Court refuses to hear appeal from reputed Klansman

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court won't hear an appeal from reputed Ku Klux Klansman James Ford Seale for the killing of two black men in rural Mississippi in 1964.

In March, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the evidence against Seale was sufficient for the jury conviction in the trial that took place 43 years after the crimes. Seale, now 75, was convicted in 2007 of two counts of kidnapping and one of conspiracy to commit kidnapping. He was given three life sentences.

Authorities say Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, both 19, were beaten by Klansmen and thrown, possibly still alive, into a muddy backwater of the Mississippi River.

Thomas Moore of Colorado Springs, Colo., the brother of victim Charles Moore, said he received a phone call from the Justice Department, informing him the Supreme Court wouldn't hear the case.

"It's a good feeling for me. It's a good feeling for the family members. It's been three years s

The Court should have considered the case. The government waited 43 years to indite; the statute of limitation on kidnapping was changed to five years in 1972, and a lower court had ruled that the statute of limitation was long over. There was media agitation when it was discovered by a filmmaker that Seale was still alive, and government prosecutors felt it was politically opportune to charge Seale now.

What new evidence was there? From Wikipedia:

Primary testimony was from fellow Klansman Charles Marcus Edwards who, after being confronted by Thomas Moore and David Ridgen during filming of a scene in Mississippi Cold Case, was given state and federal immunity from prosecution to tell the full story of what happened.

So guy who admitted he was a participant in the kidnapping and murder agrees to finger Seale if he himself gets off scott-free--that's the "evidence," how does Seale prove himself innocent after all these years? Potential witnesses are dead, demented, or whose memories have become contaminated by time and publicity about the long-ago events. It's no longer possible to gather new forensic evidence.

If you or anyone were accused of being a conspirtor to a horrific crime decades ago, how could you defend yourself?

I haven't studied the case closely and I assume he's probably guilty, but even so he deserved a fair, ie timely trial.

And if we're going to open up old kidnapping cases from the 1960s, how about the FBI agents who hired Mafia enforcer Gregory Scarpa - known as The Grim Reaper, to kidnap and torture suspected KKK members to provide information in the "Mississippi Burning" cases. From a 2008 Telegraph story:

FBI 'used Mafia enforcer' to find bodies in Mississippi Burning case A former Ku Klux Klan member convicted in the killings of three Mississippi civil rights workers in the 1960s must be freed because the FBI used a Mafia enforcer to torture a key witness for information, his lawyers say.

It was now clear that the informant had been kidnapped by Scarpa and an FBI helper, and subjected to "typical Mafia-type behaviour", he said.

The "behaviour" may have included a severe beating but certainly included death threats to his family and having a gun barrel inserted into his mouth, he added.

SNIP

Scarpa's involvement in the investigation had long been rumoured but was confirmed last year by a New York judge who had seen his FBI file while trying an unrelated murder case involving the mobster's former FBI handler.

The judge said: "That a thug like Scarpa would be employed by the federal government to beat witnesses and threaten them at gunpoint to obtain information regarding the deaths of civil rights workers in the south in the early 1960s is a shocking demonstration of the government's unacceptable willingness to employ criminality to fight crime."

Linda Schiro, Scarpa's former girlfriend, said a few months ago that she had accompanied him to Mississippi in 1964. She said she believed he had been brought in because J Edgar Hoover, the FBI chief, was under heavy pressure to get results in the case.

She told ABC's Eyewitness News: "When we we walked into the hotel, I saw a bunch of guys and I saw Greg wink, and he says, 'Those are FBI agents'."

"We went up to the room, knock on the door, an agent came in and handed him a gun."

Mississippi Burning alluded to the FBI's use of nefarious tactics, introducing a black FBI agent who is brought in to rough up witnesses when conventional methods fail.

“It’s a good feeling for me. It’s a good feeling for the family members.”

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It’s never good to convict anyone of anything. It may be legally just, but it’s another bad day for America and our world. There should never be cheers for this or “good feelings” about it. It’s not a happy time nor should it ever be. Every murderer who fails to repent and follow the way of Christ is another soul lost to sin and Satan.

Another sad day lifted up as a joyous occasion.

Our prayers go out to everyone involved. May repentance and forgiveness guide them in their path to Christ.

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