Edgar Ray Killen

Edgar Ray "Preacher" Killen (born in 1925) is an American sawmill operator and part-time Baptist minister who conspired to kill several civil rights activists in 1964. He was found guilty of three counts of manslaughter on June 21, 2005, the forty-first anniversary of the crime. He has appealed the verdict and is awaiting a hearing by the Mississippi Supreme Court.

Related Topics:
1925 - American - Sawmill - Baptist - Civil rights - 1964 - Manslaughter - June 21 - 2005 - Mississippi Supreme Court

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On August 12, 2005, Killen was released from prison on a $600,000 appeal bond. Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon said he was convinced by testimony that Killen was neither a flight risk nor danger to the community. On September 9, 2005, Judge Gordon revoked Killen's bond and ordered him back to prison for misrepresenting his frail physical condition, stating "I feel fraud has been committed on this court." http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050910/NEWS010702/509100361/1002/NEWS01

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Killen was kleagle, or klavern recruiter and organizer, for the Neshoba and Lauderdale County chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. During the "Freedom Summer" of 1964, two white New Yorkers, Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, 24, and one black Mississippian, James Chaney, 21, were murdered in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Killen, along with Cecil Price (deputy sheriff of Neshoba County at the time) gathered the group of men who hunted down and killed the three civil rights workers. The Mississippi Civil Rights Workers Murders galvanized the nation and helped bring about the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The killings are the basis of the movie Mississippi Burning.

Related Topics:
Kleagle - Neshoba - Lauderdale County - Ku Klux Klan - Freedom Summer - 1964 - New York - Andrew Goodman - Michael Schwerner - Mississippian - James Chaney - Philadelphia, Mississippi - Cecil Price - Mississippi Civil Rights Workers Murders - 1964 Civil Rights Act - Mississippi Burning

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At the time of the killings, the state of Mississippi made little effort to prosecute the perpetrators, but the FBI, under the pro-civil-rights President Lyndon Johnson and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, directed a vigorous investigation. Federal prosecutor John Doar, circumventing dismissals by federal judges, opened a grand jury in December 1964. Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall, appeared before the Supreme Court to defend the federal government's authority in bringing charges, in November 1965. Eighteen men, including Killen, were arrested and charged with conspiracy to violate the victims' civil rights {{ref|civilrights}} in U.S. v. Cecil Price et. al.. The 1967 trial in federal court before an all-white jury {{ref|batson}} convicted seven conspirators and acquitted eight others. For three men, including Killen, the trial ended in a hung jury, after the jurors deadlocked 11-1 in favor of conviction, with the lone holdout saying she could never convict a preacher. The prosecution decided not to retry him and he was set free. None of the men found guilty served more than six years.

Related Topics:
FBI - President - Lyndon Johnson - Attorney General - Robert F. Kennedy - John Doar - Grand jury - December - 1964 - Solicitor General - Thurgood Marshall - Supreme Court - November - 1965 - U.S. v. Cecil Price et. al. - 1967 - Hung jury

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In 2004, Killen declared that he would attend a petition-drive in his behalf, scheduled by The Nationalist Movement at the 2004 Mississippi Annual State Fair in Jackson, Mississippi, opposing Communism, integration and non-speedy trials. The Hinds County sheriff, Malcolm MacMillan, conducted a counter-petition, calling for re-opening of the case against Killen. Killen was arrested for three counts of murder on January 6, 2005. However, he was freed on bond shortly thereafter. His case drew comparisons to that of Byron De La Beckwith, who was charged with the killing of Medgar Evers in 1963 and arrested in 1994.

Related Topics:
2004 - The Nationalist Movement - Mississippi Annual State Fair - Jackson, Mississippi - Hinds County - January 6 - 2005 - Byron De La Beckwith - Medgar Evers

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Killen's trial had been scheduled for April 18. It was deferred, however, after the 80-year-old Killen broke both of his legs chopping down lumber in his rural home in Neshoba County. The trial began on June 13, 2005, with Killen attending in a wheelchair. He was found guilty on June 21, 2005 of manslaughter, 41 years to the day after his crime, after a jury of nine whites and three blacks rejected the charges of murder but found him guilty of recruiting the mob that carried out the killings. He was sentenced on June 23, 2005, by Judge Marcus Gordon to the maximum sentence of 60 years in prison, 20 years for each manslaughter, to be served consecutively. He will be eligible for parole after serving 20 years. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=agrO0If0vyUw

Related Topics:
June 13 - 2005 - Wheelchair - June 21 - June 23 - Parole

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While it is possible that even a ten-year sentence would have been a "life sentence," it is a foregone conclusion that the entire sentence will not be served. However, Judge Gordon stated that each life lost was valuable and strongly asserted that the law made no distinction of age for the crime and that the maximum sentence should be imposed regardless of Killen's age.

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