Racist leader has shot at new sentence
White supremacist Matthew Hale was sent to the nation’s highest security prison for 40 years after he ordered a hit on a Chicago federal judge.
But Hale, self-described “Pontifex Maximus” of a hate group, now has a shot at a new sentence despite having lost court appeals.
In 2002, Hale unsuccessfully targeted U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow in a murder plot by soliciting a follower who turned out to be an FBI informant.
In 2005, while Hale sat in prison, Lefkow’s husband, Michael, and her mother, Donna Humphrey, were murdered in Lefkow’s home. Investigators initially focused on Hale’s hate group. But disgruntled litigant Bart Ross claimed responsibility in a suicide note.
Hale was sentenced to four decades behind bars months after the Lefkow killings. An appeals court upheld the sentence, and the U.S. Supreme Court wouldn’t hear Hale’s case.
Among Hale’s arguments is that his lawyer should have removed from the jury a male Northwestern University assistant dean who had a black live-in boyfriend.
“Counsel failed to challenge [the juror] even though he knew that evidence would be presented showing that Mr. Hale had animosity toward African Americans and especially white people involved in interracial relationships,” Hale’s lawyer wrote in a court filing.
At trial, jurors heard Hale praising a member of Hale’s group, Ben Smith, who went on a racist killing spree. One of Smith’s victims was Northwestern basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong.
Former prosecutor Dean Polales said Hale’s type of request is common and rarely successful. An Indiana judge who oversaw Hale’s trial has yet to issue a ruling.