White separatists get shorter prison terms

SALT LAKE CITY, July 23 (UPI) -- A federal judge in Salt Lake City shortened the sentences of two members of the white separatist group National Alliance because of an appeals court ruling.

The Salt Lake Tribune said U.S. District Judge Dee Benson Wednesday resentenced former National Alliance national chairman Shaun A. Walker to 37 months, reducing his initial 87-month prison sentence.

Travis D. Massey, who was the Utah spokesman for the National Alliance, received a new 30-month term in lieu of his original 57-month sentence.

Both men were convicted and sentenced in 2007 on charges of conspiracy to interfere with civil rights and interference with a federally protected activity.

The criminal charges were connected to Salt Lake City attacks on a Mexican-American man in 2002 and an American Indian man in 2003.

The Tribune said Benson was required to resentence Walker and Massey after the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled there was insufficient evidence to prove the victim of one of the attacks endured serious bodily injury as claimed by prosecutors.

The new sentences mean Walker could be free in nearly nine months and Massey could be released in two months.