Killen: "NOT GUILTY"

Killen bond hearing delayed a week

A bond hearing for Edgar Ray Killen has been delayed a week.

The hearing was supposed to be Friday, but county officials say it has been reset for 9 a.m. Aug. 12 in Neshoba County Circuit Court.

Killen, an 80-year-old one-time Ku Klux Klan leader, was convicted of manslaughter June 21 in the 1964 slayings of three civil-rights workers in Neshoba County.

He's serving a 60-year sentence at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County, but his attorneys have filed a motion to try to get him released on bond while they appeal the conviction.

Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon, who presided over Killen's trial, will decide on th

e bond request.


Killen was convicted 41 years to the day after the sla
yings of Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman. The part-time preacher is the only person to ever face state charges in the killings that shocked the nation and helped spur passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The trio was investigating the burning of a black church outside Philadelphia. They were stopped for speeding and held for several hours in the Neshoba County jail, then mobbed by Klansmen after their release. They were shot to death, and their bodies were found 44 days later, buried in an earthen dam.

The case was dramatized in the 1988 movie Mississippi Burning.

************
Alright, still waiting.....


T.N.B.
 
Lawyer: Killen likely will go free on bond

A defense lawyer for a reputed Klan leader convicted of orchestrating the killings of three civil rights workers predicted his client will likely go free today.

"It's quite possible he'll sit out on appeal bond and never go to prison," said Edgar Ray Killen's lawyer, Mitch Moran of Carthage, who expects the appeals court to throw out Killen's manslaughter conviction in the June 21, 1964, slayings of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner.

Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon will decide at 9 a.m. today whether to free the 80-year-old sawmill operator and part-time preacher on an appeal bond or keep him behind bars. Gor

don already has sentenced Killen to 60 years in prison.
Freeing Killen on
bond would be "a disgrace and a slap in the face to the people of Neshoba County," said Jewel McDonald, a member of the Philadelphia Coalition that has pushed for justice in the case. "He needs to stay where he was meant to be
 
Breaking News

Bond has been set for convicted killer Edgar Ray Killen. He will be able to post $600,000 bond and be released pending his appeal. *AND* Jurors have reached a verdict in the state's judicial bribery case.

************
Thank God!


T.N.B.
 
I'm shocked, Tyrone. I didn't think there was an gram of manhood floating within the judicial body of Mississippi.

And this bail settlement took just that.. a GRAM. Probably $60,000 cash to secure a $600,000 bond to free poor old Edgar Ray on appeal!

The J*ws just rake it in coming in and going out, don't they? :angry:
 
Originally posted by Brewski@Aug 12 2005, 11:19 AM
I'm shocked, Tyrone. I didn't think there was an gram of manhood floating within the judicial body of Mississippi.

And this bail settlement took just that.. a GRAM. Probably $60,000 cash to secure a $600,000 bond to free poor old Edgar Ray on appeal!

The J*ws just rake it in coming in and going out, don't they? :angry:
Brewski, you can't lose them all!

I'm just very happ

y right now. I know $600,000 is a lot of money. If I learn that Edgar Ray is having trouble bonding out. I'll contact Attorney McIntyre and see what can be done so people can contribute.

T.N.B.
 
Follow up on that, Tyrone. All racial polemics aside, I'm sure Edgar and his family are stretched to the limit on this one, and I'd be happy to contribute to a good cause.
 
Originally posted by Brewski@Aug 12 2005, 11:42 AM
Follow up on that, Tyrone. All racial polemics aside, I'm sure Edgar and his family are stretched to the limit on this one, and I'd be happy to contribute to a good cause.
Rest assured, I will do just that.

T.N.B.
 
Bond Set for Edgar Ray Killen

PHILADELPHIA, Miss. (AP) -- A circuit judge on Friday granted Edgar Ray Killen $600,000 bond so the one-time Klan leader can be released from prison while he appeals manslaughter convictions in the killings of three civil rights workers. Killen's family was trying to gather enough money or property to post the bond and get the 80-year-old part-time preacher released.

Killen was convicted June 21 for masterminding the 1964 slayings of civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman. His conviction came 41 years to the day after the trio was mobbed and killed by Ku Klux Klansmen.

During Friday's hearing, Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon heard testimony from seven of Killen's friends and neighbors who said they b

elieved Killen was neither a flight risk or a dange
r to the community.


Two black jailers who booked Killen into the Neshoba County Jail after his conviction testified that one of them asked Killen a standard question for new inmates -- whether he was suicidal. Jailer Kenny Spencer said Killen told him, "I would kill you before I killed myself."

Spencer said he took the statement as a threat and that he reported the response to his immediate supervisor but not to the sheriff. One of Killen's defense attorneys, James McIntyre, repeatedly asked Spencer whether he felt threatened by an elderly man in a wheelchair. Spencer said that while he might not have felt physically threatened, he did feel mentally threatened. Killen, who did not testify during his trial, did speak in court on Friday.

While being questioned by his other defense attorney, Mitch Moran of Carthage, Killen said he did not remember making such a statement to any j
aile
r. Moran said that if he had made such a statement would be serious
or joking? "Oh, it'd have to be joking," Killen responded. "I don't do those things."


In granting bond, Gordon cited previous cases that had been appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court. He said in this case he was convinced by testimony that Killen was not a flight risk or a danger to the community. "It's not a matter of what I feel, its a matter of the law," Gordon said.

Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner -- all in their 20s -- were shot to death on a rural road in Neshoba County and buried several miles away in an earthen dam. Witnesses testified that Killen, a local Klan leader at the time, helped round up Klansmen to attack the civil rights workers. Killen went to a Philadelphia funeral home as the attacks were taking place, witnesses said. Killen had begun serving a 60-year sentence at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in R
ankin Co
unty.

Killen is the only person to ever face state charges in the killings that shocked the nation and
helped spur passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The three civil rights workers were investigating the burning of a black church outside Philadelphia. They were stopped on an accusation of speeding and were held for several hours in the Neshoba County jail, then mobbed by Klansmen after their release. They were shot to death and their bodies were found 44 days later. The case was dramatized in the 1988 movie "Mississippi Burning."

**********
Killen is the only person to ever face state charges in the killings that shocked the nation and helped spur passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.
<!--Quo
teEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>

After all Edgar Ray did for the nigger race, look how they treat him.

T.N.B.
 
4844062_240X180.jpg


Former KKK Leader Released On Bail

PHILADELPHIA, Miss. -- A former Ku Klux Klan leader convicted in connection with the killings of three civil rights workers in 1964 has been released on bail.

A judge in Philadelphia, Miss., said he's convinced that Edgar Ray Killen is neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community. Judge Marcus Gordon said the decision is not based on what he feels, but is "a matter of law."

Killen was convicted June 21 for masterminding the 1964 slayings of civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman. His conviction came 41 years to the day after the trio was mobbed and

killed by Klansmen.

Killen, who is 80 and uses a wheelchair, didn't answer reporters questions when he got into
a car with relatives.

A spokesman for the state attorney said the decision granting Killen bond may be appealed.

PHILADELPHIA, Miss. (AP) -

Former Ku Klux Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen was released from jail Friday on $600,000 bond while he appeals his manslaughter convictions and 60-year sentence in the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers.

Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon said he was convinced by testimony that Killen, who is 80 and uses a wheelchair, was neither a flight risk nor danger to the community.

"It's not a matter of what I feel, it's a matter of the law," Gordon said, citing previous cases that were appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court.

Killen refused to answer questions Friday as he got into a car with family members.

He was convicted June 21 for masterminding the 1964 slayings o
f ci
vil rights workers Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman. His conviction came 41 years to the day after the trio was mobbed and killed by Klansmen.


Jacob Ray, a spokesman for state Attorney General Jim Hood, said the office was considering appealing Gordon's decision to the Mississippi Supreme Court.

During Friday's hearing, a black jailer testified that he had felt threatened by Killen when booking him into jail after his conviction.

Kenny Spencer said that when Killen was asked a standard question for new inmates - whether he was suicidal - Killen told him, "I would kill you before I killed myself."

Killen, who had not testified at his trial, said Friday that he did not remember making such a statement and that if he had, it should not have been taken seriously.

"Oh, it'd have to be joking," Killen said. "I don't do those things."

Killen is the only person ever to face state charges in the thr
ee death
s, which shocked the nation and helped spur passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. The case was dramatized in the 1988 movie "Mississippi Burning."

Killen was tried in 1967 on federal charges of violating
the victims' civil rights, but the all-white jury deadlocked, with one juror saying she could not convict a preacher. Seven others were convicted, but none served more than six years.

The three civil rights workers, all in the their 20s, were investigating the burning of a black church outside Philadelphia when they were stopped on an accusation of speeding and held for hours in the Neshoba County jail.

According to witnesses, Killen rounded up carloads of Klansmen to intercept the three men upon their release and helped arrange for a bulldozer to hide the bodies. Killen then went to a Philadelphia funeral home as the attacks were taking place, witnesses said.

The bodies were found 44 days later, buried miles away in a red-clay dam.

*
*********
Anybody who wishes to help the Killen family, click here.


T.N.B.
 
The address at the link has been confirmed.

T.N.B.
 
Mississippians React to Judge's Decision

Word of Edgar Ray Killen's bond is sparking reaction from state leaders and activists. The attorney general's office released a statement saying, "We are in the process of looking at our options and considering filing a request with the appellate court for extraordinary relief."

The attorney general's office did not give a timetable for when this request to revoke Killen's bond could be submitted to the court. The Mississippi NAACP president says the group does not agree with Judge Gordon's decision to offer Killen bond.

"I think it's an outrage for the judge to release him on bond. It's been 41 years that this guy has been able to walk around free and without a doubt he committed the crimes.

He should remain in jail for the duration of his life," expressed Mississipp
i NAACP president Derrick Johnson
.

Johnson says the NAACP fully supports the attorney general's consideration of plans to ask that Killen's bond be revoked.

************
Memo to Derrick Johnson: Go back to Afreaka, coon!


T.N.B.
 
AG expected to ask court to revoke Killen appeal bond

Attorney General Jim Hood was expected to file a request late Monday night, asking the state Supreme Court to throw out the appeal bond for the Klansman convicted of orchestrating the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers.

On Friday, Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon ruled the state had failed to present enough evidence to prove Edgar Ray Killen poses a danger to the community, allowing Killen to go free on a $600,000 bond while his case is appealed. A jury convicted Killen in June on three counts of manslaughter for the June 21, 1964, killings of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman.

Killen's attorneys could not be reached for comment.

Justices have rejected bond

s granted by lower courts.

Elliot Culp had no
criminal record when he got a $350,000 bond for capital murder and other charges. Then-Attorney General Mike Moore appealed the decision, and justices revoked the bond.

After Culp was convicted in 2002 of eight violent crimes, including rape and assault, Circuit Judge Jannie Lewis denied an appeal bond, despite the fact he wasn't convicted of capital murder: "His release would pose a special danger to the community."

In 1999, Lewis denied appeal bonds for three men convicted of manslaughter for the 1970 killing of one-armed sharecropper Rainey Pool for the same reason.

During Killen's appeal bond hearing last Friday, much of the debate centered on what violence he could perpetrate. Jailers testified Killen delivered a threat after being brought to the jail ("I'd kill you before I'd kill myself"), but they acknowledged they didn't believe the 80-year-old could
get
out of his wheelchair and harm them.


Killen denied making the statement, but said if he had, "
It'd have to be joking."

Killen, who broke both legs in a tree-cutting accident in March, testified he is in constant pain and the prison cot injured the pins in his leg: "I can barely sleep."

Killen's poor health wasn't disputed by the state, but Aaron Condon, professor emeritus at the University of Mississippi School of Law, said a person doesn't have to personally commit violence to pose a threat.

Evidence never showed Killen pulled the trigger that killed the trio. But it did show he orchestrated the Klan's actions that night.

In 1974, he made a threat over the telephone regarding Marvin Ware, suggesting to Ware's wife that others would bring harm to her husband. "I've got it all fixed for him real good," Killen told her. "If I die at 8 o'clock tonight, that son of a b---- will be dead at 9. You
hear?
...

"I want that revenge. I like revenge," Killen told her in a tape recording of the phone call in which he said he gave their address, phone number and car description to othe
rs.

After a jury convicted him in 1975 of making the threatening call, he threatened the jury foreman, a Newton County official said.

Three weeks before the trio's killings, Ernest Gilbert said he and other Klansmen, including Killen, kidnapped a black teenager, Wilmer Faye Jones. Gilbert, who died last year, said Killen asked him to kill Jones, but he refused.

Five days before the killings, former Klansman Delmar Dennis testified in a 1967 federal conspiracy trial, Killen led a gathering of more than 75 Klansmen in Neshoba County. "Edgar Ray Killen asked for volunteers" to go to the all-black Mount Zion church because civil rights workers might be there, Dennis testified. Klansmen returned with bloody knuckles, he said.

The mother and brother of j*wel McDonald were a
mong those
beating that night. After Killen was freed on bond Friday, tears streamed down her face. "He's been found guilty of manslaughter," she said. "You would have thought that would be enough to keep him behind bars."


She said she believes Killen poses "a risk to other people and to society"
 
Papers: Killen's brother threatened judge

A relative of convicted killer Edgar Ray Killen threatened to kill Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon before the Klansman's murder trial began in Philadelphia, the state revealed in documents made public Tuesday.

Attorney General Jim Hood is asking the state Supreme Court to revoke the $600,000 appeal bond for Killen, convicted in June of manslaughter for orchestrating the June 21, 1964, killings of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman. Gordon sentenced Killen to 60 years and granted the appeal bond after he said the state failed to prove Killen posed a danger to the community.

A three-member panel of the court on Tuesday ordered Hood and Killen's attorneys to file briefs by 5 p.m. Aug.
r
30 stating their positions.
Gordon confirmed Tues
day the threat allegedly was made by Killen's 64-year-old brother, J.D., who had a law enforcement escort during the trial.


The judge said he learned of the threat from a Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol investigator several days before the trial began June 13. "The investigator learned through an undercover snitch," he said.

The judge said the statement attributed to J.D. Killen was that "he had a gun, and that was the gun he was going to use to take me out."

But the judge said J.D. Killen later shook hands and expressed no animosity. The judge said he didn't take the threat seriously.

J.D. Killen told The Associated Press the accusation he made a threat is "totally wrong. They're trying to set me up. I have never threatened anyone."

On Jan. 7, when Killen pleaded innocent to the three
mu
rder charges, J.D. Killen charged at WJTV-Channel 12 photographer Eric Bullard, knocking him over.

A Justice Court judge convict
ed J.D. Killen of simple assault and fined him $274. He has appealed to Circuit Court, and a trial is slated for November in front of Gordon.


Defense lawyer Mitch Moran of Carthage said the photographer or reporter provoked J.D. Killen by saying, "You didn't think your family was going to get away with murder, did you?"

WJTV News Director Rick Russell said his employees made no such remark.

As the murder trial of Edgar Ray Killen neared an end in June, J.D. Killen picked up his cane "like it was a shotgun," said Marianne Todd, a free-lance photographer. "Then he mimicked as if he were loading it, making that chink-chink sound four or five times as he moved the 'barrel' left and right in front of us reporters and photographers.

"I guess if he w
ere tal
king about his latest deer kill it would be OK, but I have a suspicion that's not what it was about," she said.

Free-lance photographer Suzi Altman said J.D. Killen "was standing on the porch wit
h a shotgun" when she went by his brother's house in her Volkswagen as the trial began.

She said J.D. Killen remarked as a law enforcement officer was standing there, "If that b---- in the bug comes back out here again, I'm going to take a shot at her."

Kyle Carter, photographer for The Neshoba Democrat, said J.D. Killen threatened him bodily harm at least twice. "He came right up in my face, and we had to have a cop come between us," he said.

The same day Edgar Ray Killen was arraigned, authorities received a bomb threat at the courthouse. "Although no explosive devices were found, the threat caused the courthouse to be evacuated while the courthouse was searched," Hood wrote.

These threats are evidence Gordon ne
ver heard,
said defense lawyer James McIntyre of Jackson. "The Supreme Court is not a court of record. They'll just have to review what the lower court did."


The defense is usually given 10 days to respond, but he said he'll ask for more time. He wants justices to str
ike any mention of the threats.

Publicity resulting from the bond and the accusation of a threat have prompted him to get calls "from everybody except the pope," he said. "This is a fiasco."

Gordon did hear about Edgar Ray Killen's 1975 conviction for his threat over a telephone. After the jury convicted him, he threatened the jury foreman, a Newton County official said.

Hood told justices: "(His) convictions, both for the deaths of Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman, and for telephone harassment, demonstrate his propensity for violence and show that his continued release constitutes a special danger to the community."

***************
What does J.D. Kil
len's beha
vior have to do with Edgar Ray's propensity towards violence? Nothing. Not one damn thing. But little Jimmy Hood wants everybody to believe that 80 year old Edgar Ray has some kind of control or authority over 64 year old J.D. . This shows more than anything the lengths Jim Hood will go to in persecuting Edgar Ray.


T.N
.B.
 
Permission sought for Killen tribute

Edgar Ray Killen, the Klansman convicted of orchestrating the killings of three civil rights workers, is set to be honored Sept. 18 on the lawn of the Neshoba County Courthouse.

The event is being called "Killen Appreciation Day," said white supremacist Richard Barrett, who heads the Nationalist Movement in Learned. "It's an old-fashioned Mississippi homecoming. It's held for sports figures and beauty queens. Why not political prisoners?"

A Neshoba County jury recently convicted the 80-year-old sawmill operator and part-time preacher of manslaughter in the June 21, 1964, killings of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman

. Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon sentenced Killen to 60 years in prison. Killen is fr
ee on appeal bond.

Five days before the trio's killings, according to testimony at a 1967 federal conspiracy trial in the slayings, Killen led a Klan meeting and asked for volunteers, who went out and beat members of the Mount Zion Methodist Church and burned the church.

The idea of honoring the Klansman who orchestrated the killings and who allegedly oversaw the beatings of church members, including her mother and brother, upsets Jewel McDonald of Philadelphia. "We're searching for terrorist cells all over the world, and we've got one right here in Philadelphia. He is just as dangerous."

She said she hopes citizens in Philadelphia won't go anywhere near the courthouse on "Killen Appreciation Day."

Gerald McManus of Clearwater, Fla., the Nationalist Movement member organizing the event, said he spoke with Killen for an hour Tuesday and that Killen
said
he wanted to be there if he was able to do so "physically and legally."

Killen's attorney, James McIntyre of Jackso
n, said he wants his client to stay away
, recalling the parade greeting fighter Mike Tyson after he finished his prison sentence for rape.

If Killen opposes the event, slated to start at 2 p.m., Barrett said, "Then we wouldn't do it, but that doesn't look like it's going to happen."

To hold the event, organizers need permission from the sheriff, whom Barrett wrote Wednesday.

On Friday, Gordon freed Killen on a $600,000 appeal bond after he said the state failed to prove Killen was a danger to the community. In copies of correspondence between Killen and inmate Travis Golie obtained by The Clarion-Ledger, the Klansman predicted his release in a July 23 letter: "When I get my bond, hopefully in two weeks, I plan to preach and be in services as far as Louisiana."

Attorney General Jim Hood is
challeng
ing Killen's appeal bond, pointing out a threat for which Killen was convicted in 1975 and a threat Killen's brother is accused of delivering against the judge prior to trial.
n
McManus said Killen deserves to be honored.

"I think he's been terribly abused by the state of Mississippi," he said. "He's an 80-year-old man. You know (in prison) they had them sleeping on a concrete slab? That really is an abomination."

At his bond hearing, Killen
 
Egdar-Ray-Killen.jpg



You may remember this Klan brother as being the 80 yr. old man recently sent back to prison after his bail was revoked. Denied his right to a speedy trial, Brother Killen was convicted of manslaughter in the murder of 3 civil rights workers in 1964 and sentenced to 60 years in prison.

Edgar Ray Killen was reportedly a longtime member of the Klan in Mississippi .

Now his wife is in need...lets not abandon our brother and his wife in their old age and time of need.

Offerings made out to Betty Jo Killen (by money order or check) may be sent to:

P.O. Box 886 Philadelphia, Ms 39350.

Lets open our hearts and wallets for an old soldier and his wife!

<a href='http://www.mwkkkk.com/home.htm' target='_blank>
http://www.mwkkkk.com/home.htm</a>

mwk.jpg
 
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