A white teenager will now serve two consecutive life sentences after pleading guilty to the death of a 47-year-old black man.
James Craig Anderson was killed June 26, 2011, in Jackson, Miss., after 19-year-old Deryl Dedmon ran him over with his pickup truck.
According to prosecutors, Dedmon and six of his friends were leaving a party when he suggested that they find a black person to harass. They later found Anderson and beat him before Dedmon ran him over with his vehicle.
Before he was sentenced on March 21, the teen apologized to the victim’s family saying, ”I do not ask y’all to forget, but I do ask y’all to forgive.”
Dedmon also said that he’s a “changed man” that no longer sees color. ”I was young. I was dumb. I was ignorant . I was not raised the way that I acted that night. I was raised in a godly house. As I stand before you today, I am a changed man. I am a godly man. God has showed me to see no colors. God showed me that we are all made in the image of God so we are all based on the same thing.”
