Hate Crimes

Franklin Sechriest faces up to 20 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced in June.

Authorities say the 31 suspects are part of an extremist group founded in Texas after the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va.. Eight of those arrested Saturday are from North Texas, officials said.

Though nearly 2,000 miles and three years apart, the circumstances of the racist mass shootings in Buffalo and El Paso are strikingly similar.

The arrest was connected to a shooting that wounded three women in a hair salon in the city's Koreatown. The suspect's girlfriend said he had delusions that Asian Americans were trying to harm him.

The Texas-based conspiracy theorist recently sought immunity from federal prosecutors investigating the U.S. Capitol riot. Three of his companies have filed for bankruptcy in an apparent effort to delay his Sandy Hook defamation trial.

Austin saw more documented incidents than any other Texas city last year. The majority of incidents were nonviolent.

President Biden signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law, the culmination of more than a century of efforts to designate lynching as a federal hate crime.

Over the last month, several antisemitic and racist incidents have taken place in Austin. KUT spoke with the Anti-Defamation League and a free speech expert about what people can do when they encounter these incidents.

A Texas State University student faces a federal charge of arson in connection with the fire at Congregation Beth Israel last month. If convicted, he could go to prison for 20 years.

Franklin Barrett Sechriest was charged with arson with intent to damage a place of worship, a first-degree felony.