Beginning in Boston, Massachusetts, is the trial of two suspected white supremacists who are charged with attempting to start a “racial holy war” by blowing up black and Jewish sites.
According to the Associated Press news agency, Leo Felton, 31, the son of a black father and a white mother who were both civil rights activists, and his girlfriend Erica Chase, 22, are accused of conspiring, producing fake currency, obstructing the course of justice, and violating laws pertaining to firearms and explosives.
In addition, Mr. Felton faces charges of conspiring to commit bank robbery as well as bank robbery.
The pair has entered a plea of innocence to all allegations; Mr. Felton may spend the rest of his life in prison, and Ms. Chase may serve up to 35 years.
Because of the delicate nature of the case, jury selection is anticipated to require a minimum of one week
The investigators’ finding
After trying to purchase food in a supermarket with fake money in April 2001, the couple was taken into custody in Boston.
Following that, a search of the couple’s residence turned up bomb-making supplies, including 23 kilograms of ammonium nitrate, a key component of Timothy McVeigh’s explosive device from the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents also discovered newspaper clippings of Boston landmarks associated with Jewish groups and literature on terrorism that included instructions on how to kill people with nerve gas.
The evidence, according to the prosecution, clearly shows the pair intended to blow up buildings in order to “advance the defendants’ anti-Semitic and white-supremacist goals and ignite a ‘racial holy war,'” they claim.
Ms. Chase asserts, however, that the couple only acquired the ingredients to assemble bombs that they planned to detonate for “entertainment” on the beach.
Links with supremacists
The prosecution claims that Mr. Felton’s past shows connections to white supremacist organizations that he was exposed to while incarcerated for trying to kill a black taxi driver.
Recruitment agents for racist groups like the Aryan Nations and the Aryan Brotherhood are thought to thrive in US prisons.
According to the prosecution, Mr. Felton belongs to the White Order of Thule, a violent white supremacist group.
Ms. Chase wrote to Mr. Felton while he was incarcerated, and they got together just a few days after his release. This is how their romance started.
Their attorney is concerned that a biased verdict may result from the prosecution’s focus on the couple’s claimed ties to right-wing organizations and the country’s increased anxiety about terrorism in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
But Robert Leikind, the director of the Anti-Defamation League, stated that one should not undervalue the scope of what the couple reportedly intended.
