Former KKK Leader Sentenced to Two Years in Prison for Alabama Cross Burning
A former leader of the International Keystone Knights of the Ku Klux Klan will serve two years in prison for burning a cross in 2009 in Ozark, Ala., to “scare and intimidate residents of the African-American community by threatening the use of force against them.”
Steven Joshua Dinkle, 28, the former exalted cyclops of the Ozark chapter of the Keystone Knights, also will be on three years of “supervised release” after he gets out of prison under the sentence handed down Thursday by Chief U.S. District Judge W. Keith Watkins.
At the sentencing hearing, the judge said the purpose of Dinkle’s conduct clearly was “to terrorize people in the community” and that his “message was one of intimidation and violence.”
Acting Assistant Attorney General Jocelyn Samuels of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said Dinkle “chose to burn the cross at the very entrance to an African-American neighborhood so that anyone coming or going would see the fiery cross. He intended to intimidate the community’s residents in their own homes and neighborhood. There is no place for such conduct in our society and the department will continue to prosecute these violent acts of hate.”
U.S. Attorney George L. Beck, Jr., of the Middle District of Alabama, echoed those comments. “It is sad that, in this day and age, people are still filled with such hate,” Beck said. “To act on such hate and burn a cross turns that hate into a crime which should not, and will not, be tolerated. Prosecuting these type crimes will continue to be a priority of my office.”
Dinkle pleaded guilty Feb. 3 to one count of conspiracy to violate housing rights, one count of criminal interference with the right to fair housing, and two counts of obstruction of justice related to false statements he gave investigators.
He was arrested by FBI agents last November in Mississippi, four days after his mother, Pamela Morris, 45, the former secretary of the same KKK chapter in Ozark, was arrested. Dinkle admitted lying to FBI agents about his role in the cross burning. His mother is scheduled to stand trial Aug. 4 on two counts of perjury arising out of the investigation into the cross burning.
Court documents say Dinkle and KKK-recruit Thomas Windell Smith, whose age wasn’t provided by authorities, met at Dinkle’s home in Ozark on May 8, 2009, and decided to burn a cross in a nearby African-American neighborhood.
Dinkle wrapped a 6-foot wooden cross with jeans and a towel before driving with Smith in his truck to a nearby black community. The pair dug a hole, doused the cross with fuel and fled in Smith’s truck.
Smith pleaded guilty last December to one count of conspiracy to violate housing rights and faces sentencing Aug. 19, 2014.
