Ellington

JFP Staff

Deryl Dedmon pleaded guilty today to the murder of James Craig Anderson. The judge sentenced Dedmon to life for murder and another life sentence for hate crime, to run concurrently.

Dedmon was accused of running over Anderson in a pickup truck last year in what prosecutors called a racially motivated hate crime. The district's attorney's office asked for life in prison for the crime.

At the hearing, the judge explained that by pleading guilty, Dedmon would give up his constitutional rights to trial by a jury of peers and a right against self-incrimination. The maximum sentence Dedmon could get was two life sentences.

We'll post more as this story develops. JFP reporter R.L. Nave is tweeting live from the hearing.

Read more about the case in the JFP archives:
Divided We Fall
Dedmon Pleads Not Guilty
Dedmon Indicted by Grand Jury
The Cycle of Hate