A racist US police “goon squad” that carried out a mock execution during a 90-minute torture session of two black men has been sentenced to decades in prison.
Six former officers admitted raiding a Mississippi home without a warrant and assaulting Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker in a case which drew national attention.
The group of officers, all white, used racial slurs as they assaulted their victims with a stun gun and a sex toy and subjected them to a mock execution.
America’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, condemned it as a “heinous attack” on those they had sworn to protect.
Christian Dedmon, 29, the lead assailant, was imprisoned for 40 years on Wednesday, a sentence the victims’ relatives called “unheard of” in the state.
Dedmon wept during the proceedings, keeping his eyes averted from Mr Jenkins and Mr Parker as he said he would never forgive himself.
Two other former officers – Daniel Opdyke, 28, and Jeffrey Middleton, 46 – were sentenced to 17 and a half years each. Hunter Elward, 31, was sentenced to nearly 20 years.
Opdyke also wept profusely as he told Mr Jenkins and Mr Parker that he had reflected on “the monster I became that night”.
The final two members of the self-styled “goon squad”, Brett McAlpin, 53, and Joshua Hartfield, 32, were sentenced on Thursday to more than 27 years and more than 10 years respectively.
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