Smart finally getting her day in court

It was almost 2,400 days ago that Elizabeth Smart was found walking along State Street in Sandy and police arrested Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee.

During that time, she has graduated from high school, completed several years of college, and will leave next month to serve a mission in Paris for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Over the course of the past six years, Smart has been a guest on several national talk shows and news programs, including Oprah Winfrey, Katie Couric and Larry King. She has been a guest at the White House; played her harp in Hawaii before the college football all-star game and as a warm-up act for Toby Keith at the Delta Center; been a guest speaker at victims' rights conferences locally; and contributed to a pamphlet issued by the U.S. Justice Department aimed at helping victims of kidnappings.

Until Thursday, however, she has never sat on the witness stand in a courtroom to testify against either of those accused of kidnapping and sexually abusing her.

Smart, kidnapped from her Salt Lake bedroom in 2002, will face Mitchell for the first time since she was found six years ago and testify against the self-proclaimed street preacher as the first witness in his federal competency hearing. Not only will it be the first time Smart has been in the same room as Mitchell since her return, today will mark the first time she has ever testified in an open courtroom about her ordeal.

Smart's scheduled appearance has generated huge media interest. National news networks were expected to converge on Salt Lake City for the hearing. U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball has issued a decorum order with strict guidelines the media must adhere to, including where they can sit, where they can and cannot conduct interviews, and ordering all journalists to visibly display proper ID.

Prosecutors have said in previous hearings they expect Smart's initial testimony to last two hours, followed by cross-examination. She will likely be in the courtroom most of the day Thursday. Her testimony was expected to include her daily observations of Mitchell during the nine months she was held captive.

Prosecutors have suggested that Smart will testify that it was not religion that drove Mitchell, but sex.

A key part of the prosecution's case in debating whether Mitchell is competent to stand trial will be to address whether his seemingly all-encompassing religious persona is proof that he is mentally ill. The U.S. Attorney's Office is expected to argue that on the contrary, Mitchell's religious speak and writings, particularly his Book of Immanuel David Isaiah, are coherent and well thought out and that he is not incompetent.