FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	

CR

MONDAY, JULY 13, 1998	

(202) 616 2765

TDD (202) 514 1888


SOUTH CAROLINA MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO HATE CRIME



	WASHINGTON, D.C.     A member of a South Carolina Ku Klux Klan group pleaded
guilty today to shooting three black teenagers outside a rural nightclub in Pelion, 
S.C., the Justice Department announced today.

	Joshua Grant England, a twenty one year old member of the Christian Knights of the Ku
Klux Klan, appeared before U.S. District Judge Joseph Anderson in Columbia, S.C. and pleaded
guilty to violating the civil rights of the three victims, Hosea Brown, Dale Jones, and Gary Jones. 
England also pleaded guilty to using a semi automatic rifle in the shootings.  

	"The color of a persons skin is not an invitation for violence," said Bill Lann Lee, Acting
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.  "We will not hesitate to prosecute perpetrators of
racial violence."  

	England, admitted to participating in the drive by shooting in October 1996 with another
member of the Christian Knights, Clayton Eddie Spires.  He faces up to life imprisonment on the
charges.  

	J. René Josey, U.S. Attorney for South Carolina said, "As a South Carolinian, I am proud
of our history of both diversity and tolerance and as U.S. Attorney, I am proud that my office can
help protect that history by prosecuting those who seek to poison our communities with hate and
intolerance"

	England and Spires are members of the same Klan group whose members were
prosecuted two years ago for civil rights and firearms violations arising out of the investigation
into church fires near Manning, S.C.  The investigation into the Pelion shooting has been
conducted jointly by the FBI, ATF, SLED, the Lexington County Sheriff's Office, and the South
Carolina Highway Patrol.  

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