• Ky. man says '60s suspect sold him guns
Prosecutors told reporters less than an hour after a jury recently convicted Edgar Ray Killen of manslaughter in the trio's killings the only two triggermen in the case, Wayne Roberts and James Jordan, are dead.
But the work of world-renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden and Mississippi state forensic pathologist Dr. Steven Hayne has revealed the possibility of additional gunmen.
• '64 confession kept from Killen jury - Clarion Ledger reporter Jerry Mitchell raises some more questions about the conduct of the prosecution in Mississippi v. Edgar Ray Killen.
Killen's lead counsel, Mitch Moran of Carthage, said he wanted to let the jury know the whole story, and that's why he tried to introduce the 1964 confession of Horace Doyle Barnette, who took part in the trio's killings.
In the 1967 federal conspiracy trial, an FBI agent read Barnette's statement into the record when Barnette refused to testify. But jurors only heard the names of Barnette and James Jordan, who pleaded guilty, in the statement. For the names of the others Barnette identified as being involved, a "blank" was substituted. The trial ended with the convictions of seven, the acquittals of eight and the mistrials of three, including Killen.
Moran explained: "I just felt like the jury had a right to know it all."
Although Killen could have been implicated by Barnette's statement, Moran said the statement shows Billy Wayne Posey, convicted in the 1967 federal trial, played a major role, but wasn't indicted by the state, while Killen played a minor role and was indicted by the state.
When Moran sought to introduce the confession in Killen's trial through the FBI agent's 1967 testimony, prosecutors objected.
When Moran said he'd be happy to fill in all the blanks so jurors could hear the names of all involved, prosecutors still objected.
• Killen jurors outline verdict
Timeline of jurors in the Edgar Ray Killen trial:
June 20: 2:48 p.m.:
Deliberations begin
Mid-afternoon: First vote: — 6 guilty, 6 not guilty of murder
5:32 p.m.: Jurors dismissed before second voteJune 21:
8:32 a.m.: Second vote: 7 guilty, 5 not guilty of murder
Mid-morning: Third vote:— 11-1, guilty of manslaughter
11:10 a.m: Final vote: 12-0, guilty of manslaughter
• Killen juror: Critics wrong about jury's actions - Killen juror goes on the record.
We found Killen guilty of manslaughter because that's what the evidence supported. . . .
We focused on what was presented in the courtroom, not what we'd heard over the last 41 years, and not what we either assumed or wished to be true.
The Mississippi White Knights is the strongest of the state's Klan chapters. Others listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center are: Bayou Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Fulton and Richton (its post office box is in Kiln), Southern White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Lucedale and Robinsonville, and Orion Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Star.
One Mississippi Klan group that didn't make the list because of inactivity is Royal Confederate Knights of the Ku Klux Klan headed by Jordan Gollub of Jackson.
"We haven't had a march since 2001," he said. "We had a march in Biloxi and a march in Carthage. It made you feel good that day, but I don't think it changes the political atmosphere. It doesn't put Bennie Thompson (the state's lone African-American congressman) out of office."
He recalled the last telephone conversation he had with one-time Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers, who headed the largest and most violent Klan organization in the 1960s, the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi.
"Bowers said, 'I don't think the KKK is the way to go in the present day,'" Gollub said, explaining that organizations such as the Council of Conservative Citizens may be more successful now (emphasis added).
BLOG POSTS
COMMENTS
PODCASTS
