Tennessee man charged with murder for burning black man to death, then using Bible to justify act

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September 1, 2018

By Brett Barroquere, Southern Poverty Law Center

John D. Carothers, facing multiple charges related to a March 17 arson and murder, enters Judge Ben Bennett’s courtroom on Wednesday.
SAM STOCKARD

When it comes to why John Daniel Carothers allegedly burned a black man to death in central Tennessee, prosecutors think his own words to a white supremacist group explain it all.

“My brothers in Jesus Christ our savior and Lord,” the letter begins. “My name is John Carothers and I believe the bible is about white people and for white people. I am in the Rutherford County Jail for burning a black man. I set him on fire with lighter fluid poured on his head.”

Jail employees in Rutherford County, Tennessee, intercepted the letter from the 53-year-old Carothers to an unnamed white supremacist group, WTVF-TV in Nashville reported.

The letter also requested the group send a study Bible and asks the recipient to “look up Murfreesboro, TN 37129 for March 17th or 18th. It appears he died on the 24th…”

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