Mississippi: Killen convicted of manslaughter
AP reports: The jury that convicted a one-time Ku Klux Klansman on Tuesday of manslaughter in the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers was frustrated that there was not enough evidence for a murder conviction, one of the jurors said.
Warren Paprocki, a 54-year-old engineer who moved to Philadelphia from southern California several years ago, said the jury was torn over a lack of evidence tying 80-year-old Edgar Ray Killen to the shooting deaths of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman in rural Neshoba County during what was called the "Freedom Summer."
"I think initially we were polarized by two positions," Paprocki said. "On the one hand, this guy needs to be convicted and on the other hand, the state needed to present better evidence."
The three civil rights workers were registering black voters when they were ambushed by Klansman exactly 41 years ago Tuesday. Their bodies were found 44 days later in an earthen dam. They had been shot to death. -- AP Wire | 06/21/2005 | Juror says panel in Killen trial frustrated not enough evidence for murder conviction