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New sentencing hearing ordered for two convicted of hate crime Friday, Feb 29, 2008 Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - A federal appeals court Thursday ordered a new sentencing hearing for two men convicted in 2006 of burning a cross in front of the home of a black man at Fouke in Southwest Arkansas. A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis ruled Christopher Mitchell and James Bradley Weems, each sentenced to a month in prison followed by five months home detention, two years probation and a $2,000 fine, were "deeply involved in the conspiracy" and should have been sentenced accordingly. The appeals court overruled U.S. District Judge Harry Barnes, who concluded at a sentencing hearing the two men were minor participants in the crime. In Thursday's decision, the appeals court said the Mitchell and Weems attended a party with several friends at Christopher Baird's home in Fouke on Aug. 2, 2005. At the party the men talked about a black man who lived nearby and used racial slurs to discuss the neighbor. Later in the evening, Mitchell, Weems and Baird built a cross out of wooden boards, went to the neighbor's home, planted the cross in the front yard and set it on fire, the court said. Baird later pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to threaten and intimidate a black man in the free exercise and enjoyment of his housing rights. He was sentenced, under the federal court's three-level enhancement for hate crime motivation, to six months home detention, three years probation and fined $2,000. He could have been sentenced to up to a year in prison but received reductions for acceptance of responsibility and cooperation with the government. Mitchell and Weems were found guilty of the same offense after a trial, but the federal judge granted their request for a two-level reduction for being minor participants in the conspiracy. Federal prosecutors appealed the sentencing, arguing Barnes erred by not using the three-level enhancement. The 8th Circuit panel overturned Barnes' ruling Thursday. "Because the jury found beyond a reasonable doubt that Weems and Mitchell selected the victim because of his race, the district court should have applied the three-level enhancement when calculating the correct guidelines range," the appeals court said. |
