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Jury selection begins in church bombing case

The four girls killed in the 1963 church bombing, clockwise from upper left: Addie Mae Collins, 14; and Cynthia Dianne Wesley, 14; Carole Robertson, 14; and Denise McNair, 11

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (CNN) -- Returning to one of the darkest days in the civil rights struggle, jury selection began Monday in the murder trial of a former member of the Ku Klux Klan suspected in a 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls.

"Justice seems to be mighty slow," the Rev. Abraham Lincoln Woods, a civil rights leader at the time, told CNN in an interview before the trial's start. "Even after 37 years, this case seems to be moving very slowly."

Thomas Blanton Jr., 62, has plead innocent to charges that he played a role in the Sept. 15, 1963, bombing. He could face life in prison, if convicted.

Blanton is one of four men tied to the bombing.

Fourteen years after the bombing, Robert Chambliss was convicted of murder in connection with the incident. He died in prison. Another suspect died before he was charged.

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Bobby Frank Cherry, 71, might never face trial after a judge ruled last week that he was not mentally competent to assist his attorneys.

The bombing at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church killed four girls, three of them 14, one 11.

Woods recalled being sickened by the incident, one of the most horrific from the civil rights era.

"If these terrorists, if these fanatics wanted to kill somebody, why didn't they single out those of use who were actively involved in the civil rights struggle?" he said.

Lawyers were working with a jury pool of 125 people and will winnow it down to 12 jurors and four alternates.

The trial itself is expected to last roughly four weeks.

On September 15, 1963 the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was bombed killing four little girls who were attending Bible study that Sunday morning.

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Church bombing trial down to one ex-Klansman
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Accused church bombers on trial after 37 years
April 9, 2001
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Birmingham church bombing timeline
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