Former KKK member convicted in deadly bombing up for parole

WTOP News (Washington DC) ^ | July 30, 2016 9:12 am | JAY REEVES

[COBOL2Java]

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr. was a young Ku Klux Klansman with a reputation for hating blacks in 1963, when a bomb ripped a hole in the side of 16th Street Baptist Church, killing four black girls during the civil rights movement.

Today, Blanton is old and imprisoned, the last survivor among three one-time KKK members convicted of murder in the bombing. Soon, Alabama’s parole board will decide whether Blanton deserves to be free after serving 15 years of a life term for murder.

The board has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday to consider parole for the 78-year-old Blanton. Inmates are not allowed to attend parole hearings in Alabama, but opponents of Blanton’s release are expected to address the three-person board when it meets in Montgomery.

[arl295]

Hillary is going to need his vote.....

[Still Thinking]

15 years for four little girls? Nope. He can rot in there.

[CondorFlight]

The girls lost their entire lifetimes.

For him to lose only 15 years isn’t enough.

[COBOL2Java]

"The girls, who were inside the church preparing for worship, died instantly in a hail of bricks and stone that seriously injured Collins’ sister, Sarah Collins Rudolph. Their deaths inside a church on a Sunday morning became a symbol worldwide of the depth of racial hatred in the segregated South.

Doug Jones, a former U.S. 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 Birmingham’s public schools were facing a court order to desegregate."

[dsc]

If he’s guilty of murder, he should have been executed. Then we wouldn’t be undergoing this irritation.

[ifinnegan]

“15 years for four little girls? Nope. He can rot in there.”

It happened in 1963 so 15 years must actually be 50.

Still, I have the same comment.

50 years for four little girls? Nope. He can rot in there.

[TruthWillWin]

Democrat?

[TruthWillWin]

She is probably going to get the vote from the other three that are dead.

[Enchante]

Bury him alive. If we can’t execute the bastard, at least keep him locked up.

[COBOL2Java]

It happened in 1963 so 15 years must actually be 50.

No, the bastard evaded justice until 2001.

[Enchante]

Read the article, he wasn’t convicted and sentenced until 2001.

[ReformedBeckite]

He would probably be safer being in prison then being released, if he gets released the probability of him being murder because of his crime in the past are pretty high.

[ifinnegan]

Thanks for that.

[dfwgator]

He should have tried to kill Reagan, he’d be out now.

[BigEdLB]

Leave him there. After he dies, board up the cell, Then in 99 years open it up, and dispose of the skeleton at a toxic waste dump. Just like what should be done to the Manson people here in Cali

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I still remember when it happened. Everyone was horrified!

Let him rot or hang him.

[heterosupremacist]

“... free after serving 15 years of a life term for murder.”

If he was sentenced to imprisonment for life; why is this an option? I expect if he is released, he will be shot dead by a good American - so be it...

[Impala64ssa]

if he gets released the probability of him being murdered because of his crime in the past are pretty high.
If he does get parole, make it with the stipulation that he is to live in a neighborhood with an MLK Blvd running through it. He'll be a prime candidate for, as Curtis Sliwa would call it, "asphalt therapy".