ATLANTA, July 3 (UPI) -- A Georgia man has been sentenced to death for killing a young mother in a murder-for-hire motivated by racial antipathy.
A jury in Atlanta found Thursday that Cleveland Clark, 52, should die by lethal injection for the murder of Sparkle Rai. Rai's father-in-law, Chiman Rai, is serving a life sentence for recruiting Clark to kill her for $10,000 because he disapproved of his son's marriage to a black woman.
Rai, 22, was strangled with the cord of a vacuum cleaner in 2000 in the presence of her 6-month-old daughter.
At one point, the judge ordered the jurors out of the courtroom and had bailiffs take Clark away when he launched a diatribe laced with obscenities.
"I said I didn't kill no … woman," Clark said, hitting the defense table. "What's wrong with you? I'm sick of this … telling lies on me."
Rai's father and stepmother watched the sentencing.
"I feel like a big burden has been lifted from my shoulders," her father, Bennet Reid, said. "I really believe that Sparkle has seen this happen, and she's smiling down."
