Felicia Houston, 16, was killed in Monroe days after Christmas in 1992. Russell Hinson, a former KKK leader, shot her with a crossbow near the large oak tree. He was upset over getting ripped off of $70 by a black drug dealer and wanted payback against someone who was black. (Illustration by Tony Lone Fight; photo by John Simmons)
A North Carolina parole commission has decided Russell Hinson, a former KKK leader who killed a Black teenager with a crossbow, should remain in jail. According to The Charlotte Observer, the commission denied Hinson’s parole last week, but the news was officially announced by Department of Public Safety spokesman Keith Acree on Tuesday.
Hinson was convicted of killing 16-year-old teenager Felicia Houston in 1993. A jury deadlocked on giving him the death sentence, so he was sentenced to life in jail. His murder conviction wasn’t his first brush with the law. In 1989, he was convicted of felony civil rights intimidation and received five years probation.
The killing of Houston was particularly heinous. Upset that he had been ripped off by a Black drug dealer, Hinson drove around looking for another Black person to take revenge on. After circling an apartment complex four times, he spotted Houston with her 16- and 12-year old cousins.
According to The Daily Mail, Hinson’s co-worker, Guy Brown, who drove him through the neighborhood, begged him not to carry out his act of revenge on the young girls. But Hinson said, “I don’t care… One of them is going to pay.”
Hinson’s supporters argued that he had reformed in jail. They say he had found God, taken several vocational classes and become friends with Black people. Seventy-five Hinson supporters also signed an online petition calling for his release. However, more than 1,700 people signed an online petition opposing his release.
Union County District Attorney Trey Robison said he was satisfied with the commission’s decision.
“The interest of justice has been served,” he said.
Even though Hinson’s uncle, Dennis Long, told The Observer he had expressed remorse, some people close to him didn’t buy it. Hinson’s ex-stepson, Walter Broome, said his former stepfather didn’t deserve to be released.
“He’s a monster and deserves to spend the rest of life in jail,” said Broome, who remembers Hinson hosting KKK meetings at their home. “Once you have hate in your bloodstream, you have hate forever.”
Eugene Houston, Felicia’s father, said he and his wife Betty are prepared to relive the case when Hinson comes up for parole again in 2019.
“We’re getting used to it,” he told The Observer.