Former Ku Klux Klan member Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr. avoided justice for 38 years in the deaths of four girls in Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church on September 15, 1963, before being convicted in 2001. Relatives of three of the slain girls spoke against Blanton’s release during the hearing. But given Blanton’s crimes and the lives so irreparably affected, prison is the ideal place for this man to spend the final years of his life. Family and friends of the four girls, representatives of the NAACP and other civil rights groups and former U.S. Attorney Doug Jones, who prosecuted Blanton, were present at the hearing. Speaking in opposition to the parole, Lisa McNair, the younger sister of victim Denise McNair, said her family has had to endure a “legacy of pain” as a result of the bombing.
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Blanton was denied parole during the hearing and his next hearing has been delayed a maximum of five years. He is serving four back-to-back life sentences for his crime at the St. Clair Correctional Facility, and has reportedly not accepted responsibility or expressed remorse for the bombing, but sought to be released to die as a free man. His petition was denied by an Alabama parole board on Wednesday, the Associated Press reports.
Thomas Blanton, 78, was convicted in 2001 for the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in downtown Birmingham.
Denise McNair, 11; Carole Robertson, 14; Addie Mae Collins, 14; and Cynthia Wesley, 14; from left, are shown in these 1963 photos.
“Thomas Blanton was convicted of one of the most heinous crimes in Alabama history-the murder of four young girls who were attending Sunday school”, wrote Attorney General Luther Strange in arguing against parole for Blanton.
The girls, who were inside the church preparing for worship, died instantly in a hail of bricks and stone that seriously injured Collins’ sister, Sarah Collins Rudolph.
“We believe because of that, the church became a symbol and a target”, Price said. Two other convictions stemmed from the bombing, including the 1977 conviction of Robert Chambliss, and the 2002 conviction of Bobby Frank Cherry. “We are definitely sorry for your loss”, said Walker.
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Blanton is the last living person convicted of involvement in the notorious bombing. “We want him to remain in prison”, Falls commented about the parole hearing. He was the federal prosecutor who tried and convicted Blanton and another Klansman after the FBI reopened the case in the 1990s.
