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Murder, Hate Crime Charges Filed Against Tulsa Suspects

By Mark Memmott

Published April 13, 2012 at 1:11 PM EDT

The two suspects in last Friday's killings in Tulsa of three African-Americans and wounding of two others were formally charged today with "three counts each of first-degree murder, two counts of shooting with intent to kill and five counts of malicious intimidation or harassment," theTulsa World reports.

Jake England, 19, and 33-year-old Alvin Watts were arrested over the weekend. The attacks terrorized African-Americans in the Tulsa area.

According to the World, Oklahoma law defines hate crimes as "malicious harassment," which "occurs when a person acts 'maliciously and with the specific intent to intimidate or harass another person because of that person's race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin or disability.' "

Mark Memmott

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.

See stories by Mark Memmott