Hungry Blues

My dear and talented friend Jonathan has just published a chapbook of his poems.

Jonathan has a website where you find an announcement of the chapbook, two sample poems, and other related items.

[Update 7/9/05: Jonathan David Jackson's website is down; links to it removed for now.]

Jonathan and I attended the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars together eleven years ago. If he were still the same writer he was then, I could be nothing less than effusive about a chapbook of his work. But the two poems on his website suggest a marvelous expansion in his range, with all the meanings that can imply: range of reference, range of voice, range of mind . . . Now a big range could mean expansiveness with no center. But the two poems on Jonathan's site are to my way of thinking entirely within the range of the voices and minds of deeply realized and starkly individual dramatis personae. With Jonathan's permission, I leave you with one of the poems right here:

Directions to Burn

A child, especially

should not think of death or anything South

of chins and collarbones—only books and music, the kind

with strings. Questions should be answered. Fantasies unchecked.

You’re like a child. What do you know? Why would you possibly want

to go to a place that everyone condemns? But everyone wants everything—

even rich children are gigantic, blazing yet unburned. It’s the 80s.

How can you walk uncrushed among giants? You must go

where no one thinks to look. You have learned

how to do this at the free public library early in the evening,

raising your small voice to the gray attendant, Can you show me

the picture books about pharaohs? …the kings you have only seen

airbrushed in Ebony Magazines. Strange that the curled

old woman at the desk should not part her hair

to answer. So on your own you pull out

drawers brimming with yellowing

cards and squiggles. Everything

under Civilization

is on the second floor; then hot up the elevator,

where the biggest book smells sharp of glue and flipping

through you see him, the mummy prince doubled up to fit

in his shining sarcophagus, knees to chin, hands crossed over breasts,

robes swallowing him with snake-trellis and ivory clips. Directions

were never a problem in old Egypt. Priests planted anemone

by a sick woman’s house; kept whole petrified clans

in tombs of white origanum; cleaned everything

with scarabs; drew crisscrossing translucent

chalcedony, right to left, left to right, up, down,

inside, outside…soon you are asleep, wet

forehead between glossy pages

then the closing buzzer sounds. Face creased,

fingers numb, you hit the streets…You are not dreaming.

This is the nation’s capitol. Stuffed in corners around the library’s entrance

stand winter coats and rusty shopping carts—people so small you only see them

in the evening when the suits have left downtown.

It is at least a one-minute stroll to the bus stop through

the girlie shops, signs teasing, and on quarter

reel movie row, twelve glimmering

palaces say, girls girls girls—

Right now bulldozers clear

the area like there’s been a plague.

But years ago if you had to handle business

you took yourself there. The first time I went on a dare—100 bucks

in three hours. 15 years old. Boom box says, more, more, more—

you’ll remember all the songs when no one sings them anymore.

Boss men wait in Buicks in alleys for their girls. It’s the 80s.

It’s capital. Even shemale free agents, make 30, 40—

hell, I can pull 60 in two hours. Watch out

for the politicians on the late dinner hour.

I can turn a congressman

in his Town Car in five

and be back on

the block

in time to meet

a creep who has the nerve to say, Come on & go with me

‘round the corner. You know the way.

Like that, m’ blade’s out, shining this close

to his pink eye. Let me introduce myself, I tell him,

nails along his arms.

I know what it takes—5 foot 6

but I’ll bring your head to your knees.

Now burn these directions.

You got what

you need.

I was pleased to find today that the Anniston Star published my letter to the editor, about possible charges against James Bonard Fowler for the murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson in Marion, Alabama in 1965.

If you compare my original letter to what the Star published, you will find they edited out three main things.

1. This sentence: "Mr. Jackson died in Selma because he was refused treatment at Marion Hospital, after waiting there for some time."

2. This link to Albert Turner's account of the events in Marion on February 18, 1965:
http://library.wustl.edu/units/spec/filmandmedia/pdfs/TURNER.pdf

3. This sentence: "The quality of public discussion may have a direct impact on the actions of Alabama's Attorney General and the Alabama Bureau of Investigation."

I can think of reasonable editorial and journalistic reasons for the omission of number 2 and number 3: the Star may in general refrain from posting links in the letters to the editor, and I would allow (though not entirely agree) that it is beyond the scope of the paper's mission to influence the actions of law enforcement agencies and officials.

But why include the allegation that more officers than just James Bonard Fowler were responsible for Jimmie Lee Jackson's death and omit the statement about Marion Hospital? After all, it is a recorded fact that Mr. Jackson died in Selma, thirty miles away, though there was a local hospital in Marion that could have treated him. There is more evidence of Jim Crow refusal of treatment in the public record than there is of the horrific scene of police brutality, described by Albert Turner.

On March 31, the Star's editorial page carried these questions and observations:

How much smoother might the state’s transition from then to now have been had we in the 1970s formed a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for the post-segregation South? South Africans, fresh from the end of official apartheid, can attest to the cleansing benefits of clearing one’s soul and guilty conscience, and of unburdening one’s pain and suffering.

Instead, the South wishing to bury what it found distasteful, has periodically endured old sins being found out.

We have chosen this course, either on purpose or by passive resistance.

Now, we plead with investigators to dig deeply into the details of Jimmy Lee Jackson’s death and bring justice, finally, to this case.

It seems that "Truth and Reconciliation" is a comfortable concept in reference to select, violent individuals. But such a process can only be meaningful if communities—North and South, East and West—begin to face the real ways Jim Crow—and other institutionalizations of racism past and present—cause death and ruin.

[If you're in the DC area, please consider attending. --BG]

Press Advisory
April 13th, 2005

For more information:
Brad Friedman, brad@velvetrevolution.us,
Alysia Fischer, 513-330-0063, Ted Glick, 973-338-5398

Scores of voting rights and electoral reform organizations
nationwide have united to demand real electoral reform
proposals from the private, blue ribbon, Baker/Carter
Commission on Federal Election Reform. They are organizing a
visible presence at 10:00 a.m. in front of the Kay Spiritual
Center on the American University campus where the
Commission is planning what they call "public hearings."

These groups, including Code Pink, Progressive Democrats of
America, U.P. (United Progressives) for Democracy and Velvet
Revolution, are opposed to the inclusion in any form of
James Baker III on the Commission. Baker was the lead
attorney in Florida for the 2000 Bush/Cheney campaign which
engineered Bush's selection as President by five Supreme
Court justices.

The pro-democracy groups are also opposed to two other
members of the Commission who have direct ties to Mr.
Baker's law firm, Tom Phillips and Robert Mosbacher, and to
Ralph Munro, CEO of VoteHere, a company that manufactures
vote-counting machines.

On April 11, Congressman John Conyers, minority chair of the
House Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter to Jimmy Carter
expressing his concern about the inclusion of Mr. Baker and
strongly urging that the Commission include members of the
voting rights coalition.

The last two national elections here have been marred by
irregularities that have called into question the legitimacy
of the results. In 2004, there were literally tens of
thousands of documented cases of impropriety that, in many
cases, significantly affected the vote count. Over the past
five months, grassroots electoral reform groups have joined
together in a pro-democracy campaign calling for a range of
reforms in order to restore integrity, trustworthiness and
accountability to the elections process. Some of their
demands include: a constitutional right to vote for all
citizens, paper ballots as the official record of all votes
cast, independent analysis of all vote machine software and
hardware before and after elections, unified national
standards for national elections, election day registration,
independent and non-partisan administration of elections, a
strengthening and reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act,
public financing of elections and fair ballot access for all
candidates and parties.

The pro-democracy coalition will hold a press conference
outside the Kay Center following the conclusion of the
"public hearing" at 2:30 p.m.

From: eve.lyman@bostonmobilization.org
Date: Apr 12, 2005 10:07 AM
Subject: Urgent - DEFEND FREE SPEECH AT HARVARD! today

Please come out & show your support for students' right
to speak out against the CIA & Dept of Homeland Security.

Today! Tuesday. 2:50 at the Science Center.

1 Oxford Street. Close to the Harvard Square T.

The Administration has pledged to shut down a nonviolent
student demonstration against torture and indefinite
detention, outside an event hosted by the CIA & Dept of
Homeland Security at the Harvard Science Center tomorrow.

*******************************************************
"This demonstration does not have our approval and you
will not be allowed to demonstrate."

-Letter from Associate Dean of the College Monday morning

*******************************************************

STAND UP FOR FREE SPEECH. TUESDAY.

From 2:55 to 3:15 outside the Science Center.

My title is from Nathan Newman's excellent post, Supreme Court: Mob Rule Central.

What most progressives won't accept is that the US courts, like the similar anti-populist Senate filibuster, have been the instigators of murder against blacks and have prevented the democratic majority from protecting their rights. 

When the NAACP began campaigning early in this century for a federal law to ban lynchings of blacks, the majoritarian House voted
as early as 1922 to ban lynchings (as they would in 1937 and 1940),
only to see the bill die in the Senate at the hands of a filibuster.

And how did the Senators justify their filibusters?  That the Supreme Court supported their position that federal anti-lynching laws were unconstitutional.

And they were right.  Want to talk about mob rule?  Take 1873 when in Colfax, Louisiana, a disputed election led to the mass murder
of over 70 blacks. The Reconstruction Congress had recently passed laws
making such voting-related murders illegal under federal law and the
President's attorney general (a position created under those laws to
prosecute such racist attacks) brought over 100 indictments.

But within months, the federal courts dismissed the
indictments, declaring that Congress lacked the power under the
Constitution to prevent such private racist assaults. And in 1875, the
US Supreme Court agreed in U S v. Cruikshank
that mobs were free to murder at will in the South and Congress was
barred by the Constitution to stop it. Quote the Supreme Court:

The fourteenth amendment prohibits a State from denying
to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws;
but this provision does not [add] any thing to the rights which one
citizen has under the Constitution against another.

Since the Colfax murders involved private action, not state government actions, the Congress could do NOTHING to punish them and the Reconstruction laws banning mob murder of blacks were de facto struck down. 

These words by the Supreme Court were probably the most important in American legal history,
since they overturned the results of the American Civil War, handing
victory for the next century to Confederate mobs in the South who would
drive blacks from the voting booths under the threat of lynchings and
murder and impose an American Apartheid.

And note, the 1875 Cruikshank decision came a year
BEFORE the 1876 Presidential election. White mobs were greenlighted to
steal elections across the South, which led to the deadlocked results
of that year-- which in turn led to the dismantling of military
Reconstruction in the South.

Read the whole thing and also read the longer article [pdf] by Nathan Newman and J.J. Gass, on which this post appears to be based.

Nathan's insights about the historical nature of the courts and their current direction should be taken in close company with the many excellent posts by David Neiwert on the rise of domestic terror and the  "the ongoing ideological traffic between the mainstream right and its extremist counterpoint." Taken together, Neiwert and Newman's analyses are key for understanding what is so alarming about recent developments such as:

• The Justice Department's attempts to make the case against the private right of action in voting rights violations.

• Jeb Bush's promise to sign into law the so-called "Castle Doctrine" Bill, which would allow private citizens broad discretion to shoot at perceived attackers in their homes, vehicles and public places.

Before the Civil Rights Movement, there was a symbiotic relationship between domestic terror groups, like the Ku Klux Klan, and law enforcement and the courts. The beast rages on as police brutality, racial profiling, and skyrocketing incarcerations [pdf]—but the Movement constrained and limited some of its grossest expressions and forced the US to make some major strides in living up to its democratic principles. All signs suggest a rough new beast is dragging us back down an old and terrible road.

The Arkansas Delta Peace and Justice Center sent me this article about the Phiadelphia Coalition, along with the following note and question:

Note: It is ironic that the Philadelphia Coalition stresses its non-activist role as contrasted to the three courageous young civil rights workers, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman, who were very definitely activists.

Question: Is only a call for justice a serious pursuit of an adequate measure of truth and justice?

The following quotations from the article get to the heart of what is at issue:

Although the Coalition has been characterized by the media as pushing for the prosecution of the accused man, Edgar Ray Killen, leaders point out they simply made a call for justice and have not sought to address the guilt or innocence of individuals or in any way become involved with the investigation or the upcoming trial.

"The coalition’s specific purpose was to call for justice not to assist in the prosecution,” said coalition co-chairman Leroy Clemons (emphasis added). “That is strictly up to the attorney general and the district attorney [sic]

“Since the call for justice has been answered, we want to focus on the educational aspects. We want to see the history brought into schools as well as the history of the civil rights.” . . .

One of the guidelines adopted by the Coalition last month says, “When speaking publicly and representing the Coalition, members should avoid specifically taking positions on specific issues or, for example, commenting on the guilt or innocence of individuals.”

James E. Prince 3rd, editor and publisher of The Neshoba Democrat and the other co-chairman, said, “The Philadelphia Coalition is not prosecuting this case. We simply called on the authorities to do the right thing. It’s very important to allow the justice system to work on its own.”

If these are the sole purposes of the Philadelphia Coalition, one has to wonder why its members formed the group. The public memorials and impotent calls for justice do not bring us any closer to facing the real questions about responsibility for the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner and for the state and federally sanctioned terrorizatization and murders of countless others. If anything, such empty calls and public gestures whitewash the past before it is properly understood. The arc of the moral universe is indeed long, but I fear we are watching it bend away from justice.

We know the reason, but they ought to come out and say it . . .

Also from the CityBeat article:

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) put forth a resolution last June calling for U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Department of Justice to investigate the murders of Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman and report their findings to Congress.

"It brings the resources of the federal government to bear, and that'll be significant," says Lanier Avant, a spokesman for Thompson.

Twenty-five members of the Black Congressional Caucus signed off on the resolution, including Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), but the bill never made it to the floor.

Avant says Thompson and others will try again this year in the new Congress. But with the Republicans in firm control, there's no telling when or if the resolution will be called up for a vote.

"A Season for Justice," from Cincinnati's CityBeat. Here are two key excerpts:

'State terrorism'
Killen's arrest produced varying reactions in those most affected by the deaths of Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman, with one recurring theme: It's a good start, but more still needs to be done.

"Well, it's about time; I mean, it certainly is time," says Carolyn Goodman. "It's 40 years and the man's been running around."

Momeyer, who had been skeptical the case would even go this far, sees the indictment as only a first step.

"I think it a good thing and a hopeful sign that Killen has been indicted," he says. "But I don't think it is nearly enough. There are more culprits and higher authorities still being protected from exposure, and justice requires their prosecution as well. There is much to hope for but much as well to still be concerned about."

Schwerner has cared less about prosecuting the individuals responsible than shedding some serious light on the situation in which his brother, Chaney and Goodman found themselves in 1964 Mississippi.

"I'm interested in what the role of the Justice Department and the FBI was in not only letting the Mississippi police do nothing but also be on the side of the Klan," Schwerner says. "The problem for me is that it was not a handful of people who were responsible for this. It was state-sanctioned terrorism; in fact, it was supported."

Ben Chaney, the younger brother of James Chaney, has returned to his original suspicions that the investigation was no more than a "sham."

"My initial reaction was optimism, even if cautious optimism, but why no one else?" he says. "It comes out to be a charade. He's not the only one, and he's just being used as a fall guy to protect the rich and powerful."

Chaney would like to see the FBI head the investigation, not the Mississippi Attorney General's office. He also thinks the state is going to go after only Killen and Bowers and call the case closed.

"They're really trying to pull the wool over our eyes, but fortunately we are aware of it," Chaney says.

            ***         ***         ***

A changed South
In 1989 Steve Schwerner and Mickey's widow, Rita, returned to Mississippi for the 25th anniversary of Freedom Summer. Steve Schwerner says the most shocking thing for Rita was to see black state troopers.

"Politically, the state has changed dramatically," he says. "Mississippi has the largest number of black state legislators in the country. Socially, the state has changed significantly. But economically, it has changed little. Everything is controlled by the same small group of white men as before, and it is still the poorest state in the nation."

Schwerner compares the situation to what civil rights leader Malcolm X once said about New York: "In Harlem, blacks had always had the right to vote, and segregation was illegal. But it still exists; the right to vote doesn't do a damn bit of difference."

Schwerner says gaining suffrage and eliminating Jim Crow laws were necessary for progress, but the next step is how to really integrate the economy.

Chaney says Mississippi still has a long way to go before blacks will be on an even playing field with whites.

"Over the past 30 years, there have been a lot of hangings that have taken place, though they've been ruled 'suicides,' " he says. "Many people think it's a continuation of the structure that was in place in the '60s."

He concedes Mississippi has many black elected officials but says these officials are "impotent" because most of their campaign funds come from white people.

Activists Want Arrests in '46 Lynching
- By ELIOTT C. McLAUGHLIN, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, March 31, 2005

(03-31) 08:49 PST Monroe, Ga. (AP) --

In 1946, a white mob pulled four black sharecroppers from a car near the river's banks, dragged them down a wagon trail and shot them to death. Now, dozens of politicians, activists and relatives of the victims are pressing a local prosecutor to use the FBI's original investigation to seek indictments against the few surviving suspects in the deaths of Roger and Dorothy Malcom and George and Mae Murray Dorsey.

"This," declared state Rep. Tyrone Brooks of Atlanta, "was the most heinous collective crime ever perpetuated against African-Americans in this state."

Brooks is an honorary member of what has come to be known as the Moore's Ford Memorial Committee, which first came together in 1997 simply to commemorate the two slain couples.

This weekend, the group is hoping to gather support with two events: a rally Friday night at the courthouse and a march — led by Brooks — across the bridge Saturday.

So far, though, the committee's prosecutorial efforts — bolstered by several civil rights cases reopened elsewhere in recent years — have not influenced District Attorney Ken Wynne, who says he will not seek indictments unless new evidence is presented. He points to a 2001 investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that did not unearth any new evidence. GBI officials, however, say they consider the case open.

Brooks' response to Wynne's stance is pointed.

"We don't need any more investigations. The evidence is there," Brooks said. "They should be charged and let a jury decide their fate."

Also see: Moore's Ford Memorial Committee

From: Benjamin Greenberg
To: speakout@annistonstar.com
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 17:48:54 -0500
Subject: Jimmie Lee Jackson Investigation

To the Editor:

I applaud John Fleming's article, "The Death of Jimmy Lee Jackson," which has brought renewed attention to Mr. Jackson's murder. And I raise my voice to join yours, and the voices of the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus, in calling for a full investigation of the murder.

While the prospect of an investigation is still new, I want to urge the press and those who may pursue the investigation to think broadly about responsibility for the murder. James Bonard Fowler may well have pulled the trigger, and his prosecution should be pursued vigorously. However, according to Albert Turner, who was in Marion on the night in question and was for many years the leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Alabama, Jimmie Lee Jackson was badly beaten by a slew of police officers after he was shot. Mr. Jackson died in Selma because he was refused treatment at Marion Hospital, after waiting there for some time. You can find the transcript of an interview with Mr. Turner on these matters in PDF format at this location:
http://library.wustl.edu/units/spec/filmandmedia/pdfs/TURNER.pdf

There may, in fact, be numerous culprits who should be prosecuted in the name of justice. The press has a unique opportunity to shape public discussion of Jimmie Lee Jackson's death. The quality of public discussion may have a direct impact on the actions of Alabama's Attorney General and the Alabama Bureau of Investigation. I urge you to continue your fine journalism on this matter by broadening your coverage with interviews with witnesses, community members, and activists who may help in consideration of all who may be implicated in Jimmie Lee Jackson's murder.

Sincerely,

Benjamin Greenberg
Boston, MA

Anniston Star
Editorial
In our opinion
03-31-2005

Earlier this month, The Star’s John Fleming wrote about the death of Jimmy Lee Jackson. He tracked down the former Alabama State Trooper who says he shot the 26-year-old. Geneva’s James Bonard Fowler, speaking for the first time to a reporter about the incident, claimed he shot Jackson in self-defense.

An official probe to either reinforce or rebut that claim is overdue. Without an investigation, we can’t fully reach closure.

This week, Alabama’s Legislative Black Caucus called for an investigation. “It is past time for Fowler to be brought to justice,” state Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, wrote to his Black Caucus colleagues last week.

The Alabama Attorney General’s office and the state Bureau of Investigation are on the case, according to a spokesman. Authorities from Perry County and the federal government might also get involved. That’s good.

But we can’t leave this without recalling lost opportunities. Jimmy Lee Jackson and his family deserved an immediate and thorough investigation in 1965.

How much smoother might the state’s transition from then to now have been had we in the 1970s formed a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for the post-segregation South? South Africans, fresh from the end of official apartheid, can attest to the cleansing benefits of clearing one’s soul and guilty conscience, and of unburdening one’s pain and suffering.

Instead, the South wishing to bury what it found distasteful, has periodically endured old sins being found out.

We have chosen this course, either on purpose or by passive resistance.

Now, we plead with investigators to dig deeply into the details of Jimmy Lee Jackson’s death and bring justice, finally, to this case.

(Whole thing.)

Black Caucus wants criminal case opened in 1965 slaying

By Jannell McGrew
Montgomery Advertiser

Members of the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus are calling on federal and state authorities to investigate and prosecute a former Alabama trooper who fatally shot a civil rights demonstrator 40 years ago.

The Alabama Attorney General's Office and the Alabama Bureau of Investigation already are conducting a joint review of the case, said Chris Bence, a spokesman for state attorney general Troy King.

The results of that review will determine whether "an investigation is appropriate," Bence said.

In an impassioned plea before the caucus Tuesday afternoon, state Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, urged lawmakers to demand an official investigation into the death of Jimmy Lee Jackson.

During a demonstration in February 1965, Jackson was shot by then-State Trooper James Bonard Fowler, who was among a group of officers sent to Marion to maintain order. Jackson later died at a Selma hospital.

"To this date, Fowler has never been prosecuted," Sanders said. "In fact, he has never been interviewed by the authorities. It is time that he be prosecuted for the murder of Jimmy Lee Jackson."

(Whole thing.)

A welcome development, of course, but the investigation should be into the involvement of any local or state police who were known to have been in Marion, Alabama the night Jimmy Lee Jackson was shot. As I've noted previously, Jackson was shot by Fowler, but he may well have then been beaten to death by a slew of other officers after the shooting. That he died from his injuries may also have been because he was denied treatment at the hospital in Marion and had to be transported to Selma to get care.

Here's some of the account of Albert Turner, who was in Marion on the night in question and was for many years the leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Alabama:

then they took Jimmy and pinned him against the walls of the building and uh, at close range they shot him in the side. Just took the pistol and put it in his side and shot him three times. . . . then they ran him out of the . . . front door of the cafe. And as he run out of the door, the remaining troopers or some of the remaining troopers were lined up down the sidewalk back toward the church . . . he had to run through a corridor of . . . policemans standing with billy sticks. And as he ran by them they simply kept hitting him as he kept running through. And he made it back to the door of the church, and just beyond the church he fell. And of course he was picked up at that point and carried to the hospital. [H]e was carried to the Marion Hospital here in town, and he stayed there about an hour or so before, and nobody would wait on him . . . then he later was taken to the hospital in Selma, where he did receive services. Probably if he had been waited on properly here, his condition would not have been this he may still have died, but it's only speculation. But they did not wait on him. And he… he was probably an hour or two or more probably 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning before he really received . . . medical services after he had been uh, shot and beaten to death. And he was, some people feel that maybe he… he was beaten to death moreso than shot to death. The severe head wounds were pretty bad.

Follow the link on "previously," above, to get more of the story about Jimmy Lee Jackson and the Selma to Montgomery March.

For more news articles on the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus request for an investigation:

The Birmingham News, The Tuscaloosa News

by The Arkansas Delta Peace And Justice Center

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood stated that he and District Attorney Mark Duncan "presented every living, potential defendant to the grand jury for their consideration."

How long did they present evidence on the at least nine other living potential defendants? 5 minutes? 15 minutes? An hour? It could not have been long since it appears the grand jury probably heard evidence for only one day or less. There is substantial evidence on a number of people.

Why is only Edgar Ray Killen being prosecuted?

http://www.ago.state.ms.us/news/index.php?use=jan10-2005

Attorney General Jim Hood briefly answered questions from members of the media regarding the Neshoba County civil rights murders of 1964.

January 10, 2005

On Friday afternoon, January 7, 2005, Attorney General Jim Hood briefly answered questions from members of the media regarding the Neshoba County civil rights murders of 1964. Hood stated that due to the rules of court restricting a prosecutor’s pretrial comment, the question and answer meeting would be his only public comment on the case. In order to accommodate the large number of media requests for comment, Special Assistant Attorneys General Jacob Ray and José Simo provided excerpts of some of General Hood’s comments.

General Hood stated “I can’t comment on the grand jury proceedings or the facts of the case, but I can say that there is no statute of limitations on murder in Mississippi. Having had a first cousin murdered, I know that victims certainly never forget, and neither does the state of Mississippi. As long as I am a prosecutor, I’ll continue to fight for victims, and I’ll never give up on a murder case.” Hood continued, “The victims’ families have a right to at least have their case presented to a grand jury, and I had a duty to present the case. I, and District Attorney Mark Duncan, presented every living, potential defendant to the grand jury for their consideration. Although the grand jury indicted one individual, I urge all potential witnesses, and particularly previous confidential informants in this case, to come forward now and call our office at (601) 359-4381.” (Emphasis added.)

Hood, who tried over 100 jury trials as a district attorney, said that he would personally prosecute the case along with District Attorney Mark Duncan. Hood concluded, “I was two-years-old when this murder occurred, and it has fallen into my lap to handle this case. Twenty years from now, I want my conscience clear that during my time working for the people, I always tried to do the right thing and personally did everything I could to bring criminals to justice. Since I am much more comfortable in the courtroom, than I am in the vortex of this public spectacle that began when I showed up at the grand jury, I, along with District Attorney Mark Duncan, will personally prosecute this case at trial.”

Most powerful
man in Miss. politics isn't the governor
Clarion-Ledger, February 17, 2002 •• 1859
words •• ID: jak2002022009068178
Capps: Behind the big cigar Veteran lawmaker has
enormous influence after three decades of service By Sid Salter Clarion-Ledger
Perspective Editor In Mississippi, the man behind the big cigar controls the
purse strings of government primarily by listening. For Charlie Capps, it's
eternal meetings, endless phone calls, more invitations to dinners, receptions,
breakfasts, briefings and conventions than he can answer or accommodate - all
extended by those seeking a portion of...

1. House pays tribute to retiring veteran
     Capps
    

   The Biloxi Sun Herald - Mar 24 3:50
     PM

   JACKSON, Miss. - The Mississippi House on Thursday honored its
     most senior member, Rep. Charlie Capps Jr., who is retiring June 30.
     "He's a true legend among us. He is an icon among public officials," Speaker
     Billy McCoy, D-Rienzi, said as he was surrounded by members of Capps'
     family.
    

2. Last session for House giant Capps
    
   The Clarion-Ledger - Mar 19 3:09
     AM

   State Rep. Charlie Capps Jr., a gentlemanly Delta
     lawmaker whose career spanned four decades, will retire from the Mississippi
     House on June 30. Capps, 80, is the longest-serving member in the
     House.