Posted by Gregness at 4:57pm Jun 15 '05I find it ridiculous that it took this long, but on we go...
PHILADELPHIA, Miss. - A jury panel of four blacks and 13 whites was sworn in Wednesday to hear the murder trial of Edgar Ray Killen â≠a one-time Klansman charged with murdering three civil rights workers in 1964.
Prosecutors and the defense made opening statements lasting about 15 minutes each.
Attorney General Jim Hood laid out a narrative of what happened in the month leading up to the slayings of Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney in rural Neshoba County.
Defense attorney Mitch Moran acknowledged publicly for the first time that Killen was in the Ku Klux Klan at the time of the slaying.
Moran says the Klan is not on trial in the case.
Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon intentionally did not tell the jury panel which 12 of them will decide the case and which five will serve as alternates.
He also ordered the attorneys not to disclose that information.
Testimony is to begin Thursday.
PHILADELPHIA, Miss. - A jury panel of four blacks and 13 whites was sworn in Wednesday to hear the murder trial of Edgar Ray Killen â≠a one-time Klansman charged with murdering three civil rights workers in 1964.
Prosecutors and the defense made opening statements lasting about 15 minutes each.
Attorney General Jim Hood laid out a narrative of what happened in the month leading up to the slayings of Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney in rural Neshoba County.
Defense attorney Mitch Moran acknowledged publicly for the first time that Killen was in the Ku Klux Klan at the time of the slaying.
Moran says the Klan is not on trial in the case.
Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon intentionally did not tell the jury panel which 12 of them will decide the case and which five will serve as alternates.
He also ordered the attorneys not to disclose that information.
Testimony is to begin Thursday.