Killen Trial

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PHILADELPHIA, Miss. (AP) -- A judge on Monday denied a new trial for one time Ku Klux Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen, convicted last week of manslaughter for the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers.

James McIntyre, one of Killen's attorneys, told Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon that the defense had not expected prosecutors to ask that jurors in the murder trial be given the option of a manslaughter conviction.

"We did not come to court prepared to defend a manslaughter charge, but that of murder," McIntyre said. He argued the manslaughter option was unfair to Killen.

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