A Chicago white supremacist received a 10 year prison sentence on Wednesday for burning down a black family’s home in 2007.
Brian James Moudry poured gasoline and ignited a fire to his neighbors’ home at about 4 am. Nine people were in the home, but they luckily managed to get out of the house unharmed.
US District Judge Robert Gettleman told Moudry that he should be grateful for the black lawyer who defended him. Gettleman said MiAngel Cody defended him so ably and compassionately that he should realize race doesn’t matter.
“Everyone who comes into this room is of the same race — the human race that we try to treat equally under the law,” he said.
Moudry has a long history of mental illness and even beat up a black inmate with a combination lock in the Metropolitan Correction Center after pleading guilty in January. According to court papers, the 36-year-old yelled, “Yeah, I’m a white m*********** from Chicago, m***********,” as he beat the inmate.
Cody said that Moudry’s untreated schizophrenia , childhood abuse, and drunkenness all played a role in his decision to burn down his neighbors’ home.
Assistant US Attorney Nancy DePodesta, however, still believed the crime occurred because Moudry hated his neighbors. “This was an exceptionally despicable crime that was motivated by hate,” she said.
DePodesta added that the sentence should send the message that “if you threaten someone because of their race, you forfeit your right to live in a free society.”
Moudry isn’t the only person to commit a hate crime in Chicago. In February, two brothers were arrested for attacking a cab driver and chasing him down the street as they called him a “stupid f—–g Asian.”
William and Spiro Douvris beat and shouted racial slurs at the cab driver because he took them to the wrong address.
Do you think Moudry received a harsh sentence? Or do you believe it wasn’t harsh enough?
Here is Moudry’s mugshot.
[Image via Shuttershock ]
