In the early morning hours of June 26, 2011, Daryl Paul Dedmon, John Aaron Rice, and Dylan Wade Butler were driving around Jackson, Mississippi, engaging in one of their favorite pastimes—looking for innocent victims to attack. They based their search on one specific factor: skin color…they wanted to hurt African-Americans. This time, they happened upon James Craig Anderson in a motel parking lot, got out of their vehicles, and began their unprovoked assault. Once back in their vehicles, Dedmon used his Ford F-250 pickup truck as a murder weapon, deliberately running over Mr. Anderson.
In the first case involving the death of a victim brought under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, Dedmon, Rice, and Butler pled guilty on Thursday to their roles in this unthinkable crime. At a press conference regarding the guilty pleas, Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez stated, “This is a case about a group of racist thugs who made a sport of targeting African-Americans in Jackson and attacking them without provocation, simply because of the color of their skin.”
Investigating hate crimes is the top priority of the FBI’s civil rights program, and personnel in the Bureau’s Jackson Field Office devoted themselves to this investigation, with the assistance of the Jackson Police Department. Jackson Special Agent in Charge Daniel McMullen said, “Every sector of our community has a role to play in helping to ensure that no person is targeted for violence because of who they are or what they believe.”
Echoed Perez, “We must and will remain ever vigilant in our common humanity to root out hate and violence when it rears its ugly face. Hate crimes such as this simply have no place in Jackson, in Mississippi, or anywhere in America.”
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