:finger

 

http://www.nbc5.com/news/4351296/detail.ht...994&dppid=65193

 

White Supremacist Gets Maximum Sentence

Matt Hale Proclaims Innocence In Plot To Kill Judge

 

CHICAGO -- White supremacist Matthew Hale has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for trying to have a federal judge killed.

 

The 33-year-old East Peoria resident showed no emotion and sat staring at the defense table as a judge imposed the sentence Wednesday.

 

U.S. District Judge James Moody said Hale wasn't concerned with the possibility of taking someone's life, but instead was concerned with not getting caught. In issuing the sentencing, Moody called Hale "extremely dangerous" and his offense "extremely egregious."

 

Hale was convicted in April 2004 of soliciting an undercover FBI informant to murder U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow, and obstruction of justice.

 

Acting as his own attorney, Hale maintained his innocence at the hearing.

 

In a rambling, two-hour speech, Hale complained about having to go back to a "solitary cell" that he likened to "hell" and concluded one argument by reciting the final 17 words of the "Star Spangled Banner."

 

As he spoke, Hale at times turned around and addressed the audience in the court, instead of Moody.

 

"I understand the government wants to crucify me ... but there's no factual predicate," he said.

 

Hale said his "beef" was with the lawyers representing the group who sued his organization for copyright infringement, not with Lefkow.

 

"How would that (killing Lekfow) have helped our case?" Hale asked. He then said, "It wouldn't."

 

Hale said there was no proof he wanted to "exterminate a Jew rat," terms presented at his initial trial. Lefkow is not Jewish.

 

Referring to himself in the third person, Hale went on to say, "He sees that he and Judge Lefkow are on the same side of this terrible lie ... She has been a victim, as (have) I, by prosecutors who know I'm innocent."

 

After court, Hale's mother, Evelyn Hutcheson, said of her son's sentence, "I think it's absolutely horrible."

 

She said her son was the only person telling the truth to Moody. "He did a wonderful job," she added of his speech.

 

When asked what he thought of his son's speech, Russell Hale said, "Very moving, what else can I say."

 

U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald said he was pleased with the sentence.

 

The activity Hale committed was a form of domestic terrorism, which was a crime the government "cannot tolerate," Fitzgerald said.

Edited April 6, 200521 yr by robinventura23

Wow, didn't see that coming