MLK parade bomber gets 32-year prison sentence
Source: Associated Press
December 20, 2011 1:49 PM
MLK parade bomber gets 32-year prison sentence
(AP) SPOKANE, Wash. - A man with extensive ties to white supremacists was sentenced 32 years in prison after pleading guilty to planting a bomb intended to shower poison-laced shrapnel onto Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade marchers.
Kevin Harpham, 37, was given the maximum in the sentencing range of 27 to 32 years. He told U.S. District Court Judge Justin Quackenbush then that he placed the device along the parade route in an attempt to commit a hate crime.
The pipe bomb was loaded with lead fishing weights coated in rat poison, which can inhibit blood clotting in wounds, officials have said. The bomb was discovered and disabled before it could explode.
Just hours before he was scheduled to be sentenced, Harpham tried unsuccessfully to withdraw his guilty plea. His defense questioned whether the explosive device in question met the legal definition of a bomb.
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