Feds charge 3 with hate crimes in Mississippi killing [View all]
Federal prosecutors unsealed hate-crimes charges Thursday against three white Mississippi men accused of killing an African-American man in Jackson.
One of the three, 19-year-old Deryl Dedmon, pleaded guilty to state charges Wednesday in the June beating death of James Craig Anderson. The other two defendants, John Aaron Rice and Dylan Butler, made an initial appearance with Dedmon in federal court Thursday morning and are expected to enter guilty pleas in the afternoon, two sources close to the proceedings said.
They are also expected to testify against other teens implicated in Anderson's killing, the sources said.
Anderson's killing prompted several large marches and prayer vigils in Jackson, a city of about 537,000 people. The Justice Department had been looking into Anderson's killing as a possible federal hate crime and assisting local prosecutors in the case.
Dedmon, 19, pleaded guilty to murder and a hate-crime charge in state court in Jackson on Wednesday, receiving two concurrent life sentences. He told the court that his crimes were the result of being "young and dumb, ignorant and full of hatred."
http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/22/justice/mississippi-hate-crime/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
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