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Alabama board denies parole for Birmingham church bomber

Church bombing survivor Sarah Collins Rudolph speaks with the media on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016, in Montgomery, Ala., after Alabama's parole board refused early release for a one-time KKK member convicted in the blast. The bombing severely injured Rudolph, and her sister Addie Mae Collins was among the four girls killed in the attack on 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves)
Church bombing survivor Sarah Collins Rudolph speaks with the media on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016, in Montgomery, Ala., after Alabama's parole board refused early release for a one-time KKK member convicted in the blast. The bombing severely injured Rudolph, and her sister Addie Mae Collins was among the four girls killed in the attack on 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves) Church bombing survivor Sarah Collins Rudolph speaks with the media on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016, in Montgomery, Ala., after Alabama's parole board refused early release for a one-time KKK member convicted in the blast. The bombing severely injured Rudolph, and her sister Addie Mae Collins was among the four girls killed in the attack on 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves)

By Associated Press 3 min read

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) – Alabama’s parole board decided Wednesday against freeing a one-time Ku Klux Klansman convicted in a church bombing that killed four black girls more than 50 years ago.

The decision to keep Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., 76, imprisoned was met with applause at the hearing. Relatives of three of the slain girls spoke against Blanton’s release during the hearing.

“Justice is served,” Lisa McNair, sister of bombing victim Denise McNair, said afterward.

Blanton is the last surviving KKK member convicted of murder in the bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church.

He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001 for being part of a group of Klansmen who planted a dynamite bomb that exploded outside the church on Sept. 15, 1963. The blast killed 11-year-old Denise McNair and 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Morris, also known as Cynthia Wesley.