Three days after Christmas in 1992, Russell Hinson shot an innocent girl with a crossbow, saying he wanted to “shoot a n----- through the heart” to send a message after a drug deal fell through and cost him $70.

Now the North Carolina parole commission is trying to determine whether the former Ku Klux Klan leader should be freed short of his life sentence for the murder of 16-year-old Patricia Hope Houston.

Union County District Attorney Trey Robison said he hasn’t been notified of the exact date of Hinson’s parole hearing, but he plans to write a letter opposing the inmate’s release. Robison said he received a letter earlier this month informing him that Hinson was being reviewed by the parole commission and asking for his opinion. Robison said he has also talked with Houston’s family.

“It was a cruel, pitiless murder that was based on the race of the victim and it was just gruesome, and he does not deserve to be free,” Robison said.

Hinson, 56, who headed the Union County KKK in the late 1980s, was convicted a year after the killing following a six-day trial.

Two of Hinson’s friends told jurors that Hinson wanted to exact revenge after the drug deal earlier that month.

One of those friends, Richard McCoy, said Hinson showed him a crossbow on Dec. 28, 1992, and told him he was going to send a message to the black community.

Hinson had a friend drive him to the Burke Street Apartment complex in northwest Monroe near Creft Park. He pulled out a crossbow and fired at two boys standing near a tree, but missed.

The two men circled the block so Hinson could reload, Robinson said. Then he fired the arrow that killed Houston.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article36873030.html#storylink=cpy

Here is a copy of the case file.  It's heartbreaking.

http://www.leagle.com/decision/1995720459SE2d261_1688/STATE%20v.%20HINSON