Cross-Burner Sentenced to 10 Years Kristen Hays (AP) 5 Feb 01
HOUSTON -- The leader of a group of five Texas men who burned a cross in front of a black family's home was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison.
Matthew Marshall, 21, was the last of the group to be sentenced. All pleaded guilty to violating the civil rights of Dwayne and Maria Ross and their two children last summer in Katy, a Houston suburb.
The family found a charred 6-foot cross on their lawn on June 19, a day celebrated by Texas African-Americans and known as Juneteenth. It marks the date President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation abolishing slavery first became known to slaves in the state.
Prior to his sentencing, Marshall pleaded for leniency, telling the family the cross-burning was not "personal."
"I did not even know your name," he said. "It was not about hate, because I am not a racist."
Marshall asked Judge David Hittner for probation or a term in boot camp rather than a prison sentence. But Hittner said he was unmoved, and ignored pleas from friends and family who called Marshall's behavior an aberration.
Hittner also said Marshall had once dragged a dog to its death and that the FBI (news - web sites) had a videotape showing Marshall force-feeding a feces-laced sandwich to a Native American high school classmate.
He said racial slurs used by Marshall's father during a pre-trial hearing had influenced his decision.
"It appears that the seeds of his racism were sown at home," Hittner said.
Three of Marshall's co-conspirators were sentenced to just more than a year in prison while the fourth was sentenced to more than three years in jail.
Marshall's lawyers said drugs and alcohol were to blame.
___________From:
The Internet Anti-Fascist: Friday, 9 February 2001
Vol. 5, Number 9 (#511)