Mississippi Cross Burning: Second Man Pleads Guilty To 2017 Hate Crime

A second man on Tuesday pleaded guilty in the case of a Mississippi cross-burning from 2017.

Graham Williamson, 38, has pleaded guilty to charges of interfering with housing rights and conspiring to use fire to commit a federal felony, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi.

Williamson will be sentenced on Nov. 5, according to the official statement. He faces up to 30 years in prison and a maximum fine of $500,000.

On Oct. 24, 2017, Williamson and Louis Bernard Revette burned the cross in Seminary, Mississippi, a town of 300 people. In the plea agreement, he admitted that the act was meant to intimidate the black residents of Seminary’s Keys Hill neighborhood.

Revette pleaded guilty in April. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $500,000. He will be sentenced on Sept. 10.

“These types of hateful actions have no place in our communities, and we will continue to fight for and uphold the civil rights of all throughout our State,” said Mike Hurst, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi.

The Department of Justice’s civil rights division also helped in the prosecution of the case.

“The Department of Justice does not tolerate these hateful and historically egregious acts,” Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband said.