Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ya-ta Boy]

It's only 41 years late.

Didn't know this trial was going on? That's because the media was more interested in MJ's trial and the teenage girl lost in Aruba. Guess justice for three murders of historic importance are less important than a pop star and a teenage blond girl. (I'm not callous about the other situations but question their national importance.)


Ex-Klansman Gets 60 Years for 1964 Murders
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS, Associated Press Writer
40 minutes ago

One-time Ku Klux Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen was sentenced to 60 years in prison for masterminding the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers, an event that galvanized the fight for racial equality in the Deep South.

Killen returned to court two days after being convicted on three counts of manslaughter 41 years after Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman were killed. He received 20 years for each of the three counts of manslaughter.

Killen, 80, is the only person who has faced state murder charges in the case. He was tried on three murder counts, but at the request of prosecutors, Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon allowed jurors to also consider the lesser charge of manslaughter.

Gordon did not allow statements from the victims' or the defendant's families, District Attorney Mark Duncan said.

Defense attorney James McIntyre has said he will appeal, arguing that the jury should not have been allowed to consider manslaughter. Gordon will hear a motion for a new trial on Monday.

With a murder charge, prosecutors had to prove intent to kill and a conviction would have carried life in prison. With a manslaughter charge, prosecutors had to prove only that a victim died while another crime was being committed.

Chaney was a black Mississippian and Schwerner and Goodman were white New Yorkers. The three civil-rights volunteers were intercepted by Klansmen in their station wagon on June 21, 1964, and shot to death. After a massive FBI search, the bodies were found 44 days later, buried in an earthen dam.

The slayings helped spur passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the FBI's search for evidence was dramatized in the 1988 movie "Mississippi Burning."

Killen, a sawmill operator and part-time Baptist minister, has been held in Neshoba County Jail since his conviction.

[Mr. Literal]

But remember that we're supposed to feel sorry for him because he's 80 years of age, in a wheelchair (as a result of breaking both legs in a tree-cutting accident) and occassionally needs a shot of oxygen to aid his breathing.

Putting Grandpa in jail, shame on us!

p.s.: that last statement wasn't meant to be taken "literally."

[gypsyfish]

It's better than not being procecuted at all.

This should help change attitudes about the south, but I doubt it will. I lived in Mississippi in 1968 and the times have completely changed, but many people think it's the same.

There's a lot of ignorance on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line.

[dogbert]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[gypsyfish]

Ya-ta,

I'll hold her while mom does the slapping.

I've seen her on Larry King and she was interesting the first time I saw her. She gets old real quick. She is so sure that she's right and every accused person is guilty.

She hounded (on TV) a guy who was questioned about the girl from, I think, Salt Lake City who was kidnapped from her home. The guy had been convicted of some kind of sex offense, but served his time and was released. The police did not arrest him, but Nancy was sure he did it. The guy committed suicide supposedly because of all the publicity.

When the girl was later (miraculously) found, having been kidnapped by some other guy, Larry King had the dead guys wife (or girlfriend) on with Nancy. Nancy refused to apologise or show any sympathy to the woman. Her attitude was that the guy appeared to be guilty and she had nothing to apologise for. I'm not saying she had anything to do with his suicide, but she showed no class, either.

[guangho]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1JX07MCCL4

Prosecute Gene Hackman for war crimes

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Gollywog]

Ya-ta Boy wrote:

[Gollywog]

I have seen some astonishing comments about America and racism on this site and other Korean sites, sometimes stating that everyone knows that America is the most racist country in the world.

I don't think that people who make such comments have been to the American South in recent years, or perhaps anywhere in the United States. Heck, I wonder if they have even read an American newspaper in the past six months. Things have changed.

There is a story in the New York Times today about the election of a black mayor in Philadelphia, Mississippi. This is hardly the first black official elected in the South; there are plenty of black mayors and city councilmen and sheriffs and even Congressmen. But this is news because a) this is a city of 73,000 people that is mostly white, and b) it is where James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were killed in 1964 while registering blacks to vote.

This week, James A. Young, a Pentecostal minister and former county supervisor, was elected mayor. He was also the lone black child in his sixth grade class when the school was integrated in the 1960s.

There are still racists in America, just as there are still stupid people in America -- we saw that in the recent election. But racists do not run America, and have not for a long time. We got to this point through the courage of a lot of fine people, black and white, willing to stand up and risk their jobs, their homes and even their lives.

The lessons I wish other countries would learn is first, do not go down the path of bigotry and racism, and second, individuals who are willing to speak out about social wrongs can make a difference.