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Unresolved murder cases from Civil Rights era finally winding up back in court

The FBI missing-persons poster of Goodman, left; Chaney, center; and Schwerner

June 20, 2000
Web posted at: 10:40 p.m. EDT (0240 GMT)

In this story: 'A changed South, a new South ...' Bodies found in levee RELATED STORIES, SITES

From Mike Boettcher, CNN National Correspondent

PHILADELPHIA, Mississippi (CNN) -- More than three decades after a string of Civil Rights-era murders rocked the nation in the mid-1960s, prosecutors across the South are reopening cases that never were brought to trial or were prosecuted on lesser charges.

In Birmingham, Alabama, two suspects in the 1963 bombing of the city's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church were indicted last month on murder charges. The bombing killed four black girls, ages 11 and 14. U.S. Attorney Doug Jones will handle the murder prosecution in a state court.

In another high-profile case, self-proclaimed white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith is serving a life sentence after his 1994 conviction by a Hinds County, Mississippi, jury for the 1963 ambush killing of NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers in Jackson, Mississippi. Beckwith had been tried twice for the crime in 1964, but in both cases, an all-white jury had reached a deadlock.

"I think the driving force behind the reopening of the Civil Rights-era murders is a changed South, a new South, where you have prosecutors who are willing to go back and look at the facts and re-interview witnesses," said Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The bodies of the three men were discovered in an earthen dam; they had been shot execution style

One of those new generation district attorneys is Ken Turner, who may prosecute the most highly publicized civil rights slayings of the time -- the triple murder of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner.

In the summer of 1964, the three young men -- two whites and one black -- were working to register black voters in Mississippi when they disappeared in June.

The case reverberated all the way to the White House, where President Lyndon Johnson called Mississippi Sen. James Eastland looking for answers. Their conversation was taped:

LBJ: "Jim, we've got three kids down there missing. What can I do about it?"

Eastland: "Well, I don't believe they ... I don't believe they're missing."

LBJ: "You've got their parents down there."

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Eastland: "I believe it's a publicity stunt."

It was not a stunt. The bodies of the three young men were found 44 days later buried in an earthen dam outside Philadelphia, Mississippi. Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner had been shot execution style.

That case -- including efforts of FBI agents to obtain evidence from hostile and fearful witnesses -- was the basis for the 1988 movie "Mississippi Burning."

The federal government later prosecuted 14 men, including several Ku Klux Klan members, for violating the victims' civil rights.

Seven defendants were convicted in 1967, with none serving more than six years in prison. But the suspects never faced state murder charges.

"The jury pool 35 years ago never had a chance to pass on that case, and we hope we can give today's jury pool that chance," said Turner.

Two investigators from the Mississippi attorney general's office are now working full time on the case. Several suspects and key witnesses have died in the years since the murders, but CNN has learned prosecutors are close to finding new witnesses to make their case.

We're banking on the fact that there are those out there who are involved or who were involved in this case, who, at this point in their life, would like to come clean about it," said Mississippi Attorney General Michael Moore.

James Chaney's brother, Ben, is 'convinced that the case is a slam dunk'

Ben Chaney was a young boy when he buried his brother, James. He believes that 36 years later justice can still be done.

"I reviewed the 2,900 pages of transcripts on more than one occasion, and I have looked at the hard evidence, and I have even reviewed autopsy photographs," Ben Chaney said. "And I am convinced that the case is a slam dunk."

Prosecutor Turner believes there is no slam dunk in such an old case. But he hopes to have enough evidence soon to prosecute -- for history's sake.

"I think there might be some catharsis in that for us if we're able to do that," Turner said. "I hope we're able to do that and put it behind us."

Reuters contributed to this report.

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June 16, 2000
Mississippi man indicted in 1966 slaying of black farm worker
June 8, 2000
Suspects in civil rights-era bombing charged with murder
May 17, 2000
Three N.Y. police officers face up to five years for cover-up in Louima case
March 6, 2000
Third victim of Pittsburgh-area shootings dies; hate crime charged
March 2, 2000
'You move forward': Myrlie Evers-Williams marches on
February 15, 1999

SPLCENTER.ORG
Congress of Racial Equality
The Mississippi Burning Trial: United States vs. Cecil price et al. (1967)
Biography of James Chaney
Biography of Andrew Goodman
Biography of Michael Schwerner
FBI - Freedom of Information Act - Miburn (Mississippi Burning)
Options in Defining Hate-Motivated Crimes

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