January 17

On this date in 1999 along a ditch in rural Texas City, Texas, police found the bodies of Laaron Morris, 28, and Kevin Tryals, 30, both of whom had been shot to death multiple times, and their car set on fire.  The families of both African-American victims said that the men were gay and that they believe their murders were a hate crime.  At the time their bodies had been discovered Texas City Police Chief Jerry Purdon said, "It was a very vicious murder so that it could have been a hate crime, but there is no evidence to link it to a hate crime." To our knowledge no arrests were made.

In Juneau, Wisconsin, on this date in 2004, Isaac D. Dornfeld, 20, allegedly started a barroom fight because two men at the Bullfeathers bar on Henry Street were speaking Spanish.  Dornfeld was charged with disorderly conduct as a hate crime, substantial battery and battery.

David V. Fredericy, 50, a white man from the Slavic Village section of Cleveland, Ohio, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for his role in a racially-motivated hate crime towards an interracial family on this date in 2007. He pleaded guilty on October 26, 2006. Fredericy and a co-conspirator, Joseph Kuzlik, who is also a white man from the Slavic Village section of Cleveland, placed toxic mercury on the porch of the family to intimidate them to move out of the neighborhood. Kuzlik pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges on November 27, 2006, and February 21, 2007, he was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution. Fredericy completed his prison sentence on June 17, 2008, and on February 7, 2008, Kuzlik completed his prison sentence at the age of 58.

In the Tarzana section of Los Angeles, California on this date in 2008, swastikas and anti-Semitic remarks spray-painted on four walls were found along Wells Drive, between Tampa Avenue and Louise Avenue. Police investigated the incident as a possible hate crime. To our knowledge no arrests were made.

On this date in 2009 in Gloucester City, New Jersey, self-proclaimed "white separatist" and Aryan Nation member, Christopher "Conan" DeMunguia, 35, of Gloucester City—a man who has spent most of his life behind bars and a man who in 2004 was jailed for the hate crime assault on a black man waiting at a bus stop—punched a man at Oh! Hara's Pub breaking his jaw. On January 12, 2010, DeMunguia pleaded guilty to aggravated assault under a plea agreement that will have him serve at least four years and three months before becoming eligible for parole.

In Spokane, Washington on this date in 2011 just an hour before a Martin Luther King, Jr., Day memorial parade march, a powerful, sophisticated bomb in a Swiss Army backpack with a remote detenator was discovered by three workers from the Spokane Public Facilities District along the parade route. Placed to have caused maximum casualities, the FBI said the bomb, which was successfully diffused, may have been the work of white supremacists in the area. They would turn out to be correct. One anonymous official familiar with the bomb said, "They haven't seen anything like this in this country. This was the worst device, and most intentional device, I've ever seen." Tony Stewart, a member of the Kootenai County (Idaho) Task Force on Human Relations, said of the bomb, "There would be no question that since it was planted directly on the path of the Martin Luther King Jr. march, that it has to be connected to hate crimes. It was an attempt to injure and kill people because they were out there promoting the equality of human rights. The evidence is just too overwhelming." FBI Special Agent Frank Harrill was more cautious stating, "The confluence of the holiday, the march and the device is inescapable, but we are not at the point where we can draw any particular motive." On March 9, 2011, law enforcement personnel arrested an unemployed white man, Kevin William Harpham, 36—who reportedly has links to the neo-Nazi hate group National Alliance and who is former US Army soldier—at his home near Addy, Washington, based on this criminal complaint. Kevin Harpham was charged with one count of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and one count of knowingly possessing an improvised explosive device. It was announced on April 21, 2011, that a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Washington returned a superseding indictment charging Kevin Harpham, 36, with federal hate crime and weapons violations arising out of the attempted bombing of the Martin Luther King Jr. Unity March in Spokane. The superseding indictment alleged that Kevin Harpham planted and attempted to use an improvised explosive device on the corner of Main and Washington Streets in Spokane during the march, because of the actual or perceived race, color or national origin of participants. Harpham had four charges lodged against him including two federal hate crime charges: violation of the Hate Crimes Act and attempting to use an explosive device in connection with a hate crime. If convicted of violating the Hate Crimes Act, Harpham could receive a sentence of up to ten years in prison. If convicted of the charge of attempting to use an explosive device in connection with a hate crime, the minimum prison sentence he supposed to receive is 30 years. However, the two hate crime charges are tied together; that is, Harpham must be convicted of violating the Hate Crimes Act to be convicted on the charge of attempting to use an explosive device in connection with a hate crime. Additionally, Harpham, who had no prior criminal history, faced up to life in prison if he had been convicted on the charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. Harpham's trial was initially scheduled to start May 31, 2011, but jury selection was moved to begin instead on September 12, 2011. Kevin W. Harpham, who was kept in custody without bond while awaiting trial, pleaded not guilty before U.S. Magistrate Cynthia Imbrogno on April 25, 2011. However, on September 7, 2011, Harpham, 37, pleaded guilty to federal hate crime and weapons charges as part of a plea deal that involved him being sentenced to between 27 and 32 years in federal prison, and a lifetime term of court supervision after his release. When he pleaded guilty Kevin Harpham said in court that he placed the backpack bomb along the parade route in an attempt to commit a racially motivated hate crime. On December 20, 2011, Kevin W. Harpham was sentenced to 32 years in prison.