Judge Wants Longer Sentences For 2 White Women Involved In Running Over Black Mississippi Man

Apr 10, 2015 08:33 PM EDT

(Photo : Reuters) James Craig Anderii son is one of the many black victims of racism in the U.S. He was ran over by a truck in a hate crime organized by white youth.

If U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate would have it his way, he would have given on Thursday longer sentences to two young white women involved in running over to death a black Mississippi man in 2011.

However, he had to comply with the plea agreements of 21-year-old Shelbie Brooke Richards of Pearl and 22-year-old Sarah Adelia Grave of Crystal Springs that resulted in eight years and five years prison terms, respectively, for the two women, reports MSNBC.

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Wingate, appointed in 1984 as the first African-American federal judge in Mississippi, stressed that the presence of the two women in a Ford truck that ran over and killed James Craig Anderson in a Jackson parking lot was not an isolated accident but a pattern of racist behavior.

Richards pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit a hate crime and another count for concealing a crime by lying to police. Grave admitted guilt for one count of conspiracy to commit a hate crime.

The two women recruited people at a drunken party to kill Anderson. Richards encouraged Derly Paul Dedmon to first assault Anderson when the group arrived at a hotel parking lot before dawn of June 26, 2011. They yelled a racial slur and encouraged Dedmon to run over the black man.

The six white men who were part of their group have been sentenced by another judge to four to 50 years for Anderson's death. Two other men would be sentenced by Wingate.

Richards, now regretting her role, said, "If I had one chance to change everything, that would be to give Mr. Anderson's life back." She adds, "The decision to go on this mortifying trip was the worst decision of my life."

Anderson, who tried to sell them suburbanites drugs, was not the only black victim of the group. Previously, they have beaten a black man near a golf course in Jackson, hit black pedestrians using beer bottles and a slingshot, and tried to run another black man.

Wingate initially said he was wondering if the hatred is engrained for some particular reason, but realized, "That's what racial hatred is all about: whites who hates blacks and blacks who hates whites. It's just automatic."