A top lieutenant to Martin Luther King Jr. was sentenced Wednesday in a Virginia court to 15 years in prison for incest for having sex with his teenage daughter._________________
The Rev. James L. Bevel was a key architect of the 1963 Children's Crusade in Birmingham, Ala., and other pivotal moments of the civil rights movement. He was convicted after a four-day trial earlier this year in Loudoun County Circuit Court.
The prison sentence was the most severe the judge could impose. Sentencing guidelines called for a term of probation and the jury that convicted Bevel recommended the 15-year sentence.
Bevel, 71, took the stand during the sentencing hearing and revealed that he was recently diagnosed with end-stage pancreatic cancer and that doctors estimate he has six weeks to six months to live. A prosecutor said that was unfortunate but that Bevel deserved the sentence.
During the trial, Bevel's daughter testified that she was repeatedly molested by Bevel beginning when she was just 6 years old, culminating in sexual intercourse in 1993 or 1994 that formed the basis of the incest charge.
UPDATE, April 10, 2008: Civil rights leader convicted of incest
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UPDATE, April 7, 2008:
LEESBURG, Va. -- A daughter of a civil rights icon who served as a top lieutenant to Martin Luther King Jr. testified Monday that her father regularly molested her beginning when she was 6 years old.
The Rev. James L. Bevel pleaded not guilty to a charge of incest before jury selection began Monday. Prosecutors have said he had sex with a teenage daughter years ago, and told her the sex was part of religious training.
The daughter testified she grew up in a communal lifestyle in which she regularly saw her father having sex with women and she came to perceive her own molestation as normal.
She also testified that she and her siblings did not call Bevel "Dad" but instead referred to him as "Rev" or "Jim." She said she told her mother in a written letter that her father was molesting her.
The mother "handed (the letter back) to me and said I spelled 'molest' wrong," the daughter testified.
The Associated Press generally does not identify the victims of sexual abuse. The daughter is one of at least 14 children Bevel has with several different women, according to her testimony on Monday.
...An ex-wife of Bevel testified that he instructed his family and followers in the commune that it was parents' obligation to "sexually orientate" their children — meaning in her mind that they were to have sex with them.
Disgusting.
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Rev. James L. Bevel
rev·er·end [rev-er-uhnd, rev-ruhnd] –adjective
1. (initial capital letter) (used as a title of respect applied or prefixed to the name of a member of the clergy or a religious order): Reverend Timothy Cranshaw; Reverend Mother.
2. worthy to be revered; entitled to reverence.
3. pertaining to or characteristic of the clergy.
Is Rev. James L Bevel worthy of his title?
LEESBURG, Va. -- A civil rights leader who worked closely with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has been charged with incest.
The Rev. James L. Bevel, 70, was arrested late last month in Alabama, where he has been living, after being indicted on one count of unlawfully committing fornication.
...According to the indictment, the crime occurred in Loudoun County in northern Virginia between Oct. 14, 1992, and Oct. 14, 1994, when the accuser was 13 to 17 years old.
Bevel, who worked with King and witnessed his assassination in Memphis, Tenn., in 1968, has played a key role in some of the country's major civil rights protests.
He organized the 1963 Children's Crusade in Birmingham, Ala., and was a leader of the Freedom Rides to desegregate public accommodations throughout the South in the early 1960s. And he was an architect of the March on Washington in 1963 and the Selma-to-Montgomery march in Alabama in 1965. He also helped organize the Million Man March in Washington in 1995.
If the charges are true, when Bevel was in his mid-50s, he was abusing a child.
A civil rights icon sexually exploiting a child is serious stuff.
What do the Democrats have to say about this?
Will the press demand that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and other Dem presidential contenders condemn Bevel?
Whenever Pat Robertson says something stupid, the White House is held responsible.
The lib media consistently closely connect the statements of evangelicals with President Bush and the Republican Party.
The press had conniptions when Robertson made his lame comments about assassinating Hugo Chavez.
Robertson, 75, is a founder of the Christian Coalition of America and a supporter of President Bush, who was elected twice with the solid backing of Christian conservatives.
"I would think that people around the world would take the comments for what they are," [State Department spokesman Sean] McCormack said. "They are the expression of one citizen."
Note how the press associated President Bush with Robertson's personal opinion. Caracas responded as if Robertson spoke on behalf of the United States.
Jesse Jackson traveled to Venezuela to meet with Hugo Chavez and addess Venezuela's National Assembly over the matter.
Rev Jackson urged US authorities to take action against Mr Robertson's statements.
"We must choose a civilized policy of rational conversation," he told reporters during his three-day visit to speak at a ceremony.
Rev Jackson later met and shook hands with Mr Chavez during the Venezuelan leader's weekly radio and television programme, the Associated Press reports.
Mr Jackson's visit is a propaganda coup for the Venezuelan president, says the BBC's Justin Webb in Caracas.
Mr Chavez is likely to use the reverend's presence to demand that the White House apologise for Mr Robertson's remarks, our correspondent adds.
All of this resulted from PRIVATE CITIZEN Robertson's comments.
But as the lib media reminded us, Bush was elected on the strength of the Christian Coalition.
OK.
Dem candidates are elected on the strength of the African-American vote.
That's what pushes Hillary Clinton into putting on her fake Southern drawl. She wants to make sure that African-Americans remember that she was the first black First Lady.
Barack Obama is certainly courting the African-American vote, adopting a similar accent. He even said that his conception was a direct result of Selma.
Bevel, of course, was instrumental in the Selma march.
John Edwards, too, wants to win over black America, recently using tool Danny Glover. Rich man Edwards is quick to fall into his poor Southern boy roots routine.
Obviously, Hillary and Obama and Edwards want to have a very close connection with African-Americans and civil rights leaders. That would include the Rev. James L. Bevel.
So let's hold Obama accountable for Bevel's behavior.
Let's insist that Hillary be held responsible for Bevel's allegedly incestuous two year romp with a child.
Let's associate Edwards with Bevel's crime.
That seems fair, doesn't it?
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