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January 29, 1999/12 Shevat 5759, Vol. 51, No. 18
Clemency board rejects parole for former skinhead
ANNE BRADY
Managing Editor
The Arizona Board of Executive Clemency this week rejected parole for a man convicted 10 years ago of plotting to blow up black churches and Jewish organizations' facilities - despite pleas from the local director of the NAACP that the prisoner has repented for his white-supremacist past.
Testifying against parole for former skinhead leader Michael Bloom were Joel Breshin, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League; county prosecutor Jim Blake; George Weisz, executive assistant to Gov. Jane Hull; and Craig Fuji, assistant attorney general. Testifying on Bloom's behalf were his wife, his mother and the Rev. Oscar Tillman of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), who also is assistant pastor of New Home Baptist Church in Phoenix.
"In my heart, I believe this person has changed," Tillman said this week in an interview with Jewish News. "He is (eventually) going to return to society. Do we return him as a bitter person, or as someone (to whom) we gave a second chance? ... It's easy to demonize someone. ... All I can do is what I believe to be right (and) I believe this young man."
But Breshin said he remains unconvinced.
"I just don't see (true repentance) here," Breshin said. "I think he should serve out his term."
Bloom was first arrested and prosecuted (by Blake) in 1988 when his bombing plots were uncovered. He was sentenced in 1990 to four years in prison and seven years' probation. In 1994, on probation, he was arrested again when he was discovered to be in possession of firearms, ammunition and Nazi paraphernalia. He then was sentenced to serve 11 years in prison; he would complete his full sentence in 2005, but he will have parole hearings every six months from now on.
A three-member panel of the clemency board voted 2-1 on Tuesday, Jan. 26, to reject parole for Bloom.
Last October, Bloom withdrew a request for early release into a home-arrest program after Breshin, Weisz and others objected loudly. His wife, Darlene, then contacted Breshin, asking what her husband could do to convince black and Jewish groups that he had repented. Breshin suggested that Bloom write letters expressing his remorse.
"I was expecting something substantial," Breshin said. "It (the letter Bloom sent Breshin) was a mea culpa, but he lied." Breshin said that in the letter, Bloom claimed to have left the skinhead movements before he actually did.
Tillman said that after receiving his letter, he went to visit Bloom in prison.
Shortly after that, Bloom's wife and children and his wife's parents all joined Tillman's largely black congregation. Tillman said Bloom's children are mixing well with the other children at his church.
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