A young white man formally charged Friday with capital murder in the hit-and-run death of a black man is being held in isolation from other Hinds County inmates.
Hinds county Sheriff's Department spokesman Lt. Jeffery Scott says the publicity associated with the case of 19-year-old Deryl Dedmon accounted for the decision to isolate him. Dedmon is accused of intentionally running over 46-year-old James Craig Anderson on June 26 in what authorities say was a hate crime.
According to Saturday's Clarion Ledger, Scott would not say whether Dedmon, who is being held without bond, has been threatened. He says inmates likely have seen the airing of a video showing Anderson being run over.
The victim's sister said she's unhappy that Dedmon and John Rice, who is charged with simple assault in the case, are the only suspects facing charges.
WJTV reports that Barbara Anderson Young told reporters at her lawyer's office Friday, "Go to Brandon and get the other five murderers who committed such a horrendous violent act against my beloved brother."
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."
Rice's attorney, Samuel Martin, suggested during a hearing in July that the teens were on a beer run after a night of partying, not looking for a black man to assault, as prosecutors allege.
Authorities have not ruled out that others at the scene could be charged. The FBI has opened a civil rights investigation of the case.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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