Authorities Didn't Have Enough To Pursue Hate Charges In Slaying

An attorney who has worked with the families of three Muslim students gunned down in February 2015 says federal authorities decided they did not have a strong enough case to pursue hate-crime charges against their killer.

Joe Cheshire is a defense attorney in North Carolina who has been working with the victims' families and guiding them through the legal process over the past four years.

He said at a news conference Wednesday that federal authorities could not satisfy themselves that 50-year-old Craig Hicks' actions met all the required conditions of bringing a successful hate crime prosecution. He says they couldn't discount Hicks' initial explanation that the violence was provoked by a dispute over parking spaces.

Hicks pleaded guilty Wednesday to three counts of first-degree murder in the slayings of 23-year-old Deah Barakat; his wife, Yusor Abu-Salha, 21; and Abu-Salha's 19-year-old sister Razan Abu-Salha. He was sentenced to three consecutive life terms in prison without parole.

Cheshire says federal authorities' decision not to pursue hate-crimes charges "hurt a lot of feelings and it added to the false narrative."

He says the federal government "failed this family and our multicultural democracy."