Church burning suspects arrested

This is ridiculous. The suspects claimed the church burnings were all just a joke. What's the problem with young people today who beleive that claiming 'joke' is a legitimate defense to heinous crimes?

Three college students from the prosperous suburbs of Birmingham, Ala., were arrested Wednesday in the burning of nine Baptist churches last month in rural Alabama.

Federal officials said the fires were a prank that spun out of control while the students were deer hunting.

After initially setting ablaze five churches in the county just south of Birmingham, the students burned four additional churches days later in more remote areas, hoping to divert investigators, authorities said.

Benjamin Moseley and Russell DeBusk Jr., both 19 and students at Birmingham-Southern College, were arrested on campus after acknowledging their involvement in the fires to federal agents.

The agents were led to the students by tire tracks at several burned churches, officials said.

Several hours later, authorities arrested Matthew Lee Cloyd, 20, a student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, whose mother owns the Toyota 4Runner that had left the tracks, federal agents said in an affidavit accompanying the criminal complaint.

I find it pretty incredible that the suspects were found from the tire tracks they left at the scenes.

We live in a sick society. Who thinks, as a prank,"Hey, let's burn down some churches!"?

No sane person does. If they are found guilty, put the punks away for life.

My previous article on the Alabama church burnings:

• Alabama Burning