Kin of Race Riot Victims Outraged
YORK, Pa. — Six white men apologized in court for the slaying of a young black woman during a 1969 race riot, but neither their remorse nor their prison terms soothed the grief and outrage of the victim’s kin.
The six — sentenced under state guidelines in effect in the 1960s — were given sentences of up to three years in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty in the shooting death of Lillie Belle Allen.
Only one will serve his time in a state lockup, and all can serve far less than the maximum time allowed.
“I feel like it’s a slap in my face and my children’s face,” said Hattie Dickson, 56, who was driving the family car the night her sister was ambushed by white gang members.
The 10 days of race riots that tore apart York in 1969 left Allen and white police officer Henry Schaad dead and more than 60 people injured.
Three decades passed without an arrest in the killings. Then, in 1999, prosecutors reopened the cases and eventually brought murder charges against 10 white men in the slaying of Allen, 27; and two black men in the death of Schaad, 22.
Two of the men were convicted last month in Allen’s July 21, 1969, shooting and are awaiting sentencing. The same jury acquitted former York Mayor Charlie Robertson, a police officer at the time of the riots who had been accused of handing out ammunition and encouraging white gang members to shoot blacks. Another defendant is still awaiting trial.
The six sentenced Wednesday, all teenagers at the time Allen was shot, pleaded guilty in August to single charges of conspiracy to commit murder and faced maximum two-year sentences for the crime. Three testified at the trial. One of the men also pleaded guilty to attempted murder.
All six apologized in court, but Allen’s family members said they didn’t believe the apologies were genuine and asked Judge John C. Uhler to impose the maximum term.
Debra Taylor, Allen’s 44-year-old daughter, addressed each of the men in court Wednesday, saying none had expressed any sorrow for Allen’s killing until they went before the judge, where an apology might lessen their sentences.
“It would have meant so much if you had just said, ‘It was a terrible thing, a horrific thing. I’m so sorry.’ That would have meant more to me than you doing life in prison,” Taylor told defendant Arthur Messersmith.
Messersmith, the only defendant given state prison time, was sentenced to 18 months to three years for attempted murder.
He could have faced up to nine years in prison, but probation officials recommended the lesser sentence based, in part, on Messersmith’s family history, including an abusive childhood and his brother’s and father’s roles in leading the attack. His brother, Robert Messersmith, was convicted of murder at trial and his father, John, is deceased.
Rick Knouse, William Ritter and Clarence Lutzinger — who all admitted firing at the car the night Allen was killed — were sentenced to nine to 23 1/2 months in jail. Chauncey Gladfelter and Tom Smith — who prosecutors say didn’t fire — were sentenced to three to 23 1/2 months.
Taylor also expressed anger at defense attorneys’ arguments and suggestions by witnesses during the trial that the men shouldn’t have been prosecuted for a crime committed 33 years ago.
“If you guys had told the truth way back when, we wouldn’t even be here today,” she told the defendants.
During Wednesday’s hearing, all six defendants and their attorneys sought leniency, saying that some of them had had difficult childhoods that led to years of drug and alcohol abuse, or that they had been followers of older boys or policemen who had encouraged them to participate in the violence.
“I would say, your honor, that this is a case where the sins of the father are visited upon the son,” said Frank Arcuri, an attorney for Arthur Messersmith, referring to testimony that Messersmith’s father helped coordinate the attack.
Last month, a jury convicted Robert Messersmith, the former white gang leader accused of firing the shot that killed Allen, and Gregory Neff, who admitted that he fired several times at the vehicle, on charges of second-degree murder. Both face up to 20 years in prison at sentencing.
October 24th, 2003 at 9:46 pm
i’m doing a reaseach assignment on the civil rights movement and i find this such an out rage that these men are no getting the sentences they diserve. It is unbelieveable that in 2002 equality of races is still a problem, even in the justice system.