A good use of the new Terror Laws?

KKK leader sentenced under anti-terror law

The leader of a Ku Klux Klan splinter group who urged "planting bombs to cause maximum damage" was sentenced Friday to 12 years in prison in the nation's first federal conviction under a new anti-terror law.
David Wayne Hull, 42, of Amwell, Washington County, taught another man how to use a pipe bomb at a November 2002 white supremacist gathering on Hull's property. He also gave bomb parts to the other man, a government informant who posed as a violent anti-abortion activist.
The 2002 anti-terror statute bans instructing others how to use pipe bombs or other dangerous weapons in furtherance of a crime. It carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence.
Hull was motivated more by insecurity than politics, U.S. District Judge Gary Lancaster said Friday.
"I find that these criminal acts were only marginally politically motivated and stemmed in large part from Mr. Hull's need to transform himself from an otherwise insignificant or obscure entity to an individual of artificially inflated stature and rank," Lancaster said.
At the time of Hull's arrest, a Web site for a group called the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan had a photo of him holding a gun in front of a Confederate flag.
Hull, a self-avowed imperial wizard of the White Knights, called for "bullets, bombs, bloodshed and the Bible" during his bomb-making classes.
He didn't deny involvement with the now-defunct group at his May trial. But he minimized his association with John Carmelo, the federal informant who posed as a member of the Army of God, a group that has praised those who kill abortion doctors and bomb clinics.
Hull testified he suspected Carmelo, a former white supremacist, was working with the government. That's why, Hull said, he didn't give Carmelo a fuse along with the other bomb parts.
A federal jury convicted Hull of four illegal weapons charges, including the anti-terror statute, pertaining to the pipe bomb parts he gave Carmelo. He also was found guilty of witness tampering, possessing an illegal silencer and possessing 15 guns after being convicted of terroristic threats in 2001.
Lancaster sentenced Hull to 12 years in prison for teaching others how to make the explosives, followed by three years' supervised release. He sentenced him to another 10 years on the remaining charges but ordered them to be served concurrently.
Lancaster said Hull's political or societal views had no bearing on the sentence.
"That's a lie," Hull shouted at Lancaster, who is black.
Lancaster silenced Hull moments later by threatening to have U.S. Marshals remove him from the courtroom.
When the judge did give the defendant a chance to speak, Hull argued he had been targeted unfairly and that he should not have been prosecuted in federal court.
"I view his rhetoric as simply bad rhetoric," Lancaster said, stressing that the federal government that Hull contended was worthy of hate was the same federal government that had extended him Social Security benefits.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret Picking urged Lancaster to impose a harsher sentence against Hull, a father of three children, ages 9, 14 and 18.
She said Hull not only gave classes on how to build explosives but also told students "how to plant bombs to cause the maximum amount of damage."
Assistant Federal Public Defender W. Penn Hackney sought leniency, arguing Hull didn't want people to act out against the government. He was just "sticking out his tongue at the government."
Hull, who is being kept in solitary confinement while he awaits transfer to a federal prison, shuffled into the courtroom in shackles.
He turned to his fiancee, Yvonne Stanley, 29, of Windber, Somerset County, who was wearing a "Free David Hull" button.
"I miss you, baby," he said. "You look so beautiful."
Hull will appeal, Stanley said.



The leader of a Ku Klux Klan splinter group who urged "planting bombs to cause maximum damage" was sentenced Friday to 12 years in prison in the nation's first federal conviction under a new anti-terror law.
David Wayne Hull, 42, of Amwell, Washington County, taught another man how to use a pipe bomb at a November 2002 white supremacist gathering on Hull's property. He also gave bomb parts to the other man, a government informant who posed as a violent anti-abortion activist.
The 2002 anti-terror statute bans instructing others how to use pipe bombs or other dangerous weapons in furtherance of a crime. It carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence.
Hull was motivated more by insecurity than politics, U.S. District Judge Gary Lancaster said Friday.
"I find that these criminal acts were only marginally politically motivated and stemmed in large part from Mr. Hull's need to transform himself from an otherwise insignificant or obscure entity to an individual of artificially inflated stature and rank," Lancaster said.
At the time of Hull's arrest, a Web site for a group called the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan had a photo of him holding a gun in front of a Confederate flag.
Hull, a self-avowed imperial wizard of the White Knights, called for "bullets, bombs, bloodshed and the Bible" during his bomb-making classes.
He didn't deny involvement with the now-defunct group at his May trial. But he minimized his association with John Carmelo, the federal informant who posed as a member of the Army of God, a group that has praised those who kill abortion doctors and bomb clinics.
Hull testified he suspected Carmelo, a former white supremacist, was working with the government. That's why, Hull said, he didn't give Carmelo a fuse along with the other bomb parts.
A federal jury convicted Hull of four illegal weapons charges, including the anti-terror statute, pertaining to the pipe bomb parts he gave Carmelo. He also was found guilty of witness tampering, possessing an illegal silencer and possessing 15 guns after being convicted of terroristic threats in 2001.
Lancaster sentenced Hull to 12 years in prison for teaching others how to make the explosives, followed by three years' supervised release. He sentenced him to another 10 years on the remaining charges but ordered them to be served concurrently.
Lancaster said Hull's political or societal views had no bearing on the sentence.
"That's a lie," Hull shouted at Lancaster, who is black.
Lancaster silenced Hull moments later by threatening to have U.S. Marshals remove him from the courtroom.
When the judge did give the defendant a chance to speak, Hull argued he had been targeted unfairly and that he should not have been prosecuted in federal court.
"I view his rhetoric as simply bad rhetoric," Lancaster said, stressing that the federal government that Hull contended was worthy of hate was the same federal government that had extended him Social Security benefits.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret Picking urged Lancaster to impose a harsher sentence against Hull, a father of three children, ages 9, 14 and 18.
She said Hull not only gave classes on how to build explosives but also told students "how to plant bombs to cause the maximum amount of damage."
Assistant Federal Public Defender W. Penn Hackney sought leniency, arguing Hull didn't want people to act out against the government. He was just "sticking out his tongue at the government."
Hull, who is being kept in solitary confinement while he awaits transfer to a federal prison, shuffled into the courtroom in shackles.
He turned to his fiancee, Yvonne Stanley, 29, of Windber, Somerset County, who was wearing a "Free David Hull" button.
"I miss you, baby," he said. "You look so beautiful."
Hull will appeal, Stanley said.

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Would any of you agree that this was the proper use of the Terror Laws? Does this guy deserve to goto jail for what he was trying to do?