3 Plead Guilty in Hate Crime, Grand Jury Meets
A federal grand jury in Mississippi met recently to consider more hate-crime charges in the death of a black man who was run over by a white teenager, a person familiar with the case told The Associated Press Thursday.
Three white men have pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges in the death of James Craig Anderson, a black, 47-year-old car plant worker who was run over with a pickup truck near a Jackson hotel before dawn on June 26, 2011.
Deryl Dedmon, 20, who was driving the truck, also pleaded guilty to state murder and hate-crime charges in March and was given two life sentences. Dedmon and two others, Dylan Butler and John Aaron Rice, await sentencing on the federal charges.
Months after the three pleaded guilty, a federal grand jury met in August as part of an ongoing investigation, according to a person with knowledge of the case who requested anonymity because the person wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publically. It’s not clear if more indictments are coming.