A 62-year-old white man convicted of attempting to run down six Black men at the site of the Rosewood massacre has been sentenced to a single year in prison.
David Allen Emanuel appeared solemn and reserved on Thursday as federal Judge Allen Winsor delivered the sentence on six counts of hate crimes for attempting to run over Historian Marvin Dunn, his son and four other Black men who were surveying Dunn’s Rosewood property to build a memorial for the massacre.
The judge’s sentence called for 12 months plus one day in federal prison for each of the six charges, which he allowed to run concurrently. The Justice Department had sought a “substantial” prison term of between five and six years.
In theory, concurrent sentences are an acknowledgement that it is not fair to give multiple punishments for the same crime. However, it is often desirable to charge someone with multiple offences fir the same crime, as they might be found innocent of the more serious offense (or have some of the convuctions overturned on appeal).
For example, in the case of a homicide, you often see the defendent charged with both murder and manslaughter for the same act. In such a case the defendent would likely get a concurrent sentence because they were only convicted of a single act.
In many cases, the line between multiple convictions being a single “act” is blurry, the judge can exersise discretion.
If they’re only convicted of a single act, there would be no second sentence at all.
Usually, someone is charged with the highest charge the prosecutor thinks will stick. Sometimes there’s a plea deal for a lesser charge.