Mississippi Man Sentenced to 36 Months for Crossburning on Oct. 24, 2017, in Seminary, Mississippi.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, November 5, 2019
Mississippi Man Sentenced to 36 Months for Crossburning

The Honorable Judge Keith Starrett, of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, sentenced Defendant Graham Williamson, 38, to serve 36 months incarcertation on federal charges for his commission of a crossburning on Oct. 24, 2017, in Seminary, Mississippi. Williamson previously pleaded guilty on Aug. 5, 2019, to one count of interference with housing rights, a federal civil rights violation, and one count of conspiring to use fire to commit a federal felony. Williamson, along with a co-conspirator, built and burned a wooden cross near the home of a juvenile victim, M.H., who lived in a predominantly African-American residential area of Seminary. He burned the cross to threaten, frighten, and intimidate M.H. and other African-American residents because of their race and color, and because they lived in and occupied residences in that area of Seminary.

“The defendant invoked a terrifying symbol of racial violence to threaten and intimidate the victims for no other reason than their race and where they lived,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband of the Civil Rights Division. “Hate crimes like this contravene our society’s well-established principles of equality and freedom from race-based intimidation, and the Department of Justice will continue to pursue and prosecute such crimes to the fullest extent of the law.”
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