Steven Scott Cantrell Case Paper

On December 28th, 2010 a member of the Aryan Brotherhood was sentenced to an outstanding 450 month prison term in Crane, Texas (ABC15, 2016). To further put this court decision into perspective, 26 year old Steven Scott Cantrell was fated to servfe a 37.5 year sentence that would result in him being released after he is well into his mid-60s. Cantrell was found guilty for hate crime charges that stemmed from a series of racially-motivated arsons in December 2010. He was involved in setting fire to a historic African-American church and the attempted murder of a disabled black man (ABC15, 2016).

According to the Texas Justice Department, Steven Cantrell set fire to the Faith in Christ Church as part of an effort to murder the disabled African American man, who wished not to be identified by the media during the investigative process, in particular. This individual was said to have been living inside a shelter located in the lower level of the church. Cantrell observed the disabled man passing by the building in his wheelchair moments before the incident (Morlin, 2011). Cantrell ransacked the church, wrote a series of threatening and racist messages in large letters on the wall of the church adjacent to the pastor’s office, then used graffiti to “tag” the exterior of the building with Aryan Brotherhood

This incident is related to a series of racially-motivated arsons he had committed earlier that day (Department of Justice, 2011). As previously stated, Steven Scott Cantrell was only 26 years old at the time of his conviction. Unlike the three middle-aged Aryan Brotherhood members mentioned earlier in this report, Cantrell had no authority within the organization and his motives for committing these hate crimes were not solely based on allegiance to the brotherhood. His ultimate goal was self-motivated; he wanted to gain higher rank and power within