Mississippi Burning Trial(英)

nsisted of a series of alibi and character witnesses. Local residents testified as to the "reputation for truth and veracity" of various defendants, or to having seen them on June 21 at locati

ons such as funeral homes or hospitals.

　　John Doar presented the closing argument for the government on October 18. Doar told the jury that "this was a calculated, cold-blooded plot. Three men, hardly more than boys were its victims." Pointing at Price, Doar said that "Price used the machinery of law, his office, his power, his authority, his badge, his uniform, his jail, his police car, his police gun, he used them all to take, to hold, to capture and kill." Doar concluded by telling jurors that what he and the other lawyers said "will soon be forgotten, but what you twelve do here today will long be remembered."

　　One day after having begun its deliberations, the jury reported to Judge Cox that it was deeply divided and unable to reach a verdict. Over defense objections, the judge responding by giving the jury what is called the "Allen charge," or the "dynamite charge," for its purpose of breaking open a deadlocked jury. Shortly after Cox gave his charge, defendant Wayne Roberts joked to Cecil Price, "We've got some dynamite for them ourselves." The remark was overheard by a court officer and reported to the judge.

　　On the morning of October 20, 1967, the jury returned with its verdict. The verdict on its face appears to be the result of a compromise. Seven defendants, mostly from Lauderdale County, were convicted. The list of convicted men included Deputy Sheriff Cecil Price, Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers, trigger man Wayne Roberts, Jimmy Snowden, Billey Wayne Posey, and Horace Barnett. Eight men, mostly from Neshoba County, were acquitted, including Sheriff Lawrence Rainey, burial site owner Olen Burrage, and Exalted Cyclops Frank Herndon. In three cases, including that of Edgar Ray Killen, the jury was unable to reach a verdict [LINK TO ARTICLES ABOUT JURY DELIBERATIONS]. The convictions in the case represented the first ever convictions in Mississippi for the killing of a civil rights worker. The New York Times called the verdict "a measure of the quiet revolution that is taking place in southern attitudes."

　　On December 29, Judge Cox imposed sentences. Roberts and Bowers got ten years, Posey and Price got six years, and the other three convicted defendants got four. Cox said of his sentences, "They killed one nigger, one Jew, and a white man—— I gave them all what I thought they deserved."

　　After serving four years of his six-year sentence, Cecil Price rejoined his family in Philadelphia. In a 1977 New York Times Magazine interview, Price revealed that he recently watched and enjoyed the television show "Roots." His views on integration had changed, he said. "We've got to accept this is the way things are going to be and that's it."

　　Update (November, 2000):

　　Mississippi prosecutors are now considering bringing state murder charges against some of the conspirators, including Edgar Ray Killen. Mississippi Attorney General Michael Moore recently explained, "The problem with [the Mississippi Burning] case is that we didn't do anything——we didn't investigate it; we didn't prosecute it." In 1999, the state reopened the investigation. The FBI turned over to the state more than 40,000 files pertaining to the case. One of the problems with bringing charges in the 36-year-old case is that many of the key witnesses that testified in the federal case are now dead. A successful prosecution will most likely require that the state be successful in convincing some of the conspirators to testify for the prosecution. Attorney General Moore sees value in reviving the case: "Maybe by doing this old case, we'll change some of those old stereotypes [about Mississippi]."

　　Update (May, 2001):

　　On May 6, 2001, three days after falling from a lift in an equipment rental store, Cecil Price died of head injuries. Price's death was seen by Attorney General Moore as a huge setback to the ongoing investigation of the 1964 case: "If he had been a defendant, he would have bee

n a principal defendant. If he had been a witness, he would have been our best witness. Either way, his death is a tragic blow to our case."

　　Joe Ellis The Clarion-Ledger

　　Edgar Ray Killen in 2005

　　Update (October, 2004):

　　In the photo to the left, Jackson State University students and others march in downtown Jackson in October 2004 demanding that Attorney General Jim Hood prosecute Edgar Ray Killen, 79, a suspect in the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers.

　　On October 6, 2004 approximately 500 people marched in support of state prosecution of former Klan preacher Edgar Ray Killen for the murder of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. Killen, now 79, escaped conviction in 1967 when a lone juror refused "to convict a preacher." Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, asked about the efforts to gain an indictment of Killen, said that he would not be pressured by emotion to reopen the old case. "This is going to be about facts," he said in an interview with Ryan Clark of the Clarion-Ledger. Killen offered no comment about public efforts to gain his conviction.

　　Update (January 7, 2005):

　　On January 6, 2005, the State of Mississippi charged 79-year-old former Klan preacher Edgar Ray Killen with murder in connection with the slayings of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner. Police arrested Killen at his home following a grand jury session, according to Neshoba County Sheriff Larry Myers. Convicted Klan conspirator Billy Wayne Posey expressed anger at Killen's arrest: "After 40 years to come back and do something like this is ridiculous……like a nightmare." More arrests in the case are expected. Carolyn Goodman, the 89-year-old mother of victim Andrew Goodman was pleased with the news. She hoped the killers would someday be "behind bars and think about what they've done."

　　Prosecutor John Doar told me in 1999 that the failure of the federal jury in 1967 to convict Killen was his biggest disappointment. Killen "was really central to the conspiracy," Doar said. He believed the jury might have divided on Killen because the evidence against him was more circumstantial that it was for those convicted. When Killen returned home to Philadelphia after the 1967 trial he greeted one of his neighbors by saying, "Man, I thought they were fittin' me for overalls over there [at the trial in Meridian]."

　　Update (June 13, 2005):

　　Jury selection opened today in Philadelphia, Mississippi in the murder trial of Edgar Ray Killen. Killen watched the proceedings from a wheelchair he has used since he broke his legs in a tree-cutting accident in March. Security was tight with streets around the courthouse barricaded. Ben Chaney, the brother of murder victim James Chaney, told reporters he found the prosecution encouraging. Other civil rights observers complained, however, that other surviving conspirators, such as Olen Burrage, should be facing charges as well.

　　Update (June 23, 2005):

　　Judge Marcus Gordon today sentenced Edgar Ray Killen to serve three 20-year terms, one for each conviction of manslaughter in connection with the deaths of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner in 1964. Judge Gordon said in pronouncing sentence, "I have taken into consideration that there are three lives in this case and that the three lives should be absolutely respected." Sentencing followed Killen's conviction earlier in the week. The manslaughter convictions came after nearly three days of jury deliberations. The jury found that there was reasonable doubt as to whether Killen intended that the klansmen kill the civil rights workers, and thus did not return a murder conviction

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