“they chose to indict Mr. Killen and only Mr. Killen”

May 24, 2005
Killen bid to toss case denied
By Jerry Mitchell
The Clarion Ledger
jmitchell@clarionledger.com

PHILADELPHIA — The judge presiding over reputed Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen's upcoming murder trial in the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers rejected a defense request Monday to dismiss the charges.

Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon said the defense had failed to show Killen was being "selectively prosecuted."

He said Killen's June 13 trial will take place as scheduled. Killen, an 80-year-old sawmill operator and part-time preacher, has insisted he had nothing to do with the June 21, 1964, killings of Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman. . . .

In an unusual occurrence, a defense attorney and a prosecutor testified in the hearing Monday.

James McIntyre of Jackson, who represented the sheriff in the 1967 trial and is on Killen's defense team, testified there were other suspects in this case besides his client who are still alive.

District Attorney Mark Duncan acknowledged eight suspects are still alive and said Neshoba County grand jurors could have indicted all eight or others whose names arose in the investigation.

After being presented all the information from the state's investigation, he said, "they chose to indict Mr. Killen and only Mr. Killen."

(Whole thing.)