4 more indicted on hate crime charges in 2011 attacks on blacks in Mississippi

[Rowdyboy]

Source: The Mississippi Link

John Louis Blalack, 20, of Brandon; Sarah Adelia Graves, 21, of Crystal Springs; Robert Henry Rice, 23, of Brandon; and Shelbie Brooke Richards, 20, of Pearl, entered not-guilty pleas Wednesday before Magistrate Keith Ball on various charges including conspiracy and committing a hate crime.

The June 2011 death of James Craig Anderson sparked a broader investigation into reports that groups of young white men and women would drive from the majority-white suburbs of Rankin County into the majority-black capital city of Jackson, seeking black people to verbally harass and physically assault, and that they would later boast about the attacks.

Prosecutors said the co-conspirators used dangerous weapons, including beer bottles, sling shots and motor vehicles, to cause, and attempt to cause, bodily injury to blacks. They would target people who appeared to be homeless or under the influence of drugs or alcohol, believing that such victims would be less likely to fight back or to report attacks to police, prosecutors said.

Anderson, a 47-year-old car plant worker, was beaten and then run over in Jackson before dawn on June 26, 2011. Prosecutors say the group of seven young men and women were at party the night of Anderson’s death when they decided to find black people to victimize and head to Jackson in two cars.



Read more: http://themississippilink.com/2014/07/17/4-more-indicted-on-hate-crime-charges-in-2011-attacks-on-blacks-in-mississippi/

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I hope justice is finally served to everyone involved in this hideous hate crime against a man who's only crime was to be black and gay. He left a partner and two children

[Blue_Roses]

1. This is such a sad story...

No doubt these kids learned this from parents or others who passed down their racial bigotry. Somebody has to stop the cycle.

[freshwest]

2. I hadn't heard about this and it's got me crying. How dare they do this? They should pay heavily for

their indulgence, thinking they were entitled or had such privileges to act with lethality and terrorism, sheer arrogance and cruelty...

To take the life of someone supporting his family and doing the right things is an obscenity, a crime against all that people expect by equal treatment. Those ideas in the 14th were so hard to win and seem to have been dismissed now.

This was so well planned, they are a menace to society and should remain behind bars as long as possible and by that I mean life, and not 'life' minus 'good time.' We're not talking kids or severe mental impairment, these men and women had opportunity and means to do good or evil. They chose.

Wondering if were they college kids, if so was the party was at a frat house?

I only ask this because in my Black History course one day the black women in the class said white men visited black neighborhoods to kidnap and rape black girls. They said it as they did not intend to be believed, and they were furious. I'd never seen it in the news.

I asked my Depression era folks about it. They said it was known in their day that young white men did it as part of fraternity initiation. My family had not be able to afford college, but had to live with people like that.

There is so much in history that is not recorded. My folks were frank about the truth of America, even when it was against the mottos they'd been taught.

I am stunned at the patience of African Americans in this country who are daily being confronted with virulent and deadly racism.

[Rowdyboy]

7. I've read a lot of local coverage of this story and I don't remember any mention

of whether Dedmon and the others connected to this crime were college students, employed, or unemployed. I also did a quick search of stories connected to the case and can't find any mention. I would think if it was a fraternity type thing that angle would have been featured but, considering the quality of the local press, anything is possible.

[beam me up scottie]

3. Sickening.

Anderson’s family has asked prosecutors not to pursue the death penalty, saying they’re opposed to capital punishment. Anderson’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against all seven of those allegedly involved in Anderson’s death. The lawsuit, pending in Hinds County Circuit Court, seeks unspecified damages.

James Anderson's family is far more humane than the miserable scumbags that killed him. Sometimes I wish I believed in hell.

[a kennedy]

4. Oh yah, I just love this post racial time we're living in......

[Blue Idaho]

5. May they all live very long lives

Inside a federal penitentiary.

[locdlib]

6. Those shits deverve every bit of raw, unadulturated atrocity that is given to them.