---

AP, via the Contra Costa Times, USA
Aug. 18, 2007
www.contracostatimes.com

---

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Item 19061 • Posted: Saturday August 18, 2007  

---

SANTA ANA — Two members of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang will get life in prison without the chance of parole for plotting the murders of two black inmates, after a jury deadlocked on whether to recommend the death penalty.

A federal jury deliberated about 41/2 days before announcing the deadlock Thursday. Jurors voted 9-3 in favor of the death penalty for Wayne Bridgewater and 11-1 against the death penalty for Henry Michael Houston, authorities said.

The men will be sentenced to life Oct. 16, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office.

The case was part of a larger indictment that federal prosecutors hope will eventually dismantle the Aryan Brotherhood, a violent white supremacist organization accused of running powerful gambling operations and drug rings from inside some of the nation’s most dangerous prisons.

At least a half-dozen other trials are pending in Southern California, where federal prosecutors are handling Aryan Brotherhood cases from across the country, assistant U.S. Attorney Terri Flynn said Friday.

Bridgewater, 55, of Washington state, and Houston, 45, of California, were convicted of involvement in the Aug. 29, 1997, murders of two inmates at a federal prison in Lewisburg, Pa.

Bridgewater was serving time there for a series of Washington state bank robberies and for assault for stabbing a black inmate 25 times at another federal prison in 1981, Flynn said. The man survived.

Houston, who originally was sent to prison for drug crimes, was in the Lewisburg prison after he was convicted of a marijuana trafficking scheme in the federal prison in Lompoc, Flynn said.

Prosecutors said that while at the Pennsylvania prison, Bridgewater and Houston helped kill black inmates Frank Joyner and Abdul Salaam. They were killed after Bridgewater and another gang member, Al Benton, got an invisible-ink message that said “War with D.C. Blacks” — a reference to a black prison gang.

Defense attorney Steven White said prosecutors misinterpreted that message, which was a warning about a gang war brewing in other federal prisons and not an order to kill.

White also argued at trial that Houston never stabbed anyone and that Bridgewater acted in self-defense when he stabbed one black inmate and helped kill another.

---

What You Can Do From Here

---

Read More Articles On These Topics Categories: Hate Groups Share, Blog About, Bookmark, or Email This Article Subscribe Religion News Blog RSS feed [What is this?] RSS by topic: Hate Groups Read Another Article Previous entry: Brazilian church leaders get U.S. jail time for cash smuggling Next entry: Neo-Nazi ex-leader sentenced RNB Homepage with latest headlines Find Related Information Use our custom search engines to find additional research resources on religions and cults Find Related Books Hate Groups Most Popular Today Pakistan Militants Bomb CD Shop For Selling ‘Jesus Film’ Muslim Violence Ongoing in Egypt; Christians Plead For Help World’s oldest ocean-going passenger ship, ministry ship Doulos, to stop sailing

---

Share This Article

---

To share this page simply copy and paste one of these URL's:

• Post a link on your blog or website:
  
• Send in an email or IM:
  
• Post on a forum:
  

Search for information about (religious) cults, cult-like organizations, -- as well as paranormal-, New Age, and pseudoscientific claims -- across 260+ websites, blogs and forums dedicated to cult research, spiritual abuse, ex-cult counseling & support.

Note: results are listed on another domain -- CounterCultSearch.com -- from which you can easily return here.

Search for apologetics articles, books, videos, and other research resources across 135 Christian apologetics websites and blogs.

Note: results are listed on another domain -- ApologeticsSearch.com -- from which you can easily return here.