Appeals court upholds conviction in Miss. killings

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Appeals court upholds conviction in Miss. killings
(AP) – 47 minutes ago

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of a reputed Ku Klux Klan member accused in the kidnapping of two black men who were abducted and killed in rural Mississippi in 1964.

In a two-to-one ruling, the panel of judges said the evidence in the case against James Ford Seale was sufficient for the jury conviction in the 2007 trial. Friday's decision came from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans.

The judge who dissented said too much time had elapsed to try Seale in the decades-old case and that incriminating statements Seale made should have been barred from his trial.

The victims in the case, Charles Moore and Henry Dee, were kidnapped, beaten and thrown, possibly still alive, into a Mississippi River backwater.



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5goJWQvVLa_sQGrBcnH41Ut8gMisQD9EDQCI03

[Judi Lynn]

1. Klansman James Ford Seale's Wikipedia:

James Ford Seale
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

James Ford Seale (born 1936) is a former Ku Klux Klan member charged by the U.S. Justice Department on January 24, 2007, and subsequently convicted on June 14, 2007, with the kidnapping of two African-American teenagers in Meadville, Mississippi, in 1964.<1> At the time of his arrest James Ford Seale worked at a lumber plant in Roxie, Mississippi. He also worked as a crop duster and was a police officer in Louisiana briefly in the 1970s.<2>

He was convicted on June 14, 2007 by a federal jury.<3><4> Klansman James Ford Seale was sentenced August 24, 2007, to three life terms for his part in the 1964 murders of two black Mississippi teens. In 2008, Seale's kidnapping conviction was overturned by a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, before being reinstated by that court sitting en banc the following year.

Double murder in 1964
Klansmen abducted the two African American men, Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee, both 19, as they were hitchhiking outside of Roxie. May 2, 1964, According to F.B.I. records, Seale suspected Dee of civil-rights activity and told the young men he was a revenue agent, investigating moonshine stills, and then drove them into the Homochitto National Forest between Meadville and Natchez. Other Klansmen followed, and as Seale held a sawed-off shotgun, the other men tied the young men to a tree and severely beat them with long, skinny sticks (called "bean sticks" in Mississippi because they're often used to "stalk" beans in gardens). According to the January 2007 indictment, the Klansmen then took the pair, who were reportedly still alive, to a nearby farm where Seale reportedly duct-taped their mouths and hands. Then the Klansmen wrapped the bloody pair in a plastic tarp and put them into the trunk of another Klansman's red Ford (the deceased Ernest Parker, according to FBI records) and drove almost 100 miles to the Ole River near Tallulah, Louisiana. They had to drive through Louisiana to get there, but the backwater was actually located in Warren County, Mississippi, meaning that they were killed in Mississippi.

There the pair were tied to an old Jeep engine block and sections of railroad track rails with chains before being dumped in the river, reportedly while they were still alive.<5> According to a Klan informant, Seale would say later that he would have shot them first, but didn't want to get blood all over the boat.

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Ford_Seale

http://hollywoodistas.com.nyud.net:8090/files/AP-JamesFordSeale.jpg http://msnbcmedia2.msn.com.nyud.net:8090/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/070620/070620_james_vmed_11a.widec.jpg

[beyurslf]

2. Good. Too bad his ass didn't rot in jail over the decades. I hope they

toss his dying old carcass out into the river while its still alive too. Weigh him down with something heavy first of course.

[Ohio Joe]

4. I agree completely

Very well said.

[fasttense]

3. I hope he meets the men he murdered when he dies.

I hope they come to haunt his hell for eternity.

[Aristus]

5. The dissenting judge thought too much time had gone by?

How can you trust a judge who isn't aware that there isn't a statute of limitations on murder?