Jury Split in Ex-Klansman's Murder Case

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Trial Reopens Infamous Chapter of Civil Rights Era

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS, AP

Edgar Ray Killen faces life in prison if convicted of
murdering three civil rights workers who were helping blacks
to vote

PHILADELPHIA, Miss. (June 21) - The jury deliberating the
fate of an 80-year-old former Ku Klux Klansman is split 6-6
on whether he is responsible for three murders he is accused
of masterminding in 1964.

After a few hours of work, panelists ended deliberations on
Monday evenly divided on the fate of Edgar Ray Killen, the
sawmill operator, part-time preacher - and, prosecutors say,
Klan organizer.

The judge told jurors to resume deliberations Tuesday - 41
years to the day after James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and
Michael Schwerner disappeared, bringing national attention to
the state's Jim Crow code of segregation in the South and
helping spur passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

During closing arguments, prosecutors made an impassioned
plea for a conviction, saying the victims' families have
waited too long for someone to be brought to justice.

''Because the guilt of Edgar Ray Killen is so clear, there is
only one question left,'' District Attorney Mark Duncan
said. ''Is a Neshoba County jury going to tell the rest of
the world that we are not going to let Edgar Ray Killen get
away with murder any more? Not one day more.''

Killen could get life in prison if convicted of murder or up
to 20 years on each of the three counts if convicted of
manslaughter.

During closing arguments, defense attorney James McIntyre
said that while events that occurred in 1964 were horrible
and he has sympathy for the families of the victims, ''the
burden of proof does not reflect any guilt whatsoever'' on
the part of Killen.

McIntyre acknowledged that Killen was once a Klan member, but
added: ''He's not charged with being a member of the Klan,
he's charged with murder.'' He then pointed out that no
witnesses could put Killen at the scene of the crime. Killen
did not take the stand.

The 12 jurors - nine white and three black - deliberated for
2 hours, 45 minutes before Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon called
them into the courtroom to check their progress. Gordon sent
them back to a hotel to be sequestered for the night.

The trial has reopened one of the most notorious chapters of
the civil rights era.

The victims were investigating the burning of a black church
when they were stopped for speeding, held in the county jail
for several hours. After they were released, they were
ambushed by a gang of Klansmen. They were shot to death on a
dark country road near Killen's home on June 21, 1964, and
their bodies were found 44 days later buried in an earthen
dam several miles away.

Killen was tried in 1967 along with several others on federal
charges of violating the victims' civil rights. The all-white
jury deadlocked in Killen's case, but seven others were
convicted. None served more than six years.