11/30/2023 0 Comments Thomas edwin blanton jr. parolle![]() ![]() 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.ĭoug Jones, a former U.S. 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. 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.MONTGOMERY, Ala. Robert Chambliss, convicted in 1977, and Bobby Frank Cherry, convicted in in 2002, have both died in prison.īlanton and Cherry were indicted in 2000 after the FBI reopened an investigation of the bombing. 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. Rudolph, of Birmingham, acknowledged she was nervous about testifying before the board, but added: "I had to come speak for Addie." Members of the Birmingham NAACP chapter rode to Montgomery on a bus to be there. Opponents took up seats normally reserved for inmates' relatives. ![]() Relatives of all four victims were on hand, and the room was full of people opposing Blanton's parole. In Alabama, inmates do not attend such hearings. She lost an eye in the blast and told the board she was filled with hate for years after the bombing.īlanton did not attend the hearing, which lasted about 30 minutes. "We were at that church learning about love and forgiveness when someone was outside doing hateful things," Rudolph, 65, told the board. Their deaths inside a church on a Sunday morning became a symbol worldwide of the depth of racial hatred in the segregated South. 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. 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. He is held in a one-person cell at a maximum security prison and rarely has contact with other inmates, corrections officials say.īlanton was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001 for being part of a group of Klansmen who planted a dynamite bomb that exploded outside the church on Sept. "Justice is served," Lisa McNair, sister of bombing victim Denise McNair, said afterward.īlanton is the last surviving KKK member convicted of murder in the bombing of Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church. Relatives of three of the slain girls spoke against Blanton's release during the hearing. The decision to keep Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., 78, imprisoned was met with applause. Alabama's parole board decided Wednesday against freeing a one-time Ku Klux Klansman convicted in a church bombing that killed four black girls more than 50 years ago. ![]()
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