In a federal courtroom in Covington, Kentucky on this date in 2003, three white supremacists, Devlin Jason Burke, 23, Matthew Carl Campbell, 22, and Jeffery Dean Henson, 23, pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges for intimidating and harassing an African-American family. Specifically, they pled guilty to conspiracy to interfere with the family's right to live in the housing of their choice free from intimidation based on race and color, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 241. The family was driven from their West Covington, Kentucky home as a result of the biased-motivated crimes against them. Burke, Campbell, and Henson each admitted shouting racial slurs at the black family, threatening them with violence, and smashing the windows and outdoor lights of their home. They also admitted to chasing the 17-year-old male teenager of the family with sticks and baseball bats and stomping on him with while yelling racial epithets. At the time of the crimes Campbell and Burke had ties to the Imperial Klans of America, a Ku Klux Klan group based in Powderly, Kentucky. Devlin Burke, Matthew Campbell, and Jeffrey Henson each faced up to 10 years in prison for their federal hate crimes. On July 21, 2003, Devlin J. Burke was sentenced to 87 months in prison, followed by three years supervised release; Matthew C. Campbell was sentenced to 71 months imprisonment and three years supervised release; and, Jeffrey D. Henson was sentenced to 46 months in prison and three years supervised release. Devlin Burke's mother, Kimberly Denise Hill, 43—who at the time lived with her son across the road from the black family that was victimized—also pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor violations of the federal Fair Housing Act for intimidating the family with racial slurs and threats. Kimberly D. Hill faced up to two years in prison, and on July 21, 2003, she was handed a 24-month federal prison sentence followed by one year supervised release. All four white defendants were also ordered to pay restitution to their black victims. After completing his federal prison sentence, Devlin Burke would be arrested for attacking a group of nine gay and heteroseuxal men and women on August 15, 2010 in Covington outside a lesbian bar. In that attack Burke cut three men with a razor or boxcutter who intervened when Burke was hitting and kicking the lesbian victim outside the Yadda Club on Pike Street. By September 16, 2010, Burke had been indicted on three counts of second-degree assault and one count of fourth-degree assault for his role in that attack. In March, 2011, a jury convicted Devlin on three counts of felony assault, one count of misdemeanor assault, and also of being a persistent felony offender (because of his previous hate crime conviction). The jury recommended Burke receive a 17-year prison sentence. Devlin Burke, 31, of Newport, Kentucky, was to be sentenced on April 26, 2011. However, Kenton Circuit Court Judge Patricia Summe re-scheduled his sentencing for May 16, 2011, so that a hearing could take place to help determine whether Burke's most recent crimes constitute a hate crime which could prevent him from being placed on parole or probation. On May 17, 2011, the judge found that Burke had committed a hate crime for his assault outside the Yadda Club, and Burke was sentenced to 17 years in prison. His response was to say, "Sieg heil," to the judge. Devlin J. Burke is also said to have served a prison sentence for killing a man in a fight; that victim had dated Burke's mother, Kimberly Hill. For further information about Devlin Burke please see our July 21 and August 15 calendar pages.

On this date in 2005 in Washington, D.C., Senator Mary L. Landrieu, a Democrat from Louisiana, introduced a resolution (Senate Resolution 39) apologizing to the victims of lynching and the descendants of those victims for the failure of the Senate to enact anti-lynching legislation. On June 13, 2005, the resolution was agreed to in the Senate by unanimous consent. However, S39 was adopted not by a recorded roll-call vote; rather, it was passed by a voice vote. Had then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) required an up-or-down vote (a roll-call vote), it would not have masked the dozen senators who did not want to go on record as opposing the adoption of S39. That was the reason for the voice vote. Although we do not know which cowardly senators did not want to vote for S39, we do know that those who supported it were its sixty co-sponsors. The co-sponsoring senators were: Akaka, Daniel K. [HI], Allard, Wayne [CO], Allen, George [VA], Bayh, Evan [IN], Biden, Joseph R., Jr. [DE], Boxer, Barbara [CA], Brownback, Sam [KS], Burr, Richard [NC], Byrd, Robert C. [WV], Cantwell, Maria [WA], Carper, Thomas R. [DE], Clinton, Hillary Rodham [NY], Coburn, Tom [OK], Coleman, Norm [MN], Collins, Susan M. [ME], Corzine, Jon S. [NJ], Craig, Larry E. [ID], Dayton, Mark [MN], DeMint, Jim [SC], Dodd, Christopher J. [CT], Domenici, Pete V. [NM], Dorgan, Byron L. [ND], Durbin, Richard [IL], Ensign, John [NV], Feingold, Russell D. [WI], Feinstein, Dianne [CA], Frist, William H. [TN], Graham, Lindsey [SC], Hagel, Chuck [NE], Harkin, Tom [IA], Inouye, Daniel K. [HI], Jeffords, James M. [VT], Johnson, Tim [SD], Kennedy, Edward M. [MA], Kerry, John F. [MA], Kohl, Herb [WI], Lautenberg, Frank R. [NJ], Leahy, Patrick J. [VT], Levin, Carl [MI], Lieberman, Joseph I. [CT], Lincoln, Blanche L. [AR], Lugar, Richard G. [IN], McCain, John [AZ], Mikulski, Barbara A. [MD], Murray, Patty [WA], Nelson, Bill [FL], Nelson, E. Benjamin [NE], Obama, Barack [IL], Pryor, Mark L. [AR], Reid, Harry [NV], Salazar, Ken [CO], Santorum, Rick [PA], Sarbanes, Paul S. [MD], Schumer, Charles E. [NY], Snowe, Olympia J. [ME], Specter, Arlen [PA], Stabenow, Debbie [MI], Stevens, Ted [AK], Talent, Jim [MO], and, Vitter, David [LA]. Of the 39 senators not co-sponsoring Senator Landrieu’s resolution, 32 were Republicans and seven were Democrats. One of those Republicans not co-sponsoring S39 was Thad Cochran, a senator from Mississippi, who declared he would neither sign on as a co-sponsor of S39, nor vote against it. However, he said he would not be present to vote for it. Seventeen of the non-cosponsoring senators represented states that were slave states at the beginning of the Civil War; 16 of these former slave-state senators not going on the record as a co-sponsor of the lynching apology resolution were Republicans.

In Alachua County, Florida, on this date in 2008, Jared Elijah Blanton, 20, of Gainesville, Florida, was arrested and charged with aggravated battery, kidnapping, sexual assault, vehicle theft and robbery for allegedly attacking a transgendered individual after learning the Micanopy, Florida store employee was anatomically male. Investigators have called the alleged crimes hate crimes because Blanton, who at the time was on probation, is said to have used slurs directed at the victim at the time of the attack. A second male suspect has yet to be apprehended.

On this date in 2009 in Palo Alto, California (Santa Clara County), Miguel Luis Carlson, 31, of Burlingame, allegedly hurled racial slurs at an East-Indian taxi driver from Santa Clara before and while assaulting him as the man was attempting to purchase a soft drink at a gas station on Alma Street. The gas station's cashier and the gas station's mechanic worked for several minutes to free the victim from the chokehold Carlson allegedly had the victim in. Carlson—who has a prior violent criminal-arrest history—was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and a hate crime a short time after the incident; however, he was formally charged with misdemeanor commission of a hate crime by use of force and threat of force as well as misdemeanor battery. He pleaded not guilty on February 11, 2009, in the Santa Clara County Superior Court.

On this date in 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee, News Channel 5 reporter Nick Beres aired the first installment of a two-day Islamophobic "exclusive" titled "Inside Islamville: Is a Local Muslim Community Tied to Terrorism?" about a local group of Somali-born Muslims living near Dover, Tennessee. The CBS news affiliate WTVF and Nick Beres gave more than a little credence to the right-wing Christian Action Network's hate film called "Homegrown Jihad: The Terrorist Camps Around U.S." when Beres interviewed a Christian minister who voiced his belief that Muslims living in Islamville, Tennessee, are involved in training terrorists. The film has been widely denounced as anti-Muslim propoganda; moreover, there has never been any evidence that the citizens of Islamville are involved in terrorism. On February 10, 2010, two days after the airing of the last segment of the WTVF broadcast, the Al-Farooq Islamic Center on Fourth Avenue South in Nashville was vandalized with anti-Muslim graffiti, and members of the community have said Nick Beres provoked the incident with his provocative two-day report. "Muslims go home" and crosses were spray-painted in red across the front of the Al-Farooq Islamic Center, and an anti-Muslim note was also found. Police have labelled the incident a hate crime. Nashville citizens responded by showing their support to the members of the mosque by attending an open house; before that, one unemployed trucker bought paint to cover up the graffiti which he delivered to the mosque.

In Mount Vernon, Illinois, on this date in 2011, an African-American man married to a white woman, Clark Crable, who also lives with another interracial couple, discovered that someone burned a cross on his yard, and the FBI investigated this incident as a possible hate crime. If you have any information about this crime, please call the Mount Vernon Police Department at 618-242-2131.