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. And while we have come so far as a City, there are some crimes that are so sinister that parole should not be considered. 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. 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.
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was convicted in the deadly 16th street Baptist Church bombing that killed four little girls. (WIAT) - A one-time Ku Klux Klan member is up for parole. 76-year-old Thomas Edwin Blanton, Jr. 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. This story has been corrected to say Blanton is 78, not 76. 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. 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.
#THOMAS EDWIN BLANTON JR FULL#
Relatives of all four victims were on hand, and the room was full of people opposing Blanton's parole. 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.
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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.
![thomas edwin blanton jr thomas edwin blanton jr](https://media.nbcboston.com/2019/09/thomasblanton.jpg)
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.