At age 38 in 1964, Edgar Ray Killen was charged with plotting the murders of three civil rights protesters in Mississippi--something Baptist preachers aren't supposed to do.
Killen, who also ran a sawmill, was a Ku Klux Klan kleagle (organizer)in his area of the state. He was fingered in the murder plot by an informant planted by the FBI. Mississippi being what it was in those days, his jury failed to reach a verdict, and the case died on the vine.
In 2005, despite our federal Constitution's guarantee of a "speedy and public trial," he was again brought to court for the same killings. By this time a far less frightening-looking geezer of 80, he pled not guilty. This time around, he was not so lucky, and the jury returned a guilty verdict on manslaughter charges. He was sentenced to 60 years; the sentence was upheld on appeal.
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