James Jackson, the self-described white supremacist who pleaded guilty in January to fatally stabbing a black man in a sword attack in Manhattan, has been sentenced to life in prison without parole, a New York judge ruled Wednesday. The Afghanistan veteran, who was living in Baltimore before the attack, admitted to all of the charges against him last month relating to the death of Timothy Caughman, a pastor’s son who had previously been employed as an anti-poverty worker. Jackson claimed the random attack was a “practice run” for a “race war.” “American law enforcement has been slow to acknowledge the rise and scope of white nationalism, and this has emboldened actors like the defendant,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a statement Wednesday. “We have too often treated these crimes as something less than terrorism.”
