On this date in 2008, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, Missouri ruled that U.S. District Judge Harry Barnes was wrong to conclude that Christopher Mitchell and James Bradley Weems played only minor roles in a Fouke, Arkansas cross-burning hate crime committed in August, 2005. On February 8, 2007, Judge Barnes had sentenced Mitchell and Weems to one month in prison each, and to a five-month home detention each for their roles in a hate crime against an African-American neighbor of a third co-conspirator, Christopher Baird, by planting a wooden cross on the man’s lawn and setting it aflame. Baird later pleaded Guilty to one count of conspiracy to threaten and intimidate a black man in the free exercise and enjoyment of his housing rights. He was sentenced, under the federal court's hate crime enhancement law, to six months home detention, three years probation and a $2,000 fine. On September 28, 2006, Mitchell and Weems were found guilty of the same offense after a trial.