks possibly propelled by anti-Jewish bias.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday that police presence would increase in Crown Heights and two other Brooklyn neighborhoods with large Jewish populations.

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