http://www.cbc.ca/storyview/MSN/world/nati...llen050621.htmlJury convicts former KKK member of manslaughter
Last Updated Tue, 21 Jun 2005 20:29:53 EDT
CBC News
Twelve jurors have found 80-year-old Edgar Ray Killen guilty of felony manslaughter in the deaths of three civil rights workers in Mississippi in 1964.
The former Ku Klux Klan leader had been charged with murder for his part in organizing the deaths of James Chaney, a black from Mississippi, and his white colleagues, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner from New York.
After the verdict, sheriff's deputies take Edgar Ray Killen from the Neshoba County courthouse in Philadelphia, Miss. (AP photo)
The prosecutor's office had indicated that it would be satisfied with the lesser verdict of manslaughter in order to get a conviction in the crime, which occurred 41 years to the day before Tuesday's verdict.
Killen's conviction will be appealed on the grounds that the defence objected to jurors being given the option of convicting him on the lesser crime, his legal team said.
A murder verdict could have meant life in prison for the part-time preacher and sawmill operator, who appeared in court during the four-day trial in a wheelchair after breaking both legs in a recent logging accident.
Manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.
James Chaney's brother Ben said he was satisfied with the verdict.
"I'm glad the jury could see beyond this us-against-them attitude that the defence counsel tried to portray, because it's not us against them," he said outside the Neshoba County courthouse.
"It's those who believe in justice and peace, and those who believe in violence and destruction. I think that those who believe in peace won today, some way, even on a small level."
Bodies found during 'Freedom Summer'
The case had cast a pall over the town of Philadelphia, Miss., since the three men's beaten and shot bodies were found during what became known as "Freedom Summer," when civil rights workers tried to register black voters in the segregated state.
The three were in Philadelphia to investigate the burning of a church used to register black voters when they were ambushed by a gang of Ku Klux Klan thugs.
Their bodies were found more than six weeks later.
The case was made famous in the 1988 film, Mississippi Burning.
FROM JUNE 13, 2005: 'Mississippi Burning' jurors start arriving
Killen, a part-time preacher, was the only man ever indicted on state murder charges in the case, but he was not brought to trial on those charges until this year.
Nine white and three black jurors began deliberating Monday before coming up with their unanimous verdict in the case Tuesday morning.
"How much time is enough that murder is not a crime anymore?" prosecutor Jim Hood asked before they retired for their deliberations. "How much time should pass before we say it's OK to murder?"
Killen's lawyer told the jurors that there was not enough evidence to convict his client, whom he admitted was once a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
"He's not charged with being a member of the Klan, he's charged with murder," said James McIntyre.
He also pointed out that the prosecution had failed to prove that Killen was present when the three civil rights workers were killed.
"The light has not come in completely," said victim Michael Schwerner's widow, Ruth Michael Schwerner Bender, who travelled to Mississippi for the trial.
She cited "the fact that are still some people, unfortunately, among you who choose to look aside, who choose to not see the truth, and that means there's a lot more yet to be done."