The Nation - News from June 18, 1986

A federal appeals court in St. Louis upheld arson and firearm convictions of the man who founded a white-supremacist group in Arkansas. A three-judge panel approved the convictions of James D. Ellison, 38, who along with his followers lived on a paramilitary compound in north-central Arkansas of the group, called the Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord. Ellison, 38, was convicted in July in Fort Smith, Ark., on charges that he participated in racketeering activity and interstate travel to promote arson, the court said.