Message-ID: <35B8DF91.C22E1541@hatewatch.org>
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1998 15:25:06 -0400
From: HateWatch 
Organization: HateWatch
To: hatewatch-L@norden1.com
CC: nizkor-L@nizkor.org
Subject: Nizkor-l: Klan Must Pay $37.8M Over Arson

Klan Must Pay $37.8M Over Arson

By BRUCE SMITH
.c The Associated Press

MANNING, S.C. (AP) - Ku Klux Klansmen must pay $37.8 million for creating a
climate of hate that led to a fire that destroyed a predominantly black
church, a jury decided today.

The verdict went beyond the $25.2 million in damages sought by Macedonia
Baptist Church for the June 1995 fire. The jury of nine blacks and three
whites deliberated just 45 minutes.

The verdict includes $300,000 in actual damages and $37.5 million in punitive
damages against KKK organizations in North Carolina and South Carolina.

A lawyer for the church, Morris Dees, had asked for $200,000 in actual damages
and $25 million in punitive damages.

It marked another victory against the Klan for Dees, who heads the Southern
Poverty Law Center, which has won other court judgments that have bankrupted
Klan factions.

``That's the enemy sitting right over there,'' Dees had said in closing
arguments, pointing at Horace King, South Carolina leader of the Christian
Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. ``That's the evil. If Horace King would look at
his Bible, he would see what the wages of sin are.''

The church contended the Christian Knights factions in the Carolinas, their
leaders and four men now serving federal prison sentences for the arson
conspired to burn the church.

``We're going to get every dollar they get for the next 50 years because they
worry me,'' Dees said.

Home ·  Site Map ·  What's New? ·  Search Nizkor