ObiwanGinobili
06-21-2005, 02:41 PM
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--civilrightskillin0621jun21,0,754460.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
Ex-Klan leader guilty of manslaughter in 1964 slayings of NY, Miss. civil rights workers
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
Associated Press Writer
June 21, 2005, 2:53 PM EDT
PHILADELPHIA, Miss. -- An 80-year-old former Ku Klux Klansman was convicted of manslaughter Tuesday in the slayings of three civil rights workers that shocked the nation exactly 41 years ago and helped spur passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The jury of nine whites and three blacks reached the verdict on its second day of deliberations, rejecting murder charges against Edgar Ray Killen but also turning aside defense claims that he wasn't involved at all.
Killen showed no emotion as the verdicts were read. He was comforted by his wife as he sat in his wheelchair, wearing an oxygen tube. He was immediately taken into custody, and Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon set sentencing for Thursday.
Civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were ambushed, beaten and shot on June 21, 1964. Their bodies were found 44 days later buried in an earthen dam.
The notorious case inspired the 1988 movie "Mississippi Burning."
Chaney, a black civil rights activist from Mississippi, was slain along with the two New Yorkers _ Goodman, a Queens College student, and Schwerner, a Manhattan social worker. They had been looking into the torching of a black church and helping to register black voters during what was called Freedom Summer.
After the verdicts were announced, cheers could be heard outside the two-story, red brick courthouse. Passersby patted Chaney's brother, Ben, on the back and one woman slowed her vehicle and yelled, "Hey, Mr. Chaney, all right!"
Later, Ben Chaney thanked the prosecutors but said that for the community, "I really feel that there is more to be done." He said there were still no black businesses downtown.
Schwerner's widow, Rita Schwerner Bender, called the verdict "a day of great importance to all of us." But she said others also should be held responsible.
"Preacher Killen didn't act in a vacuum," Bender said. "The state of Mississippi was complicit in these crimes and all the crimes that occurred, and that has to be opened up."
Killen's relatives left the courtroom without speaking to reporters.
Defense lawyer James McIntyre said he will file an appeal, noting that the defense had objected to giving the jurors the manslaughter option.
"At least he wasn't found guilty of a willful and wanton act," McIntyre said.
On the night of the attack, Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner were stopped for speeding, jailed briefly, then followed out of town by a gang of Klansmen and intercepted.
Witnesses _ primarily Klansmen _ testified that Killen was a local Klan organizer who led meetings where members discussed the "elimination" of Schwerner, whom they called "Goatee" because of his beard.
Witnesses said Killen drove about 35 miles and rounded up carloads of Klansmen to intercept the three men in their station wagon. According to testimony, Killen told some Klansmen to get plastic gloves and helped arrange for a bulldozer to bury the bodies.
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:elephant Whooo Hoooooo!!
Ex-Klan leader guilty of manslaughter in 1964 slayings of NY, Miss. civil rights workers
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
Associated Press Writer
June 21, 2005, 2:53 PM EDT
PHILADELPHIA, Miss. -- An 80-year-old former Ku Klux Klansman was convicted of manslaughter Tuesday in the slayings of three civil rights workers that shocked the nation exactly 41 years ago and helped spur passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The jury of nine whites and three blacks reached the verdict on its second day of deliberations, rejecting murder charges against Edgar Ray Killen but also turning aside defense claims that he wasn't involved at all.
Killen showed no emotion as the verdicts were read. He was comforted by his wife as he sat in his wheelchair, wearing an oxygen tube. He was immediately taken into custody, and Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon set sentencing for Thursday.
Civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were ambushed, beaten and shot on June 21, 1964. Their bodies were found 44 days later buried in an earthen dam.
The notorious case inspired the 1988 movie "Mississippi Burning."
Chaney, a black civil rights activist from Mississippi, was slain along with the two New Yorkers _ Goodman, a Queens College student, and Schwerner, a Manhattan social worker. They had been looking into the torching of a black church and helping to register black voters during what was called Freedom Summer.
After the verdicts were announced, cheers could be heard outside the two-story, red brick courthouse. Passersby patted Chaney's brother, Ben, on the back and one woman slowed her vehicle and yelled, "Hey, Mr. Chaney, all right!"
Later, Ben Chaney thanked the prosecutors but said that for the community, "I really feel that there is more to be done." He said there were still no black businesses downtown.
Schwerner's widow, Rita Schwerner Bender, called the verdict "a day of great importance to all of us." But she said others also should be held responsible.
"Preacher Killen didn't act in a vacuum," Bender said. "The state of Mississippi was complicit in these crimes and all the crimes that occurred, and that has to be opened up."
Killen's relatives left the courtroom without speaking to reporters.
Defense lawyer James McIntyre said he will file an appeal, noting that the defense had objected to giving the jurors the manslaughter option.
"At least he wasn't found guilty of a willful and wanton act," McIntyre said.
On the night of the attack, Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner were stopped for speeding, jailed briefly, then followed out of town by a gang of Klansmen and intercepted.
Witnesses _ primarily Klansmen _ testified that Killen was a local Klan organizer who led meetings where members discussed the "elimination" of Schwerner, whom they called "Goatee" because of his beard.
Witnesses said Killen drove about 35 miles and rounded up carloads of Klansmen to intercept the three men in their station wagon. According to testimony, Killen told some Klansmen to get plastic gloves and helped arrange for a bulldozer to bury the bodies.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
:elephant Whooo Hoooooo!!