Posted on 04/14/2011 5:49:04 PM PDT by a fool in paradise
A federal jury on Thursday convicted a 26-year-old white man of burning down a predominantly black church in Springfield in the hours after Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, a crime prosecutors say was fueled by racist anger.
The all-white, 12-member jury, which had been deadlocked on Wednesday, convicted Michael Jacques of conspiracy against civil rights, destruction of religious property and using fire to commit a felony...
Jacques and two friends were charged with burning down the Macedonia Church of God in Christ in the early morning hours of Nov. 5, 2008. The church, which is near all three men's homes, was under construction at the time and no one was inside. A few firefighters, however, suffered minor injuries battling the blaze.
All three men confessed to the crime and implicated each other. But Jacques later recanted his confession, saying authorities wore him down during a nearly seven-hour interrogation as he suffered withdrawal from addictions to Percocet painkillers and cigarettes.
...The lead prosecutor in the case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Smyth, said the government was pleased that all three men who started the fire now stand convicted. Benjamin Haskell was sentenced to nine years in prison in November after pleading guilty. Thomas Gleason pleaded guilty last year and awaits sentencing after testifying in Jacques' trial for the prosecution.
Smyth said that when the church was burning down that night, law enforcement officials hoped it was not an arson related to the election. "In the few days that followed, our worst fears were confirmed," he said.
...Jurors began deliberations on Tuesday and told Ponsor on Wednesday that they were deadlocked on two of the charges.
...Ponsor said he could not define the terms beyond what he already told them in his instructions to the jury....
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
someone from Massachusetts burning down a black church? I only thought it was Mississippians who did that.
I’m surprised AP used the words ‘white’ and ‘black’ in the very first sentence of this story - given how reticent they usually are about stirring up racial animosities.
If Obama’s going to declare a baby that is still in the womb to not be alive or human, how can a building under construction be called a “black church”?
did they ever catch who did it?
An all white jury convicted the white man accused on burning a black church.
I bet my life savings an all black jury would have set a fellow black man free if he burned down a white church.
?
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