Miss. teen pleads guilty in rundown hate crime

Deryl Dedmon in Hinds County Circuit Court, in Jackson, Miss. on March 21, 2012. / AP Photo

(AP) JACKSON, Miss. - A white Mississippi teenager has pleaded guilty to murder and committing a hate crime for running over a black man with his pickup truck, killing him.

Deryl Dedmon was sentenced to two life sentences for killing 49-year-old James Craig Anderson in Jackson in June.

Dedmon, 19, apologized to Anderson's family. "I do not ask y'all to forget, but I do ask y'all to forgive," he said in court just before he was sentenced by Hinds County Circuit Judge Jeff Weill Sr.

As members of his family and the victim's relatives wiped away tears, Demon said God has taught him not to see race and he is a changed man.

Seven white teens were partying in the early morning hours June 26 when Dedmon suggested they find a black man to harass, authorities said. Anderson was beaten before Dedmon ran over him, authorities said.

Another teenager, John Aaron Rice, is charged with simple assault in the case. Authorities said he left the scene before Anderson was killed. Rice has pleaded not guilty and is free on a $5,000 bond.

The case received widespread attention after a video of Anderson's death was obtained by news organizations, including The Associated Press.

The video, taken by a hotel surveillance camera, shows a white Jeep Cherokee in which Rice was allegedly a passenger leaving a hotel parking lot at 5:05 a.m. Less than 20 seconds later, a Ford truck backs up and then lunges forward. Anderson's shirt is illuminated in the headlights before he disappears under the vehicle next to the curb. Police said Dedmon was driving the truck and later bragged that he ran over Anderson, using a racial slur to describe him.

Dedmon was indicted for capital murder, which in Mississippi carries a sentence of death or life in prison without parole.

Anderson's family had asked prosecutors not to pursue the death penalty, saying they oppose capital punishment. Anderson's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the seven teens, including two young girls who were allegedly in the truck with Dedmon.

[rockychance]

Race problems in America are getting worse not better and it is not because schools are not trying. The problem is politicians. It is easy to end race problems. Simply say everyone is equal and no person gets any breaks whatsoever because of their race. The color of the skin is not the problem-it is perceptions about race and behavoir that is the real problem. Rednecks are stupid but so are the black comedians who talk about other blacks in a derogatory way and so is the tolerance of inner city behavoir by leaders that only fuels the perceptions.

[sanebrain]

Some more southern white trash. The south is infested with inbred degenerates.

[flexsf]

The deep south sucks. It is totally useless.

[talis4]

He was white. Why didn't he just claim self-defense? It works in florida.

[occupy_cbs]

MakeMyDayLiberal: "One question though, why's it a hate crime when a white kills a black but when it's reversed, it's not."




One question: How many whites have been lynched by an angry group of blacks in Mississippi since the Civil WAR?


NONE!

[occupy_cbs]

Next question: How many outright hate crimes by whites against innocent blacks have been perpetrated and hidden?


Too many for an accurate report!

[occupy_cbs]

Hey "mrs," please post your PROOF from your invisible "historian."

[occupy_cbs]

"Seven white teens were partying in the early morning hours June 26 when Dedmon suggested they find a black man to harass, authorities said. Anderson was beaten before Dedmon ran over him, authorities said."



This is the culture of the southern white, that has lived with racism forever, and the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voter Rights Act of the mid-1960's, only caused defection by conservatives from the Democratic Party to the republican party. The southern conservatives still believe in slavery and having complete control.

[amerilatino]

Mississippians, let this serve as a warning, leave your cousins alone, begetting children with them will only lead to tragedies like this.

[HeresKitty]

You know what? This is not all people or all kids. These were some mixed up hate filled children and they took it to far! Now they have to pay the price for ignorance. It's incidences like this that keep the African Americans screaming in outrage! Just foolishness, a life is a life, no matter what color it is wrapped in. They should have been taught that as children, now they have ruined their own lives as well as taken an innocent life. Shame! Teach the children better than this!

[mysticpizza]

I love this post you have made and it is 100% dead on.

[occupy_cbs]

Unfortunately, this is the culture of the old slave states, that still need to use the blacks and other minorities as their scapegoats and their reason for not attaining success.

Fact is, many still wrongly think that more inner-city blacks are on welfare today, when there are more rural white-trash recipients of welfare and food stamps than blacks.

But the LIES and DECEPTIONS continue only to incite outrage!

[notyrants]

askagain March 21, 2012 10:07 PM EDT
Stupid murders happen all over the place. You find them in Boston, Baltimore, Washington, and San Francisco to name a few places. Why single out the South?
-------------------------
Because the south has a history of bigoted religious hypocrites. It has a history of feudal minded entitled cotton plantation owners who believed it their God given right to steal the wealth that is derived from the labor of others and call it their full entitled right of property. It is white southerners who have a history of believing they had the sanction of God to torture and execute their human property if those humans resisted allowing the wealth of their labor to be taken without just compensation. Those cotton plantation owners are long dead and if they truly believed in God and Jesus and were in fact accurate, it is rest assured they are in hell today.

[HeresKitty]

Come on now, I am from the South, and I have Creole, AAmerican, and Hispanic roots! The south has it's history and it's problems we will agree,but don't single them out. I live in California now, educated, live in a nice house, drive a nice car, and I still wouldn't be caught dead in Marin County after dark, not good. Prejudice is alive and doing well everywhere.

[askagain]

notyrants - Boston had race riots in the late 1800s. The KKK was one of the biggest organizations in America in the 1930s and 1940s. There were clan activities in most states and lynchings even in northern states. Racism and discrimination could be found throughout America. At various times, various groups including the Chinese, the Irish, the Italians, and Jews was commonplace. It wasn't just the South with a history of racism, discrimination, and segregation.

[TJphoto]

Enjoy prison, make lots of black friends. Life as you have known it.............IS OVER!