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Tuesday, January 14, 2003
"But I'm not guilty of all the hate crime things they accused me of."
Burned a cross on an inter-racial couples front lawn...used racial epithets....
But Daniel Swan isn't a racist. He's just...stupid, I guess.
Daniel Swan, the Mississippi cross-burner whose potential prison sentence was reduced by embattled Judge Charles Pickering, says both he and the judge are victims of political intrigue.
"Politics are hurting a good man like Pickering and have put me in a real bind," he said.
Swan, 29, of tiny Sandy Hook in south Mississippi, said his life went into free fall soon after President Bush nominated Pickering, a federal district judge in Hattiesburg, for a seat on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
snip
Swan said he and a group of other young, white men were drinking in the parking lot of the Improve Grocery, whiling away the hours on the night of Jan. 8, 1994, when a car filled with black men drove by.
"There was a lot of hooting and hollering," Swan said. Then one of his companions, a 17-year-old identified in court papers as "J.B.," came up with the idea of burning a cross on the Polkeys' lawn, Swan said.
The men already had hoisted a dead skunk on a pole in front of the Improve Grocery and performed other pranks that night. To Swan, the cross-burning was just another game.
Swan said he, J.B. and a third man, named Mickey Thomas, went to Swan's home, gathered some boards from an old hog pen and hammered a cross together. Swan said he drove the cross and the men in his pickup to the Polkey home, where they propped the gasoline-doused cross on a cedar tree and struck a match.
"The cross made a big old light and then the gasoline burned off," Swan said.
"There wasn't even any damage to the cedar tree."
I think I'll refrain from commenting on the joys of how to wile away an evening in a small southern town.
J.B., who Swan says was the ringleader of the group, reached a deal with prosecutors that placed him on home detention for six months and one year of probation. Thomas was deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial. He received the same deal as J.B.
Swan was the only one of the three defendants who had faced the possibility of serious prison time. Prosecuted under a federal statute that covers the use of fire in the commission of a felony, he could have received a minimum of seven years in prison.
Swan said he's grateful Pickering fought to have his potential sentence reduced.
"He was sworn to be honest and fair when he took office, and that's what he was, honest and fair," Swan said.
Swan, who was obviously turned down by most of the Ivy League schools, fails to mention that he chose to not accept a plea bargain, which Judge Pickering was well aware of. So, apparently Judge Pickering wasn't exactly being "fair".
Pickering said he urged prosecutors to lessen Swan's potential sentence because he believed Swan's punishment was unfair based on what the other two defendants received. Pickering called Assistant Attorney General Frank Hunger — a fellow Mississippian and former Vice President Al Gore's brother-in-law — to "express my frustration with the gross disparity in sentence recommended by the government and my inability to get a response from the Justice Department in Washington." Hunger told Pickering he couldn't help him.
No mention of the plea bargain again...oh, and did he mention it was the Clinton Justice Department's fault? Yer gawldang tootin', it was.
So. To recap. Swan isn't a racist. Pickering isn't a racist. And the Clinton Justice department should probably be investigated for failure to return a phone call. Indictments, I'm sure, are just around the corner.
One additional note: I believe that Daniel Swan's may be violating his probation by wearing that shirt. He's certainly violating something...
(link via Atrios)
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