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.

Notes

• {{note|civilrights}} The Civil Rights Act of 1968, passed in part due to this case, provided for life imprisonment or the death penalty for deprivations of civil rights (e.g. voter registration) resulting in bodily injury or death. Prior to that the maximum penalty was ten years.
• {{note|batson}} Prior to the 1986 Supreme Court decision Batson v. Kentucky, prosecutors could use the peremptory challenge to arbitrarily exclude individuals from a jury based solely on their race; all-white juries were especially common in the South.