SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - A federal appeals court panel has dismissed a sentencing appeal filed by the man who planted a bomb along the route of a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in Spokane in January 2011.
The decision entered Thursday means 39-year-old Kevin Harpham will continue to serve his 32-year prison term.
The Spokesman-Review reports (https://is.gd/acRbgu ) that Harpham claimed that he had been coerced by his lawyers into pleading guilty to two federal criminal counts of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and committing a hate crime. He appealed his stay at a maximum security prison in California almost immediately after his sentencing in December 2011.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says the Army veteran and white supremacist made his own decision to plead guilty and waived the right to appeal his sentence.
The backpack with explosives was found and disabled before it could go off.
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Information from: The Spokesman-Review, https://www.spokesman.com
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