Puckett News

Three Mississippi men who ran down and killed an African-American man last June pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes last week , one day after one of the defendants pleaded guilty to the slaying in state court.

Recently, the state of Mississippi executed Larry Matthew Puckett who was 35 years old.

Three white men involved in the beating and fatal rundown of a black man in Mississippi pleaded guilty Thursday to federal hate crimes and admitted to a months-long pattern of brutal harassment against blacks a day after one of them pleaded guilty in state court to a murder charge.

A white teenager pleaded guilty to murder and a hate crime Wednesday for running over a black man with his pickup truck in a killing a judge called a stain on Mississippi that will take years to fade.

Guards check each vehicle as it leaves Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman, Miss., prior to the execution of death row inmate Larry Matthew Puckett, Tuesday, March 20, 2012.