'Aryan' Revolutionary Gets Life Sentence

A mostly black federal jury has sentenced white supremacist Chevie Kehoe (see A Woman's Place) to life in prison for his role in a terrorist crime spree that included the murder of an Arkansas family, the bombing of City Hall in Spokane, Wash., and a shootout with Ohio police.

A follower, Daniel Lewis Lee, was sentenced to death.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for both men, arguing that they had killed five people, including an 8-year-old girl who was apparently tortured with electric cattle prods, in their bid to create an all-white "Aryan People's Republic" in the Pacific Northwest.

There was also court testimony that Kehoe had considered killing his parents for their gun collection and his wife because he suspected she had Native American blood.

Lee was found guilty of fewer criminal acts, but was apparently given death by the jury because of his volatility, his involvement in an earlier murder and the danger he was believed to pose to other inmates. Jurors found that Kehoe, with no prior criminal record, was less of a threat. Kehoe still faces sentencing in state court in Ohio, where he and his brother, Cheyne, shot it out with police in 1997.