FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CR THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1997 (202) 616-2765 TDD (202) 514-1888 TWO KLANSMEN RECEIVE LENGTHY SENTENCES FOR BURNING TWO SOUTH CAROLINA CHURCHES WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Two former members of the Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan who pled guilty to burning two predominantly African American churches in South Carolina last year were each sentenced today to at least 18 years in prison, the Justice Department announced. Gary Christopher Cox, 23, was sentenced to prison for 19 and one half years and Timothy Adron Welch, 24, was sentenced to prison for 18 years today in the U.S. District Court in Charleston. The two pled guilty last August to violating federal civil rights and arson statutes for burning the Mt. Zion AME Church in Greeleyville on June 20, 1995, and the Macedonia Baptist Church in Bloomville on the following day. James E. Johnson, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury (Enforcement) and Isabelle Katz Pinzler, Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, the co-chairs of the National Church Arson Task Force, commended the efforts of the investigators and prosecutors in this case. "The burning of churches strikes at the heart of the community and must be stopped," said Johnson and Pinzler. "Federal, state, and local authorities have been working together to solve all of these crimes, and today's sentence marks another important step towards achieving that goal." In August, the government filed an information charging Cox and Welch with violating federal civil rights and arson statutes. The government asserted that the Ku Klux Klan "advocated the supremacy of white persons over black, hispanic and other minority persons," and that the K.K.K. "taught its members that churches attended primarily by black persons promote the interests of black persons to the detriment of white persons." Two other defendants, Arthur Haley, 51, and Hubert Rowell, 50, pled guilty to conspiring with Cox and Welch to set fire to the Macedonia Baptist Church. Those two, also former members of the KKK, were additionally charged with setting fire to a migrant camp and to burning a car belonging to a black man. "Today's sentences should serve as a wake-up call to those individuals who may consider the unlawful use of force and violence to intimidate persons based on their race and religious beliefs," said Rene Josey, U.S. Attorney in South Carolina. "Such outward displays of hate-generated force and violence will not be tolerated." Cox and Welch were arrested on state charges related to the church burnings in June 1995, and have been in jail since that time. They have also pled guilty to state charges of assault and battery with intent to kill for stabbing a black man in Berkeley County on June 16, 1995. Since January 1, 1995, approximately 350 church arsons across the country have been reported to federal authorities. One-hundred-fifty-nine suspects have been arrested in connection with at least 115 of these incidents. The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Attorney's Office in South Carolina, the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the Clarendon County Fire Department and Sheriff's Office. # # # 97-076