The defense rested in the murder trial of Edgar Ray Killen. Killen is accused of killing three civil rights workers in Philadelphia, Mississippi in 1964. The part-time preacher is admittedly a member of the Ku Klux Klan and held a leadership position in the local Klan at the time of the murders.
Harlan Majure, who served as mayor of the town in the 1990s took the stand in Killen's defense on Monday. He said Killen was a 'good man' and that his membership in the Klan would not change that opinion. Majure went on to say that the KKK 'did a lot of good up here' and added, ''As far as I know it's a peaceful organization.'
There were murmurs heard in the packed courtroom after Majure defended the Klan.
The judge read the jury instructions after which closing arguments were scheduled to begin.
Killen, now 80, is accused of planning the murder of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in 1964. The three civil rights workers were in Mississippi to register black voters as part of the 'Freedom Summer' of 1964.
The men were stopped for speeding, jailed and then released before being ambushed and attacked by a group of Klansmen. They were beaten and shot and their bodies buried in a nearby earthen dam. They were not found for 44 days.
The case did a lot to galvanize the civil rights movement and bring attention to the violence and intimidation used by the Klan in the Jim Crow South to maintain segregation in those days.
Killen was tried by a jury in 1967 for the murders but was allowed to go free when one juror declared she could not convict a man who was a preacher. The transcripts from the 1967 trial were used by the prosecution to speak for witnesses who are now deceased.
If convicted, Killen faces a life sentence in prison.
