A Los Angeles court sentenced the Williams brothers who were convicted of setting fire to three synagogues with the use of Molotov cocktails in Sacramento, California in June 1999. The brothers are declared white supremacist antisemites. One brother, Benjamin Mathew, 33, was sentenced to 30 years in prison and his brother James Taylor, 30, was sentenced to 21 years and 3 months. In addition, they are to pay more than one million dollars in damages to the synagogues. In two of the synagogues the brothers left behind leaflets claiming that the “international Jewish world order” and the “Jewsmedia” had started the war in Kosovo.
Benjamin was interviewed in the media from jail and said that he would be willing to be executed as a “Christian martyr, which would generate more attacks against Jews, homosexuals and other minorities”.
The brothers will go on trial again in April 2002 charged with the murder of two homosexuals. The prosecution plans to ask for the death sentence for this crime.
