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SOUTH CAROLINA MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO BURNING

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A South Carolina man pleaded guilty yesterday in the District Court in Columbia, South Carolina to a conspiracy to oppress and intimidate members of the African-American Goodwill Presbyterian Church in Sumter, S.C., the Justice Department announced.

James Crawford, 49, of Sumter, admitted that he and two others burned crosses on the church grounds on April 1, 2000, depriving church members of their civil rights, including the right to worship freely. Two co-conspirators, Bryan Carraway and a juvenile, previously pleaded guilty to related charges.

According to the indictment, the cross-burning followed several months of indoctrination in which Crawford urged his two accomplices to commit violent crimes against African-Americans and start a race war. On April 1, 2000, Crawford's accomplices stole a cross displayed in front of the Goodwill Presbyterian Church, and then the three conspirators took the cross to a secluded location and burned it in a so-called "Klan initiation" ceremony. The ceremony was meant to induct the accomplices into the Ku Klux Klan, of which Crawford is a member.

The three then returned to the church and burned the remaining two crosses on the church grounds, as Crawford shouted "white power."

"This case demonstrates the pressing and continuing need to enforce federal criminal hate crimes statutes," said Assistant Attorney General Bill Lann Lee. "Hateful acts like cross burnings strike at the heart of the community and must be stopped."

In a plea agreement entered yesterday in U.S. District Court in Columbia, Crawford admits that he intended to deprive church members of their property, namely, the crosses, and that he intended to threaten and intimidate worshipers. He pleaded guilty to one count of committing a conspiracy against rights, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 241.

The case was jointly prosecuted by the United States Attorney's Office and the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.

"It is unfortunate that vestiges of racial hate and violence still exist today," said U.S. Attorney René Josey. "It is even more troublesome that this adult defendant, rather than serving as a positive role model, chose to pass on the virus of racial bigotry from his generation to the next, introducing a juvenile and a eighteen-year-old to an underworld of racial hatred and violence. As we usher in a new millennium, this office is committed to eradicating this virus."

The Department of Justice commends the efforts and cooperation of the various law enforcement agencies, state and federal, which investigated the case, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the Sumter County Sheriff's Department, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and Sumter County Solicitor Kelly Jackson.

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