Governor Refuses Klansman’s Appeal

Gov. Fob James refused to block the execution in Atmore, Ala., early today of Henry Francis Hays, a member of the Ku Klux Klan who killed a 19-year-old black man in a case that ultimately bankrupted the United Klans of America, the klan faction that had incited the crime. Hays, 42, was convicted in the 1981 slaying of Michael Donald, who was abducted from a Mobile street. Prosecutors said the random slaying was ordered by klan leaders “to show klan strength in Alabama.” In 1987, the klan was hit with a $7-million wrongful-death verdict in a case brought by Donald’s mother.