Alabama man seeks mercy for trying to hire KKK hitman to kill black neighbor

[The Straight Story]

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama man is seeking mercy after pleading guilty to trying to hire a Ku Klux Klan hitman to kill a black neighbor.

Attorneys for Allen Wayne Morgan describe the 30-year-old Munford man as a drug-addicted veteran of more than 175 combat missions in Iraq.

The defense says Morgan was suffering severe mental problems when he tried to arrange the hit last year and shouldn't spend more than five years in prison.

Prosecutors are asking for a sentence twice that long during a sentencing hearing set for Thursday afternoon in Birmingham.

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20140227/NEWS/140227021/Alabama-man-seeks-mercy-trying-hire-KKK-hitman-

[AverageJoe90]

1. Lock this guy up and throw away the fucking key. n/t

[Cali_Democrat]

2. Yep

Black people will be in danger if he's released from prison.

He needs to be there for life.

[smokey775]

3. I'll have to disagree with you.

175 combat missions in Iraq? This man needs intense therapy not a life sentence. which I assume by your comment, that's what you want.

5 years with intense therapy coupled with 5 years of parole and continued therapy should suffice.

[AverageJoe90]

6. Well, I meant in a mental facility, not a regular prison.

Well, at the very least, keep this guy on very close watch after he's released from the facility.

[lostincalifornia]

12. Are you kidding me. This was a premeditated hit job on a person because he was black.

[TorchTheWitch]

46. Where did you get that idea?

The article says it was because he suspected the guy was sleeping with his wife. Call me crazy, but the suspicion of his wife cheating on him with his neighbor was the reason for the hit attempt regardless of the neighbor's race. The only KKK involvement I'm seeing in this story was that the supposed hitman was an FBI agent. Seems to me it was the agent that told this guy the he was a hitman with the KKK in order to gain his trust and make an arrest not that the guy went looking through the KKK in order to find a hitman that just happened to be an FBI agent.

[840high]

53. Inside information?

[lostincalifornia]

7. Really, and his desire to kill "black people"? He was a racist before Iraq. He knew just who to

contact

[smokey775]

11. Have you ever been in combat?

Unless you have, you have no idea how it messes with your psyche, especially a meat grinder like Iraq was.

I'm willing to give this man a chance to get the help he obviously needs and try to return to return as a productive member of society.

[smokey775]

19. Just what is that supposed to mean?

[nomorenomore08]

44. Meaning, maybe, that's it easier to make comments like yours when it's not your race

that's being targeted by a racist psycho...

[smokey775]

65. Just how does one know what race one is on an internet chat board?

[MineralMan]

14. You're willing to give him a chance, eh?

Do you live in Alabama? Are you going to help him recover and not hire Klan hitmen again? You may be willing to give him a chance, but I doubt you're willing to be the one who helps him get the care he needs, and Alabama sure isn't going to do it.

[nomorenomore08]

45. +1

Perfectly stated!

[smokey775]

17. I apologize.

When I signed up here, I just assumed that I was on a progressive website where we had empathy for our fellow humans.

This man may have suffered traumatic PTSD from his experiences in Iraq, I'm not excusing what he did, he needs to pay for his crime, but to just give up on him and "throw away the key" is, in my humble opinion, not the answer.

[Sheepshank]

35. my rw acquaintances throw that at me all the time

"I just assumed that I was on a progressive website where we had empathy for our fellow humans. "

Apparently. Libs are supposed to be stupid, gullible, taken in by every sob story, and the utlimate bleeding heart every time all the time. Just so you know...that it's a false equivalency.

[Jazzgirl]

38. ^^This^^

n/t

[1awake]

42. DU isn't the kindest of places nor open to many points of view these days.

He very well may have, and that is something a Doctor needs to investigate further. Locking him up is a great place to start because regardless, he tried to arrange a hit that appears racial motivated. I'm not sure PTSD alone would cover all of that.

[MineralMan]

9. And where in the Alabama prison system is

he going to get that "intense therapy?" Do you have an answer for that? The deal is that he tried to hire a racist murderer to kill a black neighbor. Was he mentally ill? Perhaps. Does Alabama have a program to deal with that? No, it does not. In prison, he will not get "intense therapy." No such therapy is available. When on parole, he also wouldn't get "continued therapy." None is available.

I think you are misunderstanding the situation.

Here are the facts about mental health care in Alabama: https://www.nami.org/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm?ContentFileID=93478

[CreekDog]

18. you've already decided he doesn't deserve prison, without knowing the details

[smokey775]

22. I'll kindly thank you for not deciding what I've already decided.

Yes, he has to pay for his crime with prison time, but not for the rest of his life.
It sounds to me like this man needs some intense therapy while in prison and more after release with close supervision.

[CreekDog]

27. you just posted what you decided, you just don't want anybody to comment on it

nah.

[smokey775]

29. You said that I had already decided that he doesn't deserve prison time.

Kindly show me where I said that?

[Aristus]

25. He doesn't get a free pass because of his combat service any more than did Timothy McVeigh.

Not unless you're prepared to swear that everybody who comes home from combat does despicable shit like that.

He's a racist piece of shit who deserves hard time.

[smokey775]

26. Geeez, what the hell

I didn't say he deserves a free ride because he's a combat veteran, he deserves prison time for his crime, but to suggest that he deserves life in prison is over the top.

He should get 5 years for the offense couple with 5 years parole and intense therapy and close supervision.

[Aristus]

28. I'm not the one who said he should get life in prison.

Al I said was 'hard time'.

And yes, this is a progressive website, where we have empathy for our fellow human beings. But the empathy in this case rightly goes to the intended target of this guy's putrid bigotry. Get the maggot off the streets, and the black man he wanted to murder will be at least a little safer.

[840high]

56. He thought his wife was

sleeping with the guy.

[1StrongBlackMan]

32. I agree with your disagreeing; but for ...

a different reason.

I don't think Black folks, in general, will be endangered ... just those that he suspects are sleeping with his wife. This guy probably would have had a white guy killed if he suspected him of sleeping with his wife; but chose a fake kkker because he suspected the kkker would be happy to kill a Black man for sleeping with a white woman.

But that said ... see ya, drug addicted, 175 combat missions in Iraq, in need of intense therapy guy. Probably wouldn't be a good idea to share your conviction with the "Brothers."

[Logical]

62. How GOP of you! Unfair sentences! nt

[lostincalifornia]

4. "suffering severe mental problems"? and how did the drug-addition or 175 combat missions in Iraq

cause him to want to kill his African American neighbor? I don't think so

[nomorenomore08]

48. Mental illness doesn't make a non-bigoted person suddenly bigoted. It just doesn't.

If anything, loss of self-control may simply cause those tendencies to bubble to the surface.

[840high]

58. Color wouldn't have mattered - he

thought he was sleeping with his wife.

[LiberalAndProud]

61. Morgan thought his neighbor had raped his wife.

At least, according to this article. There is also a mention of a prior record.
http://www.myfoxal.com/story/23259716/fbi-anniston-man-hired-undercover-agent-to-kill-neighbor

But, I guess we all know what really happened.

[Orrex]

5. If he keeps this up, Teabaggers will elect him to office

[Heidi]

15. What do you mean, exactly?

Please be more specific.

[11 Bravo]

10. Republicans will reply that he was just trying to be a "job creator".

[Donald Ian Rankin]

16. Some of the responses to this are kind of sickening.

You may know that the man was sane from some source other than the OP, which clearly does not justify that inference.

But if you don't, you have no business assuming that he was in a fit mental state to be held morally or legally responsible for his actions.

"Not of sound mind" is an acceptable exculpatory factor for any crime, including murder and certainly including racism.

[geek tragedy]

34. mental illness doesn't make people racist shitbags nt

[Donald Ian Rankin]

36. The short answer is "yes it does".

Look up John Nash for a high-profile example.

[geek tragedy]

37. what's more likely to make someone a racist shitbag:

1) mental illness;
2) growing up white in Alabama?

I'd wager there's a higher correlation between white supremacy and (2) than there is with white supremacy and (1)

[Brigid]

43. Put me down for #2.

This guy was trouble before he ever joined up.

[Jamastiene]

40. No, it does not.

kind of person thinks the mentally ill are all racist? That is deranged.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

64. No-one on this thread, certainly.

[nomorenomore08]

50. Mental illness doesn't create bigotry. It may make that bigotry more obvious, though, due to

the person losing control of themselves. But I'm 99.9% sure Nash was already an anti-Semite before he went crazy - in the time and place he came from, anti-Semitism was likely more the rule than the exception.

[Yo_Mama]

51. Yes, but that's already been ruled out by the court

He wasn't found not guilty by reason of mental incapacity. This is about sentencing after conviction.

[alcibiades_mystery]

20. When are people going to stop giving their children the middle name of "Wayne"

It never works out right.

[gollygee]

21. Wayne Gretzky?

I'll admit I can't think of more off the top of my head though.

[alcibiades_mystery]

23. It's not his middle name

Wayne Douglas Gretzky.

[gollygee]

24. Ah

ROFL

[geardaddy]

33. Ha!

Yes!

[Sunlei]

30. Isn't that also a hate crime? with Federal charges?

The Feds put away people for decades for a lot less. They just put a Nun in prison for 3 years for going on private property. The young man who guessed Palins yahoo email password got 3 years.

[smokey775]

31. I'm going to take a stab at this and say that the feds let the state

handle this as this was a state crime.

[stillcool]

39. I'm glad he wasn't successful..

The problem is the disparity in our justice system. Jails are full of drug addicted veterans. "Trying his best" to hire a kkk hitman screams racially motivated, and considering recent events...? But then it's Alabama.

[Brigid]

41. I don't feel safe from him.

And I'm as lily white as you please. Whom is he going to decide needs to be "hit" next? And "intensive therapy?" Don't make me laugh. How long is the waiting list at the VA for veterans suffering from PTSD who need treatment? I don't even want to think about it. And don't tell me this guy wasn't a racist nut job before he ever signed up for military service. I'll have to do a little research on this, but I hear that the military has been having a big problem with skinhead and neo-Nazi types in the ranks.

ETA: Yep, I was right. Just Google "military neo-Nazis" and feast your eyes.

[Yo_Mama]

49. Nobody is safe from a person like this

It's probably true that black people are LESS safe. But geeze. Anyone who is willing to consider killing another person out of anything less than urgent defense of life is a public danger.

Yeah, this guy is a racist SOB.

[Yo_Mama]

47. This is a severe crime

And the public is in danger. Give him the ten and then let him ask the parole board for mercy.

Drug addiction is no excuse for trying to end people's lives.

[nomorenomore08]

52. I scoff at the "tough on crime" types as much as anyone, but this clearly deserves 10 years

at the very minimum. More so because he was essentially targeting an entire race - that's the nature and purpose of a hate crime.

[Yo_Mama]

57. Yes, that's my POV

I would say fifteen years would be better, and then if he can shape up in prison perhaps parole. But five years is way too short.

[Nye Bevan]

55. Some good jury decisions in this thread! (nt)

[LiberalAndProud]

63. Six sentences.

We know all about him.

[kimbutgar]

59. Poor guy his mental illness was left untreated and he became a monster racist

That is the most messed up thing about Bush's unnecessary wars. Lost people with mental illness and no help for them only jail.

I do not condone what he wanted to do but you can't help feeling sad for him.

[onpatrol98]

60. I do not condone what he wanted to do but you can't help feeling sad for him.

I bet the guy he tried to put the hit on isn't feeling very sad for him...

He "suspected" the neighbor was sleeping with his wife. Heck...what if he suspected the whole neighborhood was sleeping with his wife? What if he hadn't taken the intermediary step of looking to outsource the job? This could've ended very badly.