Plea bargaining for crimes that seem more customary than isolated.
Two young white women, part of a group who repeatedly searched Mississippi's capital city for black people to attack, were scheduled to be sentenced Thursday.
In separate hearings, U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate will sentence Sarah Adelia Graves and Shelbie Brooke Richards. Graves pleaded guilty in December to a conspiracy count and faces up to five years in prison. Richards, who pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy and concealing the crime by lying to police, faces eight years in prison.
Both Graves and Richards were riding in a truck driven by Deryl Paul Dedmon that ran over James Craig Anderson in June 2011. Anderson died after being beaten and run over.
Six white men were sentenced earlier by a different judge, receiving prison terms ranging from four years to 50 years. Two more men await sentencing after Thursday.
Both women have acknowledged that they helped recruit people at a birthday party to take part in the venture that eventually led to Anderson's death. Richards admitted that she encouraged Dedmon to assault Anderson when they arrived in a hotel parking lot, and then yelled a racial slur and encouraged Dedmon to run over Anderson when Dedmon returned to the truck.