Hate Trial Brings Victim’s Son and Crusading Lawyer Together
It was the moment of truth for the Southern Poverty Law Center in its courtroom battle against one of the nation’s most notorious white supremacist leaders.
The jury filed into the courtroom in Portland, Ore. A verdict had been reached. In a matter of minutes, lives would change forever.
The SPLC had filed a lawsuit on behalf of the family of Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethiopian graduate student brutally murdered in Portland in 1988 by a gang of racist skinheads organized by the White Aryan Resistance (WAR), a group led by neo-Nazi Tom Metzger and his son, John. The lawsuit sought to hold the Metzgers and their organization liable for the killing. An SPLC victory would almost guarantee WAR’s destruction.
All the work, the evidence, the witnesses, the testimony – it was all leading to this moment.