Two former Ku Klux Klansmen were sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison Thursday for burning down two black churches.
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U.S. District Judge David Norton sentenced Gary Christopher Cox, 23, to 191/2 years and Timothy Adron Welch, 24, to 18 years. They had pleaded guilty to civil rights violations in the June 1995 fires.The men used a cigarette lighter to set wicker baskets, hymnals and wooden chairs on fire at the Mount Zion AME Church in Greeleyville. The next day, they ignited gasoline and oil on the floor of the century-old Macedonia Baptist Church in Bloomville.