California Prisons: The Aryan Brotherhood Case

The Aryan Brotherhood,

The Aryan Brotherhood (also known as the Brand) is a white male prison gang that was organized in 1964 at California's San Quentin maximum security prison and It was founded by white supremacists Barry Mills and Tyler Bingham .

The gang was formed initially as a racial hate group for the purpose of intimidating nonwhite inmates. Over the course of several decades, the gang spread to other California prisons, prisons in other states, and federal prisons. It has been estimated that the gang has a membership of over 15,000 inside and outside of prisons. Although racial hatred inspired the formation of the gang, its focus has shifted to controlling prison drug trafficking, male prostitution, extortion, and gambling among white inmates (Aryan Brotherhood Prosecution,2008).

During the period 1982-1989, the FBI investigated the gang. However, the investigation was terminated because the United States Attorney, in Los Angeles, declined to prosecute gang mem-bers. Federal involvement resurfaced in 2002, when Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Jessner filed a 140-page indictment against forty gang members in prisons across the country. At least twenty-one of the defendants were eligible for the death penalty, which made this the largest nonmilitary death

The defendants in the trial were Barry Mills, Tyler Bingham, Edgar Hevle, and Christopher Overton Gibson. The four leaders were charged with ordering or participating in fifteen murders or attempted murders. In July 2006, a jury convicted the four gang leaders of murder, conspiracy, and racketeering. Gibson and Hevle were sentenced to life in prison. Mills and Bingham were faced with a death penalty sentencing hearing. The jury at the death penalty hearing voted not to impose the death penalty on Mills and Bingham. Instead, Mills and Bingham were also sentenced to life in prison (Aryan Brotherhood