An iconic figure from the civil-rights movement who was sentenced last month to 15 years in prison for incest has been freed on bond to pursue an appeal and likely will never spend another day in jail. The Rev. James L. Bevel, 71, is dying from pancreatic cancer and doctors estimate that he has at most a few months to live. So, it is unlikely he will ever return to jail even if the conviction is upheld because any appeal will likely take 18 months or longer to resolve.
Bevel served seven months before being released on the appeal bond this month.
Prosecutors in Loudoun County, where Bevel was convicted, opposed his release, saying he presented a danger to children.
"He's dying, but the sad reality is that people die in jail every day," prosecutor Nicole Wittmann said yesterday.
In April, jurors convicted Bevel of incest for having sex with his then-teenage daughter in the early 1990s, while they were living in Leesburg.
The trial revealed that several of Bevel's 16 daughters also said they had been sexually assaulted by him, and included bizarre testimony from Bevel about parents' duty to "sexually orient" their children. Bevel denied, though, that he'd had sex with his daughter.
Chevara Orrin, one of the daughters who prosecutors said was sexually assaulted by Bevel, said the family's reaction has been mixed. Personally, she said she accepts his release because it has made it easier for family members who wish to meet and reconcile with him to do so.
She was also hopeful that his release will allow him better medical care.
"I don't wish him any suffering or pain as a result of this horrible disease," said Orrin, of Winston-Salem, N.C. "I've forgiven him . . . and I'm at peace with him being released."
Orrin agreed to be identified publicly.
Bevel was a top lieutenant to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and architect of the 1963 Children's Crusade in Birmingham, Ala., and other pivotal moments of the civil-rights movement.
In the 1960s, Bevel was a leader in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, two of the stalwart organizations that led efforts to desegregate the South. In 1992, he was vice presidential running mate to political extremist Lyndon LaRouche.
Bevel's public defender, Bonnie Hoffman, said yesterday that the prognosis of six weeks to six months Bevel gave during his sentencing hearing has not changed.
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