2 Mississippi women sentenced to prison for roles in hate crime plot to assault blacks

Two women who were part of a group that repeatedly searched Mississippi's capital city for black people to assault were sentenced Thursday to multiple years in federal prison.
U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate on Thursday sentenced Shelbie Brooke Richards of Pearl to eight years in prison on one count each of conspiracy to commit a hate crime and concealing the crime by lying to police.
In a separate hearing earlier Thursday, Wingate also sentenced Sarah Adelia Graves of Crystal Springs to five years in prison for one count of conspiracy to commit a hate crime.
Both women were riding in a truck that ran over James Craig Anderson in June 2011. Anderson died after being beaten and run over.

Six white men, sentenced earlier by a different judge, received prison terms ranging from four to 50 years for Anderson's death. Two more men await sentencing after Thursday's hearings.
Both Richards and Graves 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 Deryl Paul 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.
Hotel surveillance video obtained by The Associated Press and other media outlets shows a Ford truck back up and then lunge forward at 5:05 a.m. Anderson's shirt is illuminated in the headlights before he disappears under the vehicle next to the curb.
Richards also acknowledged that later that month she lied to Jackson police detectives about the incident and her participation.
The 10 defendants have pleaded guilty to other racially motivated attacks, including the beating of a black man near a Jackson golf course, the beating of another man who tried to sell the suburbanites drugs, attacks on pedestrians using beer bottles and a slingshot, and an attempt to run down another black man.
Prosecutors said the suspects usually sought out people who were homeless or drunk. Other than Anderson, the black people who were assaulted have not been identified.