FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEWS RELEASE
August 3, 2016
For More Information, contact:
Luther Strange
Mike Lewis (334) 353-2199
Alabama Attorney General
Joy Patterson (334) 242-7491
Page 1 of 1
AG STRANGE PROTESTS PAROLE OF BIRMINGHAM CHURCH BOMBER
(MONTGOMERY) – Attorney General Luther Strange vehemently protests the
potential parole of Birmingham church bomber Thomas Blanton, which is to be considered
this morning at a hearing by the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles. Blanton was
th
convicted in 2001 for the 1963 Ku Klux Klan bombing of the 16 Street Baptist Church that
killed four young girls who were at Sunday services–Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair,
Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley–and that injured a fifth girl, Sarah Collins, the sister
of Addie Mae Collins. Almost 30 years after the bombing, Blanton was sentenced to life
imprisonment.
In a July 29 letter to the Board of Pardons and Paroles, Attorney General Strange
stated, “Thomas Blanton was convicted of one of the most heinous crimes in Alabama
history – the murder of four young girls who were attending Sunday school. The cold-
blooded callousness of his hate crime is not diminished by the passage of time, nor is any
punishment sufficient to expunge the evil he unleashed. Because he has never shown any
remorse whatsoever for taking the lives of those innocent little girls, justice can only be
served if Thomas Blanton spends the rest of his life in prison.”
Two other men – Robert Chambliss and Bobby Frank Cherry–also were convicted
for the bombing and have since died in prison.
–30–
501 Washington Avenue * Montgomery, AL 36104 * (334) 242-7300
www.ago.state.al.us
