On this date in 1997 in the U.S. District Court in Savannah, Georgia, four men were arrested and indicted on charges of violating federal criminal civil rights laws, for allegedly conspiring to burn a trailer home of a black couple in Telfair County, Georgia, in order to frighten away the owners, Carrie McRae and Oscar Lee Riley. Charged with one count of conspiring to violate the civil rights of another, one count of interfering with an individual’s right to live in a dwelling free from violence and intimidation, and one count of using fire in the commission of a felony were: Razell Spires, 55, of Milan, Georgia, Joey Spires, 19, of Milan, Mac Nathaniel Rainey, 20, and Tommy James Hulett, 20. Razell Spires is in a federal prison in North Carolina and is expected to be released on May 24, 2010. Hulett was released from federal prison on August 6, 1999; Joey Spires was released on February 14, 2003; and, Rainey was released on March 31, 2003.

In Chicago, Illinois, on this date in 2008, a man previously convicted of a hate crime, Louis Ranger, 52, was charged once again with a hate crime as well as misdemeanor assault after allegedly threatening a man with an ice pick on February 2, 2008. Ranger, who was convicted of a hate crime in 1994, is also alleged to have called the victim a "Jewish motherfucker" on West Irving Park, about six miles from Ranger's home on the 1400 block of West Granville. In addition to his previous hate crime conviction, Ranger has also been convicted of two burglaries and aggravated battery.

On this date in 2008, Karen Burton, 46, of Chapmanville, West Virginia, was indicted on charges of committing a hate crime, kidnapping and malicious wounding stemming from the September, 2007 week-long abduction/torture of a Black woman, Megan Williams, 20, in a trailer in Big Creek, West Virginia. Bobby Brewster, 24, his mother (Frankie Brewster, 49, both from Big Creek), and Danny Combs, 20, of Harts, West Virginia, were also indicted on this date in 2008 on kidnapping, sexual assault and conspiracy charges stemming from their alleged involvement in the torture. Karen Burton pleaded guilty two days later, on February 7, 2008, to malicious wounding, assault and violating Ms. Williams' civil rights; the kidnapping charge, which carried a maximum life sentence, was dropped. Karen Burton used a racial slur when she stabbed Ms. Williams in the ankle, stating, “This is what we do to niggers down here.” Karen’s daughter, Alisha Burton, 23, and, George A. Messer, 27, both of Chapmanville, previously pleaded guilty and were sentenced to concurrent prison terms of 10 years for kidnapping and 2 to 10 years for assault. On October 21, 2009, several days after receiving death threats, Megan Williams claimed that the hate crime against her was a hoax—a desperately made assertion apparently in hopes of quelling the death threats made against her.

In the early morning hours in Kentwood, Michigan on this date in 2009, someone set fire to the home of James and Gloria Cutts—an African-American couple—on Summer Creek Lane SE causing an estimated $150,000 in damage. The Cutts' home was also scrawled with anti-Obama grafitti. In addition, it was discovered then that two neighboring homes also owned by African-American families (Aaron and Shequillia Hall, and LaShon Miller) also had Barack Obama death-threat grafitti scrawled on them. All three homes had displayed Obama for President yard signs during the 2008 election. Local police, the FBI and the ATF all investigated these three apparently simultaneously occurring hate crime incidents.