Jury selection began Monday in the trial of a reputed member of the Ku Klux Klan who is being charged in the 1964 slaying of three Civil Rights workers. The case was the basis for the 1988 film 'Mississippi Burning.' The three men had come to Philadelphia, Mississippi to help register black voters as part of the 'Freedom Summer' of 1964.
Edgar Ray Killen, now 80, is the only person ever charged with murder in the deaths of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. Other people were tried in the past by the federal government for violating the three victims' civil rights.
The jury pool in the case has approximately 400 people in it. The trial is expected to last only two weeks at the Nehoba County Courthouse. Opening arguments are expected to begin later this week.
The bodies of Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner were found 44 days after the three civil rights workers disappeared on June 21, 1964. The bodies were buried in an earthen dam. The search for three brought the case international attention.
Some observers are concerned that the trial will bring up old racial tensions that have not been evident in the area recently.
Killen was tried in 1967 by an all-white jury. The jury voted 11-1 in favor of convicting Killen but the one holdout claimed she could not convict Killen because he was a preacher. As a result, Killen was set free.
Civil rights activist Lawrence Guyot said that the case made him 'proud to be a Mississippian.' Guyot added, 'It is never too late to do what is right. Justice delayed should not be justice denied.'
Killen suffered two broken legs recently and made a request to have the trial delayed. The judge denied the request but said effort would be made to make sure the defendant is 'comfortable' during the trial.
