Family members of the victims oppose his parole. Evidence against Blanton included secret recordings that were made using FBI bugs at his home and in the car of a fellow Klansman turned informant. Thomas Blanton Jr., 78, was convicted in 2001 of murdering four girls in the 1963 Ku Klux Klan bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church. (AP) Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr. Robert Chambliss, convicted in 1977, and Bobby Frank Cherry, convicted in in 2002, have died in prison.īlanton and Cherry were indicted in 2000 after the FBI reopened an investigation of the bombing. (AP) Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., the last of three one-time Ku Klux Klansmen convicted in a 1963 Alabama church bombing that killed four Black girls and was the deadliest single. The parole board heeded the victims families Wednesday and refused an early release for Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr. Long a suspect in the case, Blanton was the second of three people convicted in the bombing. attorney who prosecuted Blanton on the state charge, said Blanton shouldn’t be released since he has never accepted responsibility for the bombing or expressed any remorse for a crime that was aimed at maintaining racial separation at a time when Birmingham’s public schools were facing a court order to desegregate. The board could have allowed him to return as quickly as one year.ĭoug Jones, a former U.S. Board member Cliff Walker said Blanton can seek another review in five years - the longest possible wait under Alabama law. Only two members heard Blanton’s case, which came up for automatic review. The board ordinarily has three members but there’s a vacancy.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |