Posted on 01/07/2005 9:23:30 PM PST by GodfearingTexan
tonight i heard on NPR that prosecutors (i dont know if they are state or federal, i assume the latter) have arrested and a grand jury has indicted an 80-year-old dude in the deaths of those 3 civil rights workers in the mid-60s. i don't know if this guy, like others in other cases, has been tried previously and found not guilty or if this is his first indictment, but i strongly suspect he has faced a courtroom once before and been found not guilty.
i know, its true, that most of the white juries in ms at the time (i think they were all white even until the 70s or maybe even 80s) would never find a white man guilty of a crime against blacks when it was a matter of segregation. BUT, let me point out why i have a problem with this.
the main reason is that law enforcement officials in just about ANY jurisdiction ANYWHERE in the country could identify a handful or dozens of crimes/suspects who they KNOW are guilty but whom a jury found innocent. im not talking about 80 year old men who are no threat to anyone, im talking about stone cold killers in their 20s and 30s who did it not for political reasons but for money or drugs. people who did not kill as part of a weird racial mob but who did it by themselves. in short, people who are FAR more dangerous to society today, but who roam free.
so why are we prosecuting this one old man? because its good politics. well, im sorry, but thats total BS. however, i have an alternative that will satisfy me and show me that this is not just a way to push southerners' nose in the poop of their past. (by the way, in case you havent noticed, this case is the liberals' favorite. they LOVE to talk about it. they want to see this man burned at the stake if possible).
my idea is to go ahead and also re-try OJ Simpson for murdering those two people. after all, it was a sympathetic strain of influential blacks in the jury that got him acquitted. im only suggesting we be consistent, thats all.
if a mob of liberals wants to go to this old man's house and pull him out and lynch him, fine. i have no problem with that, since they are taking their own chances with the law if they do. BUT, dont hijack our legal system and our constitution and prosecute this guy on my behalf. that i couldnt agree with (unless you do it across the board starting with the most dangerous criminals).
thanks for letting me rant.
OJ cannot be retried for murder. the guy in Mississippi has never been tried for murder.
and i thought we could re-try OJ for violating those two people's civil rights?
I do believe you are correct about this man being found not guilty before. At the time the crime was committed there was no federal law about murder. That law belonged exclusively to the states so that there were only state trials for this kind of crime.
There is also such a law about double jeopardy and not being able to prosecute the same individual twice for the same crime.
That's where the feds came in and wrote a new law about "violating civil rights" specifically to prosecute cases exactly like this.
Killen wasn't acquitted. It was a hung jury, 11-1 in favor of conviction. This is not a do-over or double jeopardy.
Liberals aren't the only people who were shocked and horrified by the murder of those three people. There are a lot of good conservatives, like David Horowitz and Charlton Heston, who worked for the same cause.
He is being tried for murder because he has never been tried for murder before.
true, but not the point either
It absolutely IS the point. You claimed this was similar to retrying OJ Simpson. Simpson was acquitted. To put him on trial again on the same charges would violate double jeopardy. Killen's trial ended in a mistrial due to a hung jury. He *can* be tried again.
And, again, it's not just liberals who want to see all the people responsible for this infamous atrocity convicted. If Killen's innocent, then I hope he's acquitted. If he's guilty, then he spent more than half his life having gotten away with some very heinous crimes.
These civil rights cases have been an end run around the fifth amendment. In effect they are saying the Southern States were not governing themselves correctly and not entitled to constitutional protections. This same law was used in the Crown Heights murder case as well as the Rodney King case. None of these guys deserve to get away with murder but it still makes me uncomfortable. Unfortunately, nobody would have the guts to use it with OJ.
If there's truly information that points to the old
man's guilt, then he must be prosecuted. I know it's
the favorite case of the racebaiting libs and haters of
the South, but this is a runaway train. No stopping it.
I look at the whole sorry, sickening and sad episdoe as
"justice delayed and/or derailed is justice denied."
The old guy, (if guilty) has just about gotten away with
murder and that ain't right. His day of reckoning is here.
I'll bet a dollar that ole Morris Dees is leading the charge.
this is quite true!
By a black jury that was racist to the bone.
This "poor old guy" is accused of murdering three people, two of them white, if that matters to you. Do you think a murderer should get away with it if he manages not to get caught?
First off, Mississippi Burning came out over a decade ago. The break in this case was a confession by one of the other conspirators. Secondly, why do you persist in insisting that only liberals or blacks want justice in this case? One of the reasons Condi Rice's parents became Republicans was because of the behavior of local Democratic officials in her hometown of Birmingham.
and this guy hasnt been tried all this time, its ok to send him to a jury now?
The prosecutors finally believe they have sufficient evidence to charge and convict him. There is no statute of limitations for murder, unlike most other crimes. State murder charges were never brought in this case in the 1960's because the state at that time wasn't about to prosecute Klansmen for murder, that's why the Feds stepped in with the civil rights charges which led to the 11-1 hung jury.
you're more than welcome to go down there and kill the guy if u want, i won't complain, but the timing on this is just stupid.
When would be an appropriate time to try an accused murderer? Should we wait another 10 years?
The policemen who beat up Rodney King were tried and also acquitted. They were re-tried in order to find them guilty.
If he's innocent, he's a poor old guy. If he's guilty, then he's a despicable monster who has spent far too many years free, while three families had to mourn their loved ones.
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