THOMAS EDWIN BLANTON JR FREE

and that's why I'm here,' Blanton told the television station from prison. 'I think I was cleverly set up by the government. In a 2006 interview with Birmingham station WBRC-TV, he claimed the government used trumped-up evidence and lies to gain his conviction. 'Tom Blanton saw change and didn't like it,' Jones said in the trial.Д«lanton proclaimed his innocence years after being sent to prison. The targeted church was a rallying point for protesters. Lisa McNair, the sister of Denise McNair, said she also hoped Blanton had repented and added: 'I wish I could have sat down with him to find out if he had had a change of heart.'Д«lanton never admitted any role in the blast but evidence showed he was part of a group of hard-core Klansmen who made a bomb and planted it on a Sunday morning.Дuring the trial, then-US Attorney Jones, appointed as a special state prosecutor, said Blanton acted in response to months of civil rights demonstrations.

On September 15, 1963, a bomb ripped through an exterior wall of the brick church, killing the four girls who were inside preparing for a youth program 'That he died at this moment, when the country is trying to reconcile the multi-generational failure to end systemic racism, seems fitting,' Jones said.

THOMAS EDWIN BLANTON JR FREE

Senator Doug Jones, who prosecuted Blanton, said the fact that Blanton remained free for almost 40 years after the bombing 'speaks to a broader systemic failure to hold him and his accomplices accountable'. When asked by the judge during sentencing if he had any comment, Blanton said: 'I guess the good Lord will settle it on judgment day.' Ivey, in a statement, called the bombing 'a dark day that will never be forgotten in both AlabamaВґs history and that of our nation'. He was convicted in May 2001 of murder andВ sentenced to life in prisonВ for the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in what was the deadliest single attack of the civil rights movement. Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., the last of three Ku Klux Klansmen convicted in the 1963 Alabama church bombing that killed four Black girls, has died in prison aged 82.Д«lanton died of natural causesВ at Donaldson prison near Birmingham,В Alabama Gov. Cherry was convicted in 2002 and died in prison in 2004.Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., the last of three Ku Klux Klansmen convicted in the 1963 Alabama church bombing that killed four Black girls, has died in prison aged 82 Chambliss was convicted in 1977 and died in prison in 1985. The investigation into the bombing was stalled early and left dormant for long stretches, but two other ex-Klansmen, Robert Chambliss and Bobby Frank Cherry, also were convicted in the bombing in separate trials. Moderates could no longer remain silent and the fight to topple segregation laws gained new momentum. The church bombing, exposing the depths of hatred by white supremacists as Birmingham integrated its public schools, was a tipping point of the civil rights movement. When asked by the judge during sentencing if he had any comment, Blanton said: вЂњI guess the good Lord will settle it on judgment day.вЂќ Ivey, in a statement, called the bombing вЂњa dark day that will never be forgotten in both AlabamaвЂ™s history and that of our nation.вЂќ In May 2001, Blanton was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison for the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. He was being held at Donaldson prison near Birmingham, prison officials said. Kay IveyвЂ™s office said Blanton died of natural causes. (AP) - Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., the last of three one-time Ku Klux Klansmen convicted in a 1963 Alabama church bombing that killed four Black girls and was the deadliest single attack of the civil rights movement, died Friday in prison, officials said.

Thomas edwin blanton jr