Sidebar --
Reverend and one time vice presidential candidate James L. Bevel, arrested last year in Alabama after being indicted on one count of unlawfully committing fornication, has been found guilty of having sex with his daughter 15 years ago. Let The Church Say Amen!
The daughter is one of 16 children Bevel, 71, said he has had with several different women.
"The hardest part is I love my father, and I wish he loved me as much as I love him," The daughter told jurors during the sentencing phase.
According to the grand jury indictment, the crime occurred in northern Virginia between Oct. 14, 1992, and Oct. 14, 1994, when the accuser was 13 to 17 years old. Virginia has no statue of limitations on this type of criminal offense.
A top lieutenant to Martin Luther King Jr. who also helped organize the Million Man March, the brotha faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced. The jury recommended 15.
Bevel's daughter testified that she was repeatedly molested by Bevel beginning when she was just 6 years old, culminating in an act of sexual intercourse in 1993 or 1994 that formed the basis of the incest charge. Good Lord!!!!
Having worked with King and witnessed his assassination in Memphis, Tenn., in 1968, Bevel played a key role in some of the country's major civil rights protests.
At a time when African-Americans were suffering a battery of injustices, Bevel organized the 1963 Children's Crusade in Birmingham, Ala., and was a leader of the Freedom Rides to desegregate public accommodations throughout the South.
And he was an architect of the March on Washington in 1963 and the Selma-to-Montgomery march in Alabama in 1965. He also helped organize the Million Man March in Washington in 1995.
The trial divided members of Bevel's large family, with relatives testifying for both the prosecutor and defense. Even the daughter expressed mixed emotions. As she waited Thursday for a verdict, she was occasionally joined by her father as the two smiled and cooed over the daughter's new baby girl — Bevel's granddaughter.
It took the jury only three hours to convict.
This ain't a Black thing family, it's about protecting our children.
COURT'S ADJOURNED! [Associated Press]