Clair Correctional Facility in Springville, Alabama. and that’s why I’m here,” Blanton told the television station from St. “I think I was cleverly set up by the government. In a 2006 interview with Birmingham station WBRC-TV, he claimed the government used trumped-up evidence and lies to gain his conviction.
Thomas Blanton Jr., who died Friday in an. senator, said in the trial.īlanton proclaimed his innocence years after being sent to prison. EDT Gift In 1963, Birmingham, Ala., was called Bombingham because of the number of black homes that were firebombed. “Tom Blanton saw change and didn’t like it,” Jones, now a Democratic U.S. The targeted church was a rallying point for protesters. Attorney Doug Jones, appointed as a special state prosecutor, said Blanton acted in response to months of civil rights demonstrations. “We were getting ready to be there to oppose it,” said Rudolph’s husband, George Rudolph.ĭuring the trial, then-U.S. Glass fragments remained in her chest, left eye and abdomen for decades after the explosion.Ī parole hearing was scheduled next year for Blanton. (Photo By Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)Ĭollins’ sister, Sarah Collins Rudolph, survived the blast but lost her right eye. Read More FILE-This undated file photo shows Alabama inmate Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., a one-time Ku Klux Klansman convicted in the 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls in Birmingham, Ala. While Blanton has reached out to the victims’ surviving family members, he has never accepted responsibility or shown remorse for his involvement – quite possibly sealing a fate to spend his remaining days in an Alabama jail.BIRMINGHAM, AL - JULY 07: 16th Street Baptist Church, site of the SeptemChurch bombing in Birmingham, Alabama on July 7, 2018. Sarah Collins Rudolph, Addie Mae’s sister who lost sight in her right eye because of the bombing, told the board that it took years to alleviate the hate she felt in her heart, but through her faith she was restored. “This has been a legacy of pain in our family for our whole lives,” she said. It is very sorrowful and it’s very upsetting to not only me and my family, but this nation,” she said.ĭenise McNair’s younger sister Lisa gave an emotional testimony on behalf of her family. “Fact of the matter is, he bombed a house of God on Sunday morning and killed four children and needs to do the time for his crimes,” he said.įamily of the four girls also attended the hearing, disgusted that Blanton was allowed even the thought of freedom.ĭianne Robertson Braddock, Carole Robertson’s sister, said she understood state laws allowed Branton’s entitlement to parole, but still felt the hearing lacked consideration for the victims’ families. Alabama state law allows a parole review every 15 years.ĭoug Jones, the lead prosecutor who convicted Blanton, offered fierce opposition to his release. Although the FBI had concluded in 1965 that the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing had been committed by four known Klansmen and segregationists: Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., Herman Frank Cash, Robert Edward Chambliss, and Bobby Frank Cherry, 4 no prosecutions were conducted until 1977. This was an act of terrorism that jolted the nation at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, when Blacks fought for equality across the nation, but even more fiercely in the entanglement of the Jim Crow South.īlanton, who was convicted and jailed in 2001, 38 years after he committed the heinous crime, will not be eligible again for parole until 2021. This undated file photo shows Alabama inmate Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., a one-time Ku Klux Klansman convicted in the 1963 church bombing that killed four.
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