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. They decided against parole after hearing the opposition and conferring briefly. While the board normally consists of three people, one seat is vacant and only members Eddie Cook Jr. Blanton perpetrated in 1963, the message is we have to stop the hate and we will punish those who kill or maim in the name of hate,” Jones said. “Whether it’s racial issues, whether it’s gender issues, whether it is terrorist activity similar to what Mr. Jones said freeing Blanton would both compound the “insurmountable pain” endured by the girls’ families and set a bad precedent. attorney who prosecuted Blanton on the state charge, said Blanton shouldn’t be released since he has neither accepted responsibility for the bombing nor expressed any remorse. Opponents took up seats normally reserved for inmates’ relatives, and members of the Birmingham NAACP chapter rode to Montgomery on a bus to be there.ĭoug Jones, a former U.S. Inmates do not attend parole hearings under Alabama law, and no one showed up to speak on Blanton’s behalf. “We were at that church learning about love and forgiveness when someone was outside doing hateful things,” she said. 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. 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. – 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. This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia ( view authors).MONTGOMERY, Ala. ↑ Thomas Blanton, 16th Street Baptist Church bomber, dies in prison."Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bomber up for parole next month". "Thomas Blanton, Who Bombed a Birmingham Church, Dies at 82". ↑ "16th Street Baptist Church bombing | History & Four Girls" (in en)."Ex-Klansman Is Found Guilty in '63 Bombing". Until Justice Rolls Down: The Birmingham Church Bombing Case. Mass racial violence in the United States.Donaldson Correctional Facility from unspecified causes while serving his life sentence, six days after his 82nd birthday. On June 26, 2020, Blanton died at William E. Parole was denied and deferred until 2021. Blanton went before the parole board on August 3, 2016. He was housed at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. He was sentenced to four life sentences in state prison. In a jury trial in 2001, Blanton was prosecuted by the state, and convicted of murder. This was reportedly because Hoover thought a successful prosecution was unlikely. to bring charges against Blanton and three other men. Edgar Hoover prevented attempts by the Birmingham office of the F.B.I. īlanton was a suspect from early in the investigation, but J. Trial and imprisonment Īt the time of his arrest, Blanton was working at a Walmart store and he was living in a trailer with no running water. Blanton was a member of the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1960s, along with the other suspects in the bombing. Education and career īlanton had a tenth-grade education and served as an aircraft mechanic in the Navy from 1956 to 1959. on June 20, 1938, and was the son of Thomas Edwin "Pops" Blanton Sr., who was described in 2001 as a notorious racist in the Birmingham, Alabama area.
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