![]() ![]() ![]() They decided against parole after hearing the opposition and conferring briefly. While the board normally consists of three people, one seat is vacant and only members Eddie Cook Jr. Blanton perpetrated in 1963, the message is we have to stop the hate and we will punish those who kill or maim in the name of hate,” Jones said. ![]() “Whether it’s racial issues, whether it’s gender issues, whether it is terrorist activity similar to what Mr. Jones said freeing Blanton would both compound the “insurmountable pain” endured by the girls’ families and set a bad precedent. attorney who prosecuted Blanton on the state charge, said Blanton shouldn’t be released since he has neither accepted responsibility for the bombing nor expressed any remorse. Opponents took up seats normally reserved for inmates’ relatives, and members of the Birmingham NAACP chapter rode to Montgomery on a bus to be there.ĭoug Jones, a former U.S. ![]() Inmates do not attend parole hearings under Alabama law, and no one showed up to speak on Blanton’s behalf. “We were at that church learning about love and forgiveness when someone was outside doing hateful things,” she said. Left with only one eye and recurrent problems with post-traumatic stress syndrome, the 65-year-old Rudolph asked the board to keep Blanton in prison. They died instantly, and Collins’ sister Sarah Collins Rudolph was seriously injured. The girls were inside the church preparing for worship when the bomb went off, sending stone and brick flying. The blast killed the 11-year-old McNair and 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Morris, also known as Cynthia Wesley. The automatic review was the first for Blanton.īlanton was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison for his role in the Sept. Clair prison, will again be eligible for parole consideration in five years, the board said. Lisa McNair, a sister of bombing victim Denise McNair, was relieved by the decision.īlanton, who lives in a one-person cell and rarely has contact with other inmates at St. The board rejected parole for Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., 78, who has served 15 years of a life term for being part of a group of Klansmen who planted a bomb outside Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church during the civil rights movement. (AP) - The lone surviving Ku Klux Klansman imprisoned for killing four black girls in a church bombing in 1963 will remain behind bars after Alabama’s parole board heeded the victims’ families Wednesday and refused an early release. Two others were previously found guilty and later died in prison.MONTGOMERY, Ala. "We've got to continue to understand what motivates people in the name of hate."īlanton is the last living person convicted of involvement in the notorious bombing. "That bombing and the deaths of those children remind us so much about what's going on in the country today that we've got to continue to have these dialogues," Doug Jones, the prosecutor who tried and convicted Blanton and another Klansman, told Debbie. "The cold-blooded callousness of his hate crime is not diminished by the passage of time, nor is any punishment sufficient to expunge the evil he unleashed," he said, and added that Blanton has "never shown any remorse whatsoever."Īnd as Debbie told our Newscast unit, "no one spoke on behalf of Blanton" at the hearing. "There's a whole community, hundreds of people, who are suffering from what this man did in anger and hate," McNair said.Īlabama's attorney general, Luther Strange, also lodged an official protest against granting Blanton parole. And justice has finally said he needs to serve his time."Īlong with those who died, McNair spoke about a woman who lost an eye during the bombing and others who were scarred by glass and debris. We hold no ill will or malice against him but we have laws in this country. "He's serving four life terms, and he should continue to serve the four life terms. And I believe he should continue to serve his justice in prison for the rest of his life. They're strong and proud, and wonderful people, who waited patiently for 30-some-odd years for justice to be served, and justice was finally served in 2001 in the case of Thomas Blanton. "I had to watch my parents and their grief all of my life. ![]()
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