Free Republic

SANTA ANA, Calif. - Federal prosecutors bent on taking down the violent Aryan Brotherhood prison gang could be hard-pressed to win the death sentences they want in one of the largest capital punishment cases in U.S. history, legal experts said. Several unusual elements are in play in the case set to begin this week involving 32 murders and attempted murders allegedly orchestrated by leaders of the white supremacist gang. Many of the 16 defendants who could face the death penalty are already serving long prison terms, and nearly all of their alleged victims were other inmates convicted of violent felonies....

SANTA ANA, Calif. - The inmates had to heat the letter to draw out the message, written in invisible ink. When they did, their orders were clear. Within hours, prosecutors say, members of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang sneaked into a nearby cellblock and killed two black inmates with handmade shanks as part of an order to "go to war" with blacks. The deaths are two of the 32 murders and attempted murders detailed by federal prosecutors in a sweeping case against the Aryan Brotherhood, a violent white supremacist prison gang that has infiltrated nearly every federal and state prison...