Thomas Blanton was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences for the 1963 16th Street church bombing that killed four girls and injured another. He is eligible for parole today. APR student reporter Katie Willem has more.
At the age of 78, Blanton will have his first parole hearing after fifteen years in prison. While the attack happened in 1963, Blanton was not arrested until 2001. He was convicted for four counts of murder after the case was reopened.
Doug Jones was the US Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama at the time. He was the lead prosecutor in the case against Blanton. Jones and family members of the victims of the bombing will be at the hearing to present letters to the parole board. They will be asking that Blanton stay in prison. Jones says Blanton’s crime had far-reaching implications for civil rights.
“I think it was one that had so much meaning to people around the world, really, not just in the Birmingham community. This was a crime that really touched the entire world in 1963.”
The church bombing contributed to support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The Alabama House Republican Caucus is supporting state representative Mac McCutcheon of Monrovia, Alabama to replace ousted House Speaker Mike Hubbard.
A statement from the group says the 70 members decided unanimously yesterday to back McCutcheon for the position when legislators begin a special session on Aug. 15. The move virtually guarantees that McCutcheon will succeed Hubbard, who was automatically removed from office after being convicted of multiple felony ethics charges.
Republicans hold a supermajority in the 105-member House. McCutcheon says he will treat both Republicans and Democrats with fairness and honor.
McCutcheon is an Army veteran who retired from the Huntsville Police Department. He was elected to the House in 2006 and currently serves as chairman of the Rules Committee, which sets the agenda for the House.
The Alabama Department of Corrections is studying the state's aging prisons. APR‘s Stan Ingold reports, some of these prisons could one day be replaced with a few "mega-prisons."
The DOC has a nearly $500,000 contract with an engineering and architecture firm to study Alabama's aging prisons.
The Decatur Daily reports, results could be used to make the case for new, larger facilities.
Governor Bentley first pitched to lawmakers his plan to shutter most of the state's 16 crowded and outdated prisons by borrowing eight hundred million dollars to build three large mega-prisons, each housing four thousand male inmates, along with one women's prison. Bentley's office says the concept will be back before lawmakers next year.
W.C. Holman Correctional Facility, one of Alabama's toughest and most overcrowded prisons, went on lockdown Tuesday following the second incident since March in which officers had to regain control of an inmate dormitory following a disturbance.