You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

3 Sentenced to Prison for 2011 Mississippi Hate Crime Murder of Black Auto Worker

HeadlineFeb 12, 2015

Three white men have been sentenced to prison for the 2011 murder of an African-American man in Jackson, Mississippi. The three and other friends beat James Craig Anderson, a 49-year-old black auto plant worker, while yelling “white power!” and other racial epithets. Surveillance footage then shows one of the individuals’ truck driving over Anderson, killing him instantly. Anderson was also a gay man with a same-sex partner, but it is unclear if his sexual orientation factored into the deadly attack. On Wednesday, Deryl Paul Dedmon received 50 years in prison; John Aaron Rice, 18-and-a-half years; and Dylan Wade Butler, seven years. All were convicted of the commission of a hate crime.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top