10/8/2023 0 Comments Thomas edwin blanton jr. parolleattorney 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. Long a suspect in the case, Blanton was the second of three people convicted in the bombing. 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. 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. This story has been corrected to say Blanton is 78, not 76. Links photos.UPDATE (9:05 a.m.) – An Alabama parole board has denied the parole of 76-year-old Thomas Edwin Blaton, Jr.īIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) - A one-time Ku Klux Klan member is up for parole. 76-year-old Thomas Edwin Blanton, Jr. Was convicted in the deadly 16th street Baptist Church bombing that killed four little girls. The state parole board will hold a hearing for Blanton Wednesday morning in Montgomery. The board says Blanton won’t attend, but opponents like Birmingham’s chapter of the NAACP will be there to protest the hearing. Mayor William Bell released a statement in regards to Wednesday’s Blanton Parole Hearing: “The tragedy of the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church and the death of the four little girls changed the course of history. And while we have come so far as a City, there are some crimes that are so sinister that parole should not be considered. The bodies of Denise McNair, 11, and Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson, all 14, were found in the downstairs lounge.Ĭollins’ sister, Sarah Collins Rudolph, survived the blast but lost her right eye and is known as the “fifth little girl.” Glass fragments remained in her chest, left eye and abdomen for decades after the explosion.The 76-year-old Blanton is the last surviving KKK member convicted of murder in the bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963. 15, 1963, a bomb ripped through an exterior wall of the brick church, killing four girls who were inside preparing for a youth program. Cherry was convicted in 2002 and died in prison in 2004. Chambliss was convicted in 1977 and died in prison in 1985. The investigation into the bombing was stalled early and left dormant for long stretches, but two other ex-Klansmen, Robert Chambliss and Bobby Frank Cherry, also were convicted in the bombing in separate trials. Moderates could no longer remain silent and the fight to topple segregation laws gained new momentum. The church bombing, exposing the depths of hatred by white supremacists as Birmingham integrated its public schools, was a tipping point of the civil rights movement. “That he died at this moment, when the country is trying to reconcile the multi-generational failure to end systemic racism, seems fitting,” Jones said in a statement. Thomas edwin blanton jr. parolle free#Doug Jones, who prosecuted Blanton, said the fact that Blanton remained free for almost 40 years after the bombing “speaks to a broader systemic failure to hold him and his accomplices accountable.” When asked by the judge during sentencing if he had any comment, Blanton said: “I guess the good Lord will settle it on judgment day.” Ivey, in a statement, called the bombing “a dark day that will never be forgotten in both Alabama’s history and that of our nation.” In May 2001, Blanton was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison for the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. He was being held at Donaldson prison near Birmingham, prison officials said. Kay Ivey’s office said Blanton died of natural causes. (AP) - Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., the last of three one-time Ku Klux Klansmen convicted in a 1963 Alabama church bombing that killed four Black girls and was the deadliest single attack of the civil rights movement, died Friday in prison, officials said. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.īIRMINGHAM, Ala. This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated.
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