Klan trial:Slain man's mom recalls murder; jury to consider lesser charge

[Maddy McCall]

PHILADELPHIA, Miss. -- The prosecution rested its case against murder defendant Edgar Ray Killen Saturday, climaxing its testimony with the recollections of a mother who braved the racial tinderbox of Mississippi after the slaying of her son and his fellow civil rights workers.

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood also said he would allow jurors to consider a 20-year manslaughter penalty against the elderly Killen instead of the murder charges and life imprisonment he faces.

snip/

Prosecutors have never contended that Killen was a triggerman in the slaying. Witnesses have said he organized others to carry out the executions and hide the bodies in an earthen dam, while he rushed to his alibi at the funeral home. Under Mississippi law, actively organizing a murder allows a suspect to be prosecuted for it.

Baptist minister James Kermit Sharp said his friend, neighbor and one-time fellow preacher was a man of "very good" character. When Hood asked Sharp if the killers of the three should be brought to justice either by law or by God, Sharp said: "All men will answer payment of some kind."

Monday is expected to be the final day of testimony, with two more defense witnesses along with closing arguments on both sides.

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhattan/ny-usmiss0619,0,2697531.story?coll=nyc-moreny-headlines

http://www.neshoblog.com/

[merh]

1. Don't you realize

Folks don't care about this, there are too many scandals created by the admin that have their attention. This is just another story about civil rights killings in Mississippi. :shrug:

:cry:

[TwentyFive]

2. Good Character? He is a killer mastermind! Put him away for life.

I'm willing to bet that wheelchair is all an act to get people's sympathy up. Organizing the murders is worse than actually pulling the trigger.

[Name removed]

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[uppityperson]

5. There is no statute of limations on murder.

You cannot murder and hide for 40 yrs and say "too bad, too long ago." There is no stature of limitations on murder.

Edited to add, and they are going to trial because just taking him out and shooting him is against the law too.

[Name removed]

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[uppityperson]

8. You can be retried after a hung jury. This is the law.

Sometimes new information comes up, or a different strategy, or the political climate changes so that the evidence will actually be heard and considered.

[Name removed]

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[Maddy McCall]

21. "Politics" won't decide the case. They jury will. No politicians on jury

WHITE WOMEN

White woman #1: Homemaker, age 72

White woman #2: Nurse, age 55

White woman #3: Tech services librarian, age 34

White woman #4: Manufacturing corp. quality control agent, age 50

White woman #5: Office manager, age 36

White woman #6: Chicken farmer, age 46

White woman #7: Nurse, age 61

White woman #8: Casino games auditor, age 48

White woman #9: Teacher, age 44

WHITE MEN

White man #1: Teacher/coach, age 40

White man #2: Teacher, age 36

White man #3: Auto plant worker, age 27

White man #4: Engineer, age 54

BLACK WOMEN

Black woman #1: Auto plant worker, age 27

Black woman #2: Social worker, age 54

BLACK MEN

Black man #1: Chicken processing worker, age 36

Black man #2: Asst. school teacher/bus driver, age 42

[uppityperson]

30. I had a feeling you would jump on the word "political" in my answer

Politics change in that it used to be a white man in the south USA would never, ever, ever go to trial for killing civil rights workers. Same way blacks had to sit at the back of the bus and drink/eat/etc seperate from whites. The political climate may change in that a white man may now get an actual trial for killing civil rights workers. It still may not be a fair trial, but perhaps the political climate is changing so that he may get a real and a fair trial.

That is what I mean.

[Maddy McCall]

12. Obviously, you don't know all the facts in this case.

Read my post below, and then google "Jerry Mitchell" and "Mississippi Sovereignty Commission Files".

[daleo]

27. The point isn't his views.

It was his actions, namely murder.

[Name removed]

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[uppityperson]

31. Political atmosphere in that a white man can be tried now

maybe. Didn't used to be that way and may not happen now. But sometimes you have to wait for it to be able to turn to be fair judicially.

[TacticalPeek]

36. Part of that chapter will close when the coffin closes on this scumbag.

Let the perpetrator off? Gimme a break.

Law and order his ass.

[uppityperson]

37. Seems like you are saying don't try him. Isn't this letting him off?

It seems like this is what you are saying. I am confused by what you mean here.

[TacticalPeek]

38. Try him, convict him, send him to Parchman, let him rot.

(Parchman being the toughest available state pen.) I would be fine with the death penalty, but I think that would be letting him off too easy.

[uppityperson]

41. wrong person responding to. wrong place. sorry

:dunce: seems we're agreeing.

[TacticalPeek]

44. Thanks, I was wondering.

Now that you mention it, there is a smell developing in here.

:shrug:

[uppityperson]

47. Redfaced I am and I agree with your message.

hmmm

[tblue37]

40. People who commit crimes like this

need to know that they can't run or hide, that eventually justice will catch up to them.

[toopers]

90. Just out of interest . . .

how much time should pass before someone can get away with murder?

[MrScorpio]

62. Looking in the mirror is never pretty

We can never heal those wounds until we deal with this as a nation.

Hiding doesn't heal the scar

[mark414]

67. that was exactly the problem

that he was out there in plain sight, even when everyone knew he did it

emmett till's killers admitted it 6 months after they were found guilty in a magazine cover story and still nothing was done.

there is no statute of limitations on justice

[RandomKoolzip]

73. It's not their "views" we disagree with.

It's the fact that he acted on them via murder.

[H2O Man]

87. "whether or not we agree with their views..."

I don't give a fuck what his views are. I do care that he murdered three people.

[toopers]

89. I believe the first trial was a federal case.

I do not think the state ever tried him for murder.

[DURHAM D]

7. Don't you watch Cold Case ? They always catch the old

gizzers and put them away.

On our more serious note I remember the murders very well. I grew up in the midwest, a long way from Philadelphia, Missisippi, but remember feeling/knowing as a kid that these awful killers would never be found, charged or convicted. I am glad to have lived long enough to see this chapter of this story come to some conclusion. But still today, he won't be convicted - white is on his side.

[Maddy McCall]

11. Mississippi juries, in the past decade, have convicted EVERY Klansman...

who has sat before him. For example, google Vernon Dahmer trial. Google Sam Bower.

Mississippians are not proud of this era of our history. But we choose to confront it instead of sweep it under a rug, where it will continue to fester.

[DURHAM D]

23. I can appreciate the changes and thank you for the reminder.

But this case seems to being hurried along and is a weak case - in part because of the passage of time.

[uppityperson]

32. Could be hurried because he's old and may die

Try him before he dies, that's my take on it. Or at least get the facts out before he dies.

[Name removed]

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[uppityperson]

34. RU serious that this is grandstanding? Not justice?

Are you really serious that being able to finally perhaps have a fair trial for a multiple murder is simply grandstanding? As I said before, murder does not have a statue of limitations. If you murder several people as a hate crime, and wait long enough, you should be just forgiven? I just want to make sure this is what you mean.

I can understand that money is wasted on bs trials (MJ for instance) that would be better spent elsewhere, but forgiving someone for a racial hatred multiple murder because they are old or enough time has passed is beyond me.

[Name removed]

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[Maddy McCall]

42. How bout this. Since YOU aren't directly involved...

why don't you ask the families of the victims if there is "much point after all this time?"

No one really gives a damn what you can live with. A murderer and hero of the white "racialist" movement will have been served justice, if the jury convicts. 83% of Mississippians agree that he should be tried. That includes conservatives AND liberals. You call yourself tnLIBERALdemocrat? :wtf:

I'm also well acquainted with the Peltier case. Are you saying that HE committed a hate crime? OMFG.

Your posts demonstrate either denial or incredible naivety. I'll leave it at this. My last post to you.

[Name removed]

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[Maddy McCall]

75. I'm a professional historian who has studied this case, fron to back.

I've visited the Sovereignty Commission Files at the state archives and seen the documentary evidence myself. Directly involved? No. An educated Mississippian who wants to see my peer brought to justice? HELL YES.

I seem to know much more about the facts of it than you do.

(BTW, Peltier wasn't a "cold blooded killer." Again, though, that's a different thread. Why don't you start one in GD saying that Peltier was a cold blooded killer and see how many people disagree.)

Peltier, OJ, etc. I keep discussing facts of this case; you keep proving that you know NOTHING about this case, and then comparing apples to oranges.

[uppityperson]

45. Not pointless to be tried for his crimes. Even if time has passed.

Do you really think that this will just reopen old wounds, not heal and it is ok to not hold someone responsible for his crimes?

Lets not hijack this thread to get into whether or not Peltier was set up, a political jobs not hate crime. It would be easy to, but, no, must control self...

[Maddy McCall]

48. Amen.

Peltier is a whole 'nother thread. :hi:

[Name removed]

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[uppityperson]

51. So, as I asked above...

Do you really think that this will just reopen old wounds, not heal and it is ok to not hold someone responsible for his crimes?

[Name removed]

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[uppityperson]

53. He needs to be held responsible, but not tried?

You are agreeing he needs to be held accountable. You are also saying no trial should be held. You are saying just publish his actions?

Yet you are concerned up in post #10 "Isn't that what we as liberals fight against? Keeping an independent judiciary so that politics plays no role?" You really want no trial but public acknowledgement of his actions is fine with you and enough for you?

Even though his participation in these hate murders has been publically known for 40 yrs, he deserves to stand trial. To have the evidence presented. To be considered innocent until proven guilty. Whether or not the jury is able to come to a guilty verdict or not, he needs to have a trial.

[Name removed]

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[Maddy McCall]

74. You know, you just don't listen.

Only recently, AFTER the Sovereignty Files were opened, did Jerry Mitchell find new evidence. He had NEVER BEEN TRIED BY THE STATE ON MURDER CHARGES.

He had been tried in 1965 on violating the civil rights of the three men who were murdered, but that WAS NOT BY THE STATE, AND WAS NOT A MURDER TRIAL.

I think if you approach this from an educated position, you will feel differently.

[Name removed]

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[Maddy McCall]

79. Then why can you not digest the facts of this case?

What is MOST appalling IS the fact that you have a "moral and ethical" problem with the trial. THAT is very disconcerting.

You may be educated, but you know not shit about this case.

[vogonjiltz]

54. The way I see it is this,

The old man got forty more years than the civil rights workers. There is no statute of limitations on murder. Let the jury decide. Let us rest assured that any time he is sentenced to will be a life sentence anyhow, he don't look like he has too long to live.
What do you thing when they find these old concentration camp guards. Are you saying we shouldn't deport them or proscecute them because they are in their nineties?

[Name removed]

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[Maddy McCall]

9. Think about the lives of the young men he snuffed out.

Think about this. They would be in their sixties now. They would have children, grandchildren, and wonderful legacies to share not only with their children, but with students of race relations.

Think about the love lost by their mothers. Their siblings. Their friends.

You do know that you are making the same arguments against this trial that that racist fuck Richard Barrett and the Klan are making.

But, let's talk about the nuts and bolts of this case. Only after extensive investigative reporting and diving into the recently opened Mississippi Sovereignty Commission files by Clarion Ledger reporter Jerry Mitchell did the degree of Killen's involvement come to light. Jerry Mitchell pushed for prosecution on murder charges, and Mississippians overwhelmingly (83%) agreed with him. Thank god we have a Democratic AG, Jim Hood, who agreed with Mitchell, and pursued the case.

Think about it from this Klansman preacher's point of view. This guy will leave this world and face his maker with the blot of THREE murder convictions on his record. He will be marked by his fellow humankind as a killer. The weight of that surely must cause him some sleepless nights.

He'd only THOUGHT he got away with it. Just the stress and anxiety (and expense--and the Klan is raising money for that) that this trial has cost him is worth it. The convictions will be icing on the cake.

[Name removed]

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[Maddy McCall]

15. Respond to the rest of my post. You want to know why it's being tried now

and I answered you. Now you can respond to that part of the info I presented.

I honestly never thought I'd hear a LIBERAL respond to this case as you have.

[Name removed]

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[Maddy McCall]

18. I'm glad you're not a judge or attorney...

and I'm glad that our Attorney General in Mississippi is following the law.

[Name removed]

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[Maddy McCall]

22. He hasn't been tried on murder before.

As for the rest, I've already responded to the pseudo-issues you raised.

Edit to add: And, like I said above, you obviously know NOTHING about this case. HE was tried the first time on federal civil rights charges. This is his first time to face a state-convened jury.

[Name removed]

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[Maddy McCall]

43. He is NOT being tried twice.

Brush up on jurisprudence and get back to me when you know more about it.

[Pithlet]

64. He wasn't tried immediately afterword

because it was Mississippi in the 1960s! They let a murderer walk free because that's what they did to the good ol' boys who murdered black people. That case was a sham. Why should he continue to live free just because it was so long ago, and he was lucky enough that that Mississippi didn't convict murderers like him? I don't understand your reasoning on this issue at all.

[Maddy McCall]

78. Yes, and the case in 1965 wasn't a state murder case.

It was a federal civil rights case, but the jurors were, of course, white Mississippians. He was found guilty by 11 of the jurors, with the one juror who found him not guilty claiming that she did so because she just couldn't convict a preacher. In other words, hung jury.

This isn't a "retrial" as tnliberal has said 100 times. It is the first time that he has been tried by the state on murder charges. The opening of the Sovereignty Commission files and the investigative reporting by Clarion Ledger journalist Jerry Mitchell provided the momentum and evidence needed for the new case.

You're right, that he should consider the 40 years he has been walking free as a gift. If this state would have provided true justice to him with a truly impartial jury, he would have been spending the past 40 years in jail. Probably would have been dead by now.

[DURHAM D]

25. I agree - something is missing . eom

[vogonjiltz]

57. That doesn't make them any less murdered. eom

[toopers]

91. Wow, what a statement . . .

"While I admire the courage of the three men, I also understand that they willingly put themselves in a situation where this could have happened, and did."

I guess a woman deserves to be raped because of what she wears, or you deserve to be robbed because of the materialistic things you own!

A freeper in sheep's clothing!

[goclark]

19. The message needs to continue to be sent

to the racist who believe they can get away with murder and no one will ever find out or care.

[TacticalPeek]

24. True, frying his klucker ass forty years ago would have been better.

But I'll take second best and watch him dragged off to Parchman Farm. He'll see what it's like to be on the wrong end of the color stick in there.



http://tinyurl.com/cykzh

Better picture

[Maddy McCall]

28. I'm just amazed that ANYONE at DU can find a reason to say...

that he's being unfairly tried. Wonders never cease... :shrug:

[uppityperson]

35. 40 yrs ago would've been better.

Lock him up for his adult life. But I will take it now rather than never.

[Lars39]

46. The victims deserve justice.

How f@cking hard is that to understand?

[da_chimperor]

56. It's because of something called JUSTICE. n/t

[MrScorpio]

59. Justice delayed is justice DENIED

Time for this oversight to be corrected.

Despite his age and frailty, it's about time that he paid for his crimes.

Don't be fooled into falling into a sympathetic stupor... Behind his elderly facade beats a heart of evil.

[Name removed]

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[Maddy McCall]

82. Well how bout this.

DEFINITELY UN-DEMOCRATIC AND DEFINITELY UN-LIBERAL.

[Name removed]

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[Maddy McCall]

85. Our party worked it's way through the race thing, oh, about 30 years ago.

Sorry to see that you haven't caught up yet.

[Name removed]

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[Maddy McCall]

81. Amen, brother.

Amen.

[Telly Savalas]

66. Yes. That's the crux of his argument.

If it'd only been 35 years, then prosecution would be acceptable.

[DS1]

61. You think ANYONE was interested in convicting someone for killin

some stinking niggers 40 yrs ago? Because that's how they saw it back then. Corrupt cops wouldn't bat an eye if one of them boys was followed home and dragged out their car and strung up. Sheeit, you got any common sense in ya, boy? Do ya?

/uses N-word to make a point

[AlCzervik]

68. Even if he never serves anytime he'll still be a convicted felon.

Why shouldn't he have to answer for what he did? Why because he's old? Sorry that doesn't wash, some Nazi war criminals were old when they were caught and brought to trial do you also think that was a waste of time? How would you feel if one these victims was you son, husband or brother?

[Name removed]

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[NawlinsNed]

88. I agree, but only for a specific reason

A bit conflicted on this, personally.

I think that, ultimately, this is a big show for the DA more than anything and it's a way for him to garner some publicity for himself. I also think it's money and resources that could probably be used better elsewhere, especially in a cash poor state like Mississippi.

That being said, every family of a murdered loved one deserves their day in court and he deserves a conviction if guilty. However, I'm personally of the opinion that even if you murdered someone, if it happened that long ago and he's kept your nose clean since, then the only reason to stick the guy in prison is to satisfy the thirst for vengence of his family, and that is NOT a legitimate reason to stick this guy in prison where he's surely going to need special care provided by the state at the taxpayers' expense. The penal system should be about rehabilitating prisoners if possible or keeping them off the streets if necessary, and neither of these apply in this case.

[TacticalPeek]

93. A big show for the DA? Do you know who the DA is?

Are you familiar with the facts of this case and this trial?

I cannot understand your position that a murderer should not stand trial for his crime because he is old. You should visit a prison some time, and you will see lots of old people there. If you can't do the time, then don't do the crime.

And your idea that a prison system "should be about rehabilitating prisoners" is, in my opinion, naive and uninformed. Certainly in the federal system, rehabilitation is specifically rejected as a goal of incarceration; check out the BOP mission statement. And this state's system, Mississippi's, is the farthest thing from rehabilitative one could imagine. I don't know what state you are from, but I am aware of none that emphasizes rehabilitation.

No, Mississippi sends people to prison to punish them and that is why this cowardly klucker should be joining the murderers at Parchman Farm soon, where he belongs.

[uppityperson]

94. murder does not have a statute of limitations

It is ok to murder someone, then "keep your nose clean" and not be held responsible or tried? How abut Gary Ridgeway, the Greenriver killer that was finally convicted after living a quiet clean life for yrs?

Welcome to DU, may your stay here be peaceful.

[uppityperson]

4. At least they will have brought him to trial. Should convict and jail him

Send him to jail in a max security prison for the remainder of his life. So what if he's old now. So what if he's in a wheelchair. So what if this is old news ("we've known about this for a long time, so just get over it" per Mr.bush mentality. He masterminded it. He needs to help responsible. A trial is a good start. He also needs to be in prison for the rest of his life, but the trial is a start. Thanks for the updates Maddy.

[Maddy McCall]

14. You're quite welcome.

Thanks to DUer HulkamaniacUM for his www.neshoblog.com which is live blogging from the trial and doing an excellent job.

[bobbieinok]

16. many of the murderers of civil rights activists were known.......some/

manny were tried in farce trials where every white in the room knew they would walk free

years later, the mind-set had somewhat changed, young prosecutors were present who wanted to restore the reputation of their state/town, additional evidence was found

that's the story about the Birmingham church murders, as I recall

BTW, the church was blown up less than 4 weeks after King's 'I have a dream' speech in DC........as kids in the car say 'are we there yet?'

[hyphenate]

65. Not meaning to make a joke out of a serious topic

but he really looks a LOT like the dancing old man in the 6 Flags commercial.

[Pithlet]

69. He does.

I thought the same thing.

[RandomKoolzip]

72. Shit....I don't care that he's about to die. I think he should live

every single second of the rest of his wretched, fucked-up, klucker-fucker life in serious pain. I hope he has terminal stage cancer or some other painful disease.

Justice was not served here. He should have gotten ball cancer or been raped by a radioactive rhinocerous immediately after committing his horrible crimes if this was a just world.

But since it's not, I think making him suffer through the rest of his days is the least possible justice we can administer to this scumbag at this late a date.

[Maddy McCall]

83. You gotta admit...his being housed at Parchman with the big boys...

would provide him justice like no other.

[toopers]

92. Look at the first picture.

Isn't it ironic that he is being helped into trial by a black cop?