Blogs » Demographics & Dockets » White Miss. teen Deryl Dedmon could face death penalty in hit-and-run killing of black man

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White Miss. teen Deryl Dedmon could face death penalty in hit-and-run killing of black man
By Gheni_Platenburg in Demographics & Dockets
August 24, 2011

By now, I’m sure many of you have heard the sad and shocking story about Mississippi resident James Craig Anderson. But in case you haven’t, here’s the story:

Anderson, 49 and black, died from injuries sustained after being run over by a vehicle.

Deryl Dedmon, a 19-year-old white teen, is being charged in Anderson’s hit-and-run death.

He could now face the death penalty in what authorities are calling a hate crime.

Dedmon, 19, was initially charged with murder, but Hinds County District Attorney Robert Smith says he has new evidence that shows the victim, 49-year-old James Anderson, was robbed before he was killed, which makes it a capital case, according to news reports.

Anderson was beaten and then rundown and killed by a pick-up truck on June 26. Surveillance video shows the whole scene.

The district attorney's office says Dedmon and Rice were with a group of teenagers that morning and went out looking for a random black person to assault. The district attorney has said racial slurs were used during the attack and that Dedmon later bragged that he " just ran that n----- over,” according to news reports.

Although this incident happened in Mississippi, Texas is not without its own troubled past.

Recent incidents that come to mind are the dragging death of Jasper resident James Byrd Jr. in 1998 and the crimes committed by “featherwoods”.

Feel free to share your thoughts/feelings on this topic.