16th Street Baptist Church bombing

===Bobby Frank Cherry===
Bobby Frank Cherry was tried in Birmingham, Alabama, before Judge James Garrett, on May 6, 2002.<ref>{{cite book |title=Race, Law and Public Policy |isbn=978-1-58073-019-8 |page=426 |first=Robert Jr. |last=Johnson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LRYDK0baMa4C&pg=PA426 |access-date=May 28, 2019 |publisher=[[Black Classic Press]] |year=1998 }}</ref> Cherry  pleaded not guilty to the charges and did not testify on his own behalf during the trial.

In his opening statement for the prosecution, Don Cochran presented his case: that the evidence would show that Cherry had participated in a conspiracy to commit the bombing and conceal evidence linking him to the crime and that he had later gloated over the deaths of the victims. Cochran also added that although the evidence to be presented would not conclusively show that Cherry had personally planted or ignited the bomb, the combined evidence would illustrate that he had [[aiding and abetting|aided and abetted]] in the commission of the act.<ref name=lastchance/>{{rp|ch. 35}}

Cherry's defense attorney, Mickey Johnson, protested his client's innocence, citing that much of the evidence presented was circumstantial. He also noted that Cherry had initially been linked to the bombing by the FBI via an informant who had claimed, fifteen months after the bombing, that she had seen Cherry place the bomb at the church shortly before the bombing. Johnson warned the jurors they would have to distinguish between evidence and proof.

Following the opening statements, the prosecution began presenting witnesses. Crucial testimony at Cherry's trial was delivered by his former wife, Willadean Brogdon, who had married Cherry in 1970. Brogdon testified on May 16 that Cherry had boasted to her that he had been the individual who planted the bomb beneath the steps to the church, then returned hours later to light the fuse to the dynamite. Brogdon also testified that Cherry had told her of his regret that children had died in the bombing, before adding his satisfaction that they would never reproduce. Although the credibility of Brogdon's testimony was called into dispute at the trial, forensic experts conceded that, although her account of the planting of the bombing differed from that which had been discussed in the previous perpetrators' trials, Brogdon's recollection of Cherry's account of the planting and subsequent lighting of the bomb could explain why no conclusive remnants of a timing device were discovered after the bombing.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/17/us/witnesses-say-ex-klansman-boasted-of-church-bombing.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |title=Witnesses Say Ex-Klansman Boasted of Church Bombing |first=Rick |last=Bragg |date=May 17, 2002 |access-date=May 28, 2019 }}</ref> (A fishing float attached to a section of wire, which may have been part of a timing device, was found {{convert|20|ft|m}} from the explosion crater<ref name="Rome News-Tribune Nov. 18, 1977"/> following the bombing. One of several vehicles severely damaged in the explosion was found to have carried fishing tackle.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=hT0dAAAAIBAJ&pg=6528,5860385 |title=Design of Bomb Still Uncertain 38 Years Later |work=[[The Tuscaloosa News]] |date=April 20, 2001 |first=Jay |last=Reeves |access-date=May 28, 2019 |agency=Associated Press }}</ref>)

Barbara Ann Cross also testified for the prosecution. She is the daughter of the Reverend John Cross and was aged 13 in 1963. Cross had attended the same Sunday School class as the four victims on the day of the bombing and was slightly wounded in the attack. On May 15,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=K9wfAAAAIBAJ&pg=1567,3065168 |work=[[Nevada Daily Mail]] |date=May 15, 2002 |first=Bob |last=Johnson |title=Explosives Expert Testifies In Church Bombing Trial |access-date=May 28, 2019 |agency=Associated Press }}</ref> Cross testified that prior to the explosion, she and the four girls killed had each attended a Youth Day Sunday School lesson in which the theme taught was how to react to a physical injustice. Cross testified that each girl present had been taught to contemplate how Jesus would react to affliction or injustice, and they were asked to learn to consider, "What Would Jesus Do?"<ref name=lastchance/> Cross testified that she would usually have accompanied her friends into the basement lounge to change into robes for the forthcoming sermon, but she had been given an assignment. Shortly thereafter, she had heard "the most horrible noise", before being struck on the head by debris.

Throughout the trial, Cherry's defense attorney, Mickey Johnson, repeatedly observed that many of the prosecution's witnesses were either circumstantial or "inherently unreliable". Many of the same audiotapes presented in Blanton's trial were also introduced into evidence in the trial of Bobby Cherry. A key point contested as to the validity of the audiotapes being introduced into evidence, outside the hearing of the jury, was the fact that Cherry had no grounds to contest the introduction of the tapes into evidence, as, under the [[Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourth Amendment]], neither his home or property had been subject to discreet recording by the FBI. Don Cochran disputed this position, arguing that Alabama law provides for "conspiracies to conceal evidence" to be proven by both inference and circumstantial evidence.<ref name=lastchance/> In spite of a rebuttal argument by the defense, Judge Garrett ruled that some sections were too prejudicial, but also that portions of some audio recordings could be introduced as evidence. Through these rulings, Mitchell Burns was called to testify on behalf of the prosecution. His testimony was restricted to the areas of the recordings permitted into evidence.
[[File:Doug Jones Cherry Trial (cropped).jpg|160px|thumb|Prosecutor [[Doug Jones (politician)|Doug Jones]] points toward Bobby Cherry as he delivers his [[closing argument]] to the jury. May 21, 2002]]

On May 21, 2002, both prosecution and defense attorneys delivered their closing arguments to the jury. In his closing argument for the prosecution, Don Cochran said the victims' "Youth Sunday [sermon] never happened ... because it was destroyed by this defendant's hate."<ref name=washingtontimes2002>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2002/may/22/20020522-025235-4231r/ |title=Prosecutor Says Justice 'Overdue' in '63 Bombing |access-date=May 28, 2019 |agency=Associated Press |work=[[The Washington Times]] |date=May 22, 2002}}</ref> Cochran outlined Cherry's extensive record of racial violence dating back to the 1950s, and noted that he had experience and training in constructing and installing bombs from his service as a Marine demolition expert. Cochran also reminded the jury of a secretly obtained FBI recording, which had earlier been introduced into evidence, in which Cherry had told his first wife, Jean, that he and other Klansmen had constructed the bomb within the premises of business the Friday before the bombing. He said that Cherry had signed an [[affidavit]] in the presence of the FBI on October 9, 1963, confirming that he, Chambliss, and Blanton were at these premises on this date.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/22/us/more-than-just-a-racist-now-the-jury-must-decide.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=May 22, 2002 |access-date=May 28, 2019 |first=Rick |last=Bragg |title=More Than Just a Racist? Now the Jury Must Decide }}</ref>

In the closing argument for the defense, attorney Mickey Johnson argued that Cherry had nothing to do with the bombing, and reminded the jurors that his client was not on trial for his beliefs, stating: "It seems like more time has been spent here throwing around the [[nigger|n-word]] than proving what happened in September 1963."<ref name=washingtontimes2002/> Johnson stated that there was no [[Smoking gun|hard evidence]] linking Cherry to the bombing, but only evidence attesting to his racist beliefs dating from that era, adding that the family members who had testified against him were all estranged and therefore should be considered unreliable witnesses. Johnson urged the jury against convicting his client by [[Association fallacy|association]].

Following these closing arguments, the jury retired to consider their verdicts. These deliberations continued until the following day.

On the afternoon of May 22, after the jury had deliberated for almost seven hours, the forewoman announced they had reached their verdicts: Bobby Frank Cherry was convicted of four counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.<ref name="CherryObitNYT">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/19/us/bobby-frank-cherry-74-klansman-in-bombing-dies.html | title=Bobby Frank Cherry, 74, Klansman in Bombing, Dies | work=[[The New York Times]] |date= November 19, 2004 | first=Michelle | last=O'Donnell | access-date = February 5, 2009}}</ref> Cherry remained stoic as the sentence was read aloud. Relatives of the four victims openly wept in relief.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=z_suAAAAIBAJ&pg=1203,4665805 |title=Former Klansman Convicted in 1963 Church Bombing |work=[[Reading Eagle]]|date=May 23, 2002 |access-date=May 28, 2019 |agency=Associated Press}}</ref>

When asked by the judge whether he had anything to say before sentence was imposed, Cherry motioned to the prosecutors and stated: "This whole bunch lied through this thing [the trial]. I told the truth. I don't know why I'm going to jail for nothing. I haven't done anything!"<ref name="Al.com May 23, 2002"/>

Bobby Frank Cherry died of cancer on November 18, 2004, at age 74, while incarcerated at the [[Kilby Correctional Facility]].<ref name="CherryObitNYT" />

Following the convictions of Blanton and Cherry, Alabama's former Attorney General, William Baxley, expressed his frustration that he had never been informed of the existence of the FBI audio recordings before they were introduced in the 2001 and 2002 trials. Baxley acknowledged that typical juries in 1960s Alabama would have likely leaned in favor of both defendants, even if these recordings had been presented as evidence,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2001-05-07/news/0105070214_1_blanton-justice-denied-birmingham |work=[[The Baltimore Sun]] |date=May 7, 2001 |archive-date=March 27, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160327232736/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2001-05-07/news/0105070214_1_blanton-justice-denied-birmingham |title=Delayed, not Denied |access-date=May 28, 2019 }}</ref> but said that he could have prosecuted Thomas Blanton and Bobby Cherry in 1977 if he had been granted access to these tapes. (A 1980 Justice Department report concluded that J. Edgar Hoover had blocked the prosecution of the four bombing suspects in 1965,<ref name="Times Daily May 23, 2002"/> and he officially closed the FBI's investigation in 1968.<ref name="wsws.org May 5, 2001"/>)