[quote]PHILADELPHIA, Miss. - Former Ku Klux Klansman Edgar Ray Killen was wheeled before a judge Thursday, an 80-year-old vestige of Mississippi’s hate-filled past, and sentenced to 60 years in prison for the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers.
Killen sat in his wheelchair in a bright yellow jail uniform and stared straight ahead, stone-faced, offering no remorse and no explanations, as Judge Marcus Gordon gave him the maximum and closed one of the most shocking chapters in the movement to end segregation across the South.
“Each life has value. Each life is equally as valuable as the other life and I have taken that into consideration,” the judge said. “The three lives should absolutely be respected and treated equally.”
In imposing the prison term, Gordon noted that some people “would say a sentence of 10 years would be a life sentence.”
The judge asked Killen if he had anything to say.
“None, your honor,” he said.
The Baptist preacher and sawmill operator was convicted of manslaughter Tuesday, exactly 41 years after the three civil rights volunteers were killed while working in Mississippi to register blacks to vote.
it is disgraceful that it took so long. This c*nt has enjoyed more of life than most people. At 80, he’ll get free lodgings, food, medical care etc until he dies. People pay good money for that sort of care at his age - Like he really gives a shit.
Didn’t this guy get tried before for this? Back in the day…? Or is this the first time charges were brought?
Hypothetically speaking, imagine that a black man had killed several white men, and was belatedly convicted. Would you smack your lips with the same glee?
[quote=“Screaming Jesus”]Didn’t this guy get tried before for this? Back in the day…? Or is this the first time charges were brought?
Hypothetically speaking, imagine that a black man had killed several white men, and was belatedly convicted. Would you smack your lips with the same glee?[/quote]
I think the fact that he was a dedicated Clansman was a major issue. The acts themselves were simply KKK ideas coming to fruition. But, inciting deep racism had more of a ripple effect amoung his peers of the time, and was arguably more damaging. They got him for the murders tho.
Good question. The Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution reads as follows:
As you can see, among other protections, it states that no person shall be tried twice for the same crime (the prohibition against “double jeopardy”).
But in this case the defendant was not tried twice for the same crime. For some reason the State of Mississippi didn’t try him for murder in the '60s but for some other related crime; this time he was tried – and convicted – for murder. Different crime.
Moreover, he was neither convicted nor acquitted in the '60s. Instead there was a hung jury. In other words, the jury couldn’t decide one way or the other. In such a case the state always has the right to prosecute the case all over again if it so chooses. So even if he was being re-tried for the same crime it would be permissible for that reason – because the first action was never concluded.