Quote of note:

Mississippians have heard little from Killen since 1967, when witnesses at a federal trial testified that he had recruited men to kill Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner. The jury deadlocked on conspiracy charges against Killen by a vote of 11 to 1; the lone holdout later said she could not convict a preacher.

It's assholes like this "lone holdout" that give people of faith the reuptation of BLIND FUCKING STUPIDITY. You let a man get away with murder because of his job. He is obviously NOT a man of God.

People like her are reason to fear theocracy.

Gov. Haley Barbour on Thursday dismissed Barrett's organization as "certainly not representative of today's Mississippi,"

Yeah, right.

Killen, who was 38 when the civil rights workers were murdered, has lived a quiet life since, refusing requests for interviews and preaching occasionally in area churches.

FBI documents released in 2000 described Killen as leader of the Neshoba County Ku Klux Klan and coordinator of the murders.

The three civil rights workers were arrested for speeding in Philadelphia, Miss. After they were released from jail, a mob of men followed them, shot them and buried their bodies in an earthen dam. The federal jury convicted seven men of conspiracy in the murders and acquitted seven others. Three trials, including Killen's, ended in mistrial. Mississippi has never tried anyone in the murders.

Killen has denied belonging to the Klan or playing any role in the crime.

In one of the few interviews he has given, to the Clarion-Ledger in 2002, Killen was asked what should happen to the killers of the civil rights workers: "I'm not going to say they were wrong," he said. "I don't believe in murder. I believe in self-defense."

Gaahhh...

Civil-Rights Era Murder Suspect to Appear at Fair
A white supremacist group invites Edgar Ray Killen to appear at its booth in Mississippi.
By Ellen Barry
Times Staff Writer

September 25, 2004

ATLANTA — A white supremacist organization's booth at the Mississippi State Fair this fall will feature a figure from the archives of the state's bloody civil rights struggle: Edgar Ray Killen, a preacher who was accused of planning the murders of three civil rights workers in the summer of 1964.

Mississippians have heard little from Killen since 1967, when witnesses at a federal trial testified that he had recruited men to kill Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner. The jury deadlocked on conspiracy charges against Killen by a vote of 11 to 1; the lone holdout later said she could not convict a preacher.

Killen, 79, will appear Oct. 9 to shake hands and pose for snapshots with fairgoers, said Richard Barrett, general counsel for the Nationalist Movement. Barrett befriended Killen this summer and persuaded him to make the appearance, hailing his efforts against communism and "the Negro revolution" in the United States.

Killen could not be reached for comment.

The announcement provoked dismay this week after the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., published an article about Barrett's plans. Gov. Haley Barbour on Thursday dismissed Barrett's organization as "certainly not representative of today's Mississippi," and at least one organization yanked its booth from the fair.