A former Ole Miss student will face sentencing today for placing a noose on the James Meredith statue at the university in February 2014. He had previously admitted to participating in the vandalism of the statue of the university’s first black student.
Georgia native Austin Edenfield, 21, had waived indictment and pleaded guilty on March 24 to the charge of helping others use threatening force to intimidate African-American students and university employees.
He will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Michael Mills at 11 a.m. today in Oxford.
He faces up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine.
On Feb. 16, 2014, Edenfield, Graeme Phillip Harris and a third student, all freshman members of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, were at the fraternity’s house on campus. After a night of drinking, the three planned to place a noose and a pre-2003 Georgia state flag, which contained a Confederate battle emblem, on the Meredith statue.
In the early hours of the morning, they walked to the Student Union where their images were captured on security cameras, and went back to the fraternity house. The University Police Department discovered the vandalism around 7 a.m.
Harris had pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor of using threatening force to intimidate black students and faculty on campus. In September 2015, Mills, the same judge who will sentence Edenfield, sentenced Harris to six months in federal prison and 100 hours of community service for a non-profit organization.
Harris was released last month after serving his full term.
The third man involved in the incident has not been charged.
All three students withdrew from the University and the Sigma Phi Epsilon chapter was closed.
For coverage of the sentencing, go to theDMonline.com.
-Lana Ferguson
