Reputed Klansman Set to Be Sentenced

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press/Houston Chronicle

Aug 24, 5:49 AM EDT
Reputed Klansman Set to Be Sentenced

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
Associated Press Writer

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- An aging, reputed Ku Klux Klansman is facing life in prison at his sentencing hearing in federal court Friday for his role in the abduction and killing of two black teenagers more than 43 years ago.

James Ford Seale, 72, was convicted in June on federal charges of kidnapping and conspiracy in the 1964 deaths of Charles Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee.

The 19-year-olds disappeared from Franklin County on May 2, 1964, and their bodies were found that July in the Mississippi River.

The prosecution's star witness against Seale was Charles Marcus Edwards, a confessed Klansman, who received immunity from prosecution for his admitted role in the abductions in exchange for his testimony.



Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/COLD_CASE_SENTEN...

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Young, and older Klansman Seale

[tom_paine]

1. Only because these crimes were committed during the height of the Old Republic

are these Loyal Bushies facing any semblence of justice (and don't be surprised if their sympathteic pals at the Federalist Society let 'em go, if they should appear before a Bushie Judge, who will show them the same favor, htough not overtly, as a Nazi Judge would.

People who commit these same crimes, against Liberals (who happen to be Black or Jewish or Gay, mostly), will find themselves unable to be found by Loyal Bushie "invetsigating".

[Maddy McCall]

6. Actually, Mississippi is leading the nation in prosecuting civil-rights era injustices.

Most of these prosecutions are due to one man's work. Google "Jerry Mitchell" and "Clarion Ledger."

And you can send your thank-you not to Mike Moore and Jim Hood. They've led this push for justice against the men who committed these crimes.

[tom_paine]

11. I am always heartened when I see patches of Old America standing

out starkly as they do in our BushPutinist Amerika.

Hope springs eternal.

[theHandpuppet]

2. Curious headline

I wonder why the headline calls him a "reputed Klansman" when he was not only a well-known Klansman but his involvement in the KKK has been proven. Why not "Convicted Klansman" rather than "Reputed Klansman"? The way this article is written is cleverly slanted but slanted nonetheless.

[madrchsod]

3. this guy was an "ex-klansman"

http://www.blackmississippi.com/indexarticle.html?page=...
Home - Black Mississippi

i guess emily is trying to be correct in her reporting but we know that once a klansman you die a klansman

[Maddy McCall]

7. No, actually Emily is an awesome reporter.

And there is such a thing as an ex-klansman. Many ex-klansmen became "ex-klansmen" because they regretted participating in the violence in the sixties--many of these men are testifying in trials against people like Killen and Seale. Were it not for "ex-klansmen," the chance of convicting men like Killen and Seale would be non-existant.

Another reason that Seale is ex-Klan is because the Klan just doesn't exist in Mississippi anymore, except for a group in Jones County, which is across the state from Seale's old Franklin/Adams Klan group.

He may be "Klan" in his heart, but Pettus can only write about what exists today. And his old Klan unit is dead. He isn't participating in the Klan today, so ex-Klan would be appropriate.

I know Emily. She's a good and decent journalist. She's done some awesome civil-rights prosecution reportage. Don't get hung up on semantics.

[madrchsod]

10. actually i read some of her articles while

figuring out who she is. yes she`s an excellent writer/reporter. as for the rest i guess i was being a bit dramatic..thanks for pointing it out

[9119495]

4. Sounds like a victory in the war on terror and a major victory

against a terrorist group for the USA. Oh, wait, it is a white guy.

[Maddy McCall]

8. Huh?

[Forrest Greene]

5. Justice Doesn't Age

Hope he rots to death in an integrated unit.

[Maddy McCall]

9. Hear, hear.

And the majority of Mississippians agree with you, or these convictions would never happen.

[winter999]

12. I just hope he doesn't get a "Richie-Lohan" sentence.

[Maddy McCall]

15. In Mississippi?

LOL.

He got 3 life terms.

[Judi Lynn]

13. Kick!

[Judi Lynn]

14. Kick!

[Maddy McCall]

16. 3 life terms.

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=...

The crime is “unspeakable because only monsters could inflict this,” U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate told the aging former crop duster from Roxie this morning before sentencing him to three life terms.

“The pulse of this community still throbs with sorrow,” Wingate said.

[uppityperson]

17. Good. eom

[Judi Lynn]

18. The Klansman & his wife went to such great lengths to create their "innocent" charade.

It was well covered in the link you added from Mississippi:

Shortly after Seale’s June 14 conviction, his wife called The Clarion-Ledger to say facts the newspaper ran that she said helped convict her husband were made up, but she did not explain.

She also blamed the government’s key witness, Charles Marcus Edwards, who admitted his involvement in the pair’s beatings and was given immunity in exchange for his testimony.

“I don’t know how anyone would believe Charles Edwards the way that man lied,” she said. “He lied 35 times. There was a lady marking it down every time.”

She maintained her husband was innocent: “You know as well as I do that the government didn’t have one thing on James Seale.”

She said those who persecuted him are receiving divine curses: “God does not like ugly.”

She pointed to a recent accident that temporarily paralyzed Lampton and added, “Charles Edwards has had a triple bypass.”

Reached by telephone at his home in Franklin County, Edwards said if he’d had such surgery, it was news to him: “I’m just sitting here, peeling peaches.”
(snip/)

What a shame they had the chance to hurt the two 19 year old men and their loved ones in this wicked, heartless, filthy way.

[Maddy McCall]

19. You would not believe how far they went to avoid the new investigation, even!

When journalists, who got wind of the new investigation, initially tried to locate Seale, his family told them that Seale had died. It was widely believed that Seale was dead, until Moore's brother visited Meadville, and locals told him that Seale was still very much alive.

Here's one of the best write-ups on this case. I think you'll enjoy the read (it's in a liberal newspaper located in Jackson, MS).

http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/comments.php?id=12508_0...

[Judi Lynn]

20. It's a tremendous article. You just don't see this kind of perserverance and concern

in the ordinary efforts we've grown to expect, and the losers are the public, the country, and the conscientious journalists.

Because of their real ethics, these guys, working with a murder victem's brother, Thomas More, and the Canadian filmmaker, dug that b#stard up and got him in jail. All the elements had to be in place.


Had Thomas More not been as determined, and as focused, and unshakable this couldn't have happened. I hope he will find a small amount of peace, after all this time.

It's so good knowing the J.F.P. got the spotlight applied to the Clarion-Ledger for actually publishing the news that the killers were dead when they could have checked around and learned otherwise. It must have given these killers a sense of high glee to see their vicious, cowardly crime given cover.

Thanks for contributing so much missing information.

[Judi Lynn]

21. Kick!