WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A member of a South Carolina Ku Klux Klan group pleaded guilty today to shooting three black teenagers outside a rural nightclub in Pelion, S.C., the Justice Department and U.S. Attorney's Office in South Carolina announced today.

Clayton Edwin Spires, a 28 year old member of the Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, appeared before U.S. District Judge Joseph Anderson in Columbia, S.C. and pleaded guilty to violating the civil rights of three victims: Hosea Brown, Dale Jones, and Gary Jones. Spires also pleaded guilty to using a semi-automatic rifle in the shootings.

"The color of a person's skin is not an invitation for violence," said Bill Lann Lee, Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. "We will not hesitate to prosecute perpetrators of racial violence."

Spires admitted to participating in the drive-by shooting in October 1996 with Joshua Grant England, another member of the Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Spires faces up to life imprisonment on the charges.

J. Rene Josey, U.S. Attorney for South Carolina said, "As a South Carolinian, I am proud of our history of both diversity and tolerance, and as U.S. Attorney, I am proud that my office can help protect that history by prosecuting those who seek to poison our communities with hate and intolerance."

Spires and England are members of the same Klan group whose members were prosecuted two years ago for civil rights and firearms violations arising out of the investigation into church arsons near Manning, S.C. The investigation into the Pelion shooting has been conducted jointly by the FBI, ATF, SLED, the Lexington County Sheriff's Office, and the South Carolina Highway Patrol.

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