06-22-2005, 03:22 PM
Klansman convicted of manslaughter in 1964 killings of civil rights workers
PHILADELPHIA, Miss. — On the 41st anniversary of the fatal shootings of three civil rights workers, a jury in Neshoba County, Miss., found a former Klansman guilty of three counts of manslaughter.
Edgar Ray Killen, 80, faces up to 20 years in prison on each count when he is sentenced Thursday, but could receive as little as probation.
With their verdict, jurors opted not to convict Killen, a part-time Baptist preacher, of first-degree murder, which required prosecutors to prove that the crimes were premeditated and committed with malice.
Killen was accused of being the ringleader of a white mob that abducted the three men — James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner — and then shot them and buried their bodies in an earthen dam.
Prosecutors acknowledged that they could not place Killen at the scene of the crimes, but alleged that he planned the attack and organized the mob, made up of members of the Ku Klux Klan.
The killings sparked national outrage and proved a turning point in the civil rights movement.
The case, which was the basis for the film "Mississippi Burning," is one of the last of the era to be brought to trial. Since 1989, federal and local officials in seven states have reexamined 29 cases and won 21 convictions, but suspects are dying off and the most thoroughly investigated slayings have been prosecuted.
The jury of nine whites and three blacks had deliberated less than three hours Monday when they informed Circuit Court Judge Marcus Gordon that they were split 6-6, but did not indicate that they were deadlocked. They reached their unanimous verdict after another two and a half hours of deliberation Tuesday morning.
Killen, who was confined to a wheelchair following a logging accident and who was receiving oxygen through tubes in his nose, showed no emotion as the verdict was read.
His wife, Betty, broke into loud sobs and rushed into the well of the courtroom. She is suffering from cancer and had been scheduled for treatment Tuesday morning.
Killen did not comment as he was taken into custody and wheeled from the courtroom but his lawyer, Mitch Moran, said later, "I'm sure he's very disappointed like we all are."
Although the judge has wide latitude in sentencing, Moran said that any sentence would be equivalent to life for Killen, who was taken to the hospital with high blood pressure on the first day of testimony.
"Whatever the sentence is, he's going to die in prison, I can assure you of that,"
After the verdict, Schwerner's widow, Rita Bender, thanked the members of the community who were instrumental in bringing the case to trial, but expressed her disappointment with the panel's failure to convict Killen of first-degree murder.
"The fact that some members of that jury could have sat through that testimony and could not bring themselves to acknowledge that these were murders, that they were committed with malice, indicates that there are still people among you, unfortunately, who choose to look aside, who choose to not see the truth," she said. "That means that there's a lot yet to be done."
Bender took the stand during the four days of testimony and told jurors about how she and her husband had moved to Mississippi from New York to help register black voters. She and her husband, who were white, worked at a local civil rights office with Goodman, also a white New Yorker, and Chaney, who was black and a resident of Meridian.
Schwerner, then 24, Goodman, 20, and Chaney, 21, piled into a blue station wagon on June 21, 1964, to investigate a church burning. Two days later, the car was found burned, and the bodies of the three were unearthed another 44 days later.
Informants later told authorities the three had been arrested on trumped-up speeding allegations, held in a local jail to give the Klan time to round up a mob, and then released to their peril.
Prosecutors Tuesday expressed their satisfaction with the verdict, despite the lack of a first-degree murder conviction.
"The bottom line is, they held Edgar Ray Killen accountable for his actions in the death of these three men," said Mississippi attorney general Jim Hood, while acknowledging the difficulties of convicting someone on evidence that is four decades old and after key witnesses have died.
The jurors had been instructed to convict on manslaughter if they felt Killen set the plan in motion with the intent of having the trio kidnapped and assaulted. According to testimony, Killen had told other Klansmen they were going to "tear their rear ends up."
"I think actually he may have even duped some of them into believing this was supposed to be a beating," Hood said.
Killen was one of 18 men, including a sheriff and a Klan leader, tried in 1967 on civil rights charges related to the killings. The jury convicted seven of the men, acquitted eight, and deadlocked on charges against three, including Killen.
None of those convicted served more than six years in prison. Killen is the only man to be brought to trial on murder charges, although county district attorney Mark Duncan did not rule out prosecuting seven other suspects who are still living.
Jurors in the current case were allowed to hear some of the testimony from the 1967 trial, even though the witnesses have since died.
Killen is wheeled from the courtroom.
Minutes after the verdict Tuesday, Stanley Dearman, who pushed for charges as editor of the weekly Neshoba Democrat from 1966 to 2000, celebrated on the courthouse steps.
"That's sweet, that's sweet," he said of the fact the verdict fell on the anniversary of the killings. "It's an added dimension, some sort of cosmic justice working somewhere."
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We all know the old bastard is a bigot ,but now the govt has got to keep him in food and goodhealth until the day he dies, he wont be in jail like any other convict he will be in the infurmary much like at home .
better to have kicked his ass and let him go free amounst the inhabitants of the projects .....
what you think ????
evil
PHILADELPHIA, Miss. — On the 41st anniversary of the fatal shootings of three civil rights workers, a jury in Neshoba County, Miss., found a former Klansman guilty of three counts of manslaughter.
Edgar Ray Killen, 80, faces up to 20 years in prison on each count when he is sentenced Thursday, but could receive as little as probation.
With their verdict, jurors opted not to convict Killen, a part-time Baptist preacher, of first-degree murder, which required prosecutors to prove that the crimes were premeditated and committed with malice.
Killen was accused of being the ringleader of a white mob that abducted the three men — James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner — and then shot them and buried their bodies in an earthen dam.
Prosecutors acknowledged that they could not place Killen at the scene of the crimes, but alleged that he planned the attack and organized the mob, made up of members of the Ku Klux Klan.
The killings sparked national outrage and proved a turning point in the civil rights movement.
The case, which was the basis for the film "Mississippi Burning," is one of the last of the era to be brought to trial. Since 1989, federal and local officials in seven states have reexamined 29 cases and won 21 convictions, but suspects are dying off and the most thoroughly investigated slayings have been prosecuted.
The jury of nine whites and three blacks had deliberated less than three hours Monday when they informed Circuit Court Judge Marcus Gordon that they were split 6-6, but did not indicate that they were deadlocked. They reached their unanimous verdict after another two and a half hours of deliberation Tuesday morning.
Killen, who was confined to a wheelchair following a logging accident and who was receiving oxygen through tubes in his nose, showed no emotion as the verdict was read.
His wife, Betty, broke into loud sobs and rushed into the well of the courtroom. She is suffering from cancer and had been scheduled for treatment Tuesday morning.
Killen did not comment as he was taken into custody and wheeled from the courtroom but his lawyer, Mitch Moran, said later, "I'm sure he's very disappointed like we all are."
Although the judge has wide latitude in sentencing, Moran said that any sentence would be equivalent to life for Killen, who was taken to the hospital with high blood pressure on the first day of testimony.
"Whatever the sentence is, he's going to die in prison, I can assure you of that,"
After the verdict, Schwerner's widow, Rita Bender, thanked the members of the community who were instrumental in bringing the case to trial, but expressed her disappointment with the panel's failure to convict Killen of first-degree murder.
"The fact that some members of that jury could have sat through that testimony and could not bring themselves to acknowledge that these were murders, that they were committed with malice, indicates that there are still people among you, unfortunately, who choose to look aside, who choose to not see the truth," she said. "That means that there's a lot yet to be done."
Bender took the stand during the four days of testimony and told jurors about how she and her husband had moved to Mississippi from New York to help register black voters. She and her husband, who were white, worked at a local civil rights office with Goodman, also a white New Yorker, and Chaney, who was black and a resident of Meridian.
Schwerner, then 24, Goodman, 20, and Chaney, 21, piled into a blue station wagon on June 21, 1964, to investigate a church burning. Two days later, the car was found burned, and the bodies of the three were unearthed another 44 days later.
Informants later told authorities the three had been arrested on trumped-up speeding allegations, held in a local jail to give the Klan time to round up a mob, and then released to their peril.
Prosecutors Tuesday expressed their satisfaction with the verdict, despite the lack of a first-degree murder conviction.
"The bottom line is, they held Edgar Ray Killen accountable for his actions in the death of these three men," said Mississippi attorney general Jim Hood, while acknowledging the difficulties of convicting someone on evidence that is four decades old and after key witnesses have died.
The jurors had been instructed to convict on manslaughter if they felt Killen set the plan in motion with the intent of having the trio kidnapped and assaulted. According to testimony, Killen had told other Klansmen they were going to "tear their rear ends up."
"I think actually he may have even duped some of them into believing this was supposed to be a beating," Hood said.
Killen was one of 18 men, including a sheriff and a Klan leader, tried in 1967 on civil rights charges related to the killings. The jury convicted seven of the men, acquitted eight, and deadlocked on charges against three, including Killen.
None of those convicted served more than six years in prison. Killen is the only man to be brought to trial on murder charges, although county district attorney Mark Duncan did not rule out prosecuting seven other suspects who are still living.
Jurors in the current case were allowed to hear some of the testimony from the 1967 trial, even though the witnesses have since died.
Killen is wheeled from the courtroom.
Minutes after the verdict Tuesday, Stanley Dearman, who pushed for charges as editor of the weekly Neshoba Democrat from 1966 to 2000, celebrated on the courthouse steps.
"That's sweet, that's sweet," he said of the fact the verdict fell on the anniversary of the killings. "It's an added dimension, some sort of cosmic justice working somewhere."
_______________________________________
We all know the old bastard is a bigot ,but now the govt has got to keep him in food and goodhealth until the day he dies, he wont be in jail like any other convict he will be in the infurmary much like at home .
better to have kicked his ass and let him go free amounst the inhabitants of the projects .....
what you think ????
evil