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Ex-Klansman Killen Gets 60 Years

A Mississippi Judge today sentenced Edgar Killen to 60 years in prison on the manslaughter convictions for three civil rights workers - 20 years on each count, to be served consecutively. It was the maximum sentence possible. He is 80 years old.

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    Re: Ex-Klansman Killen Gets 60 Years (none / 0) (#1)
    by Quaker in a Basement on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:25 PM EST
    Yes, but with time off for good behavior, he could be out in only 30 years.

    Re: Ex-Klansman Killen Gets 60 Years (none / 0) (#2)
    by Wile ECoyote on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:25 PM EST
    Well, at least he has had the past 40 years to put his affairs in order.

    Re: Ex-Klansman Killen Gets 60 Years (none / 0) (#3)
    by Quaker in a Basement on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:26 PM EST
    "But, your honor! I'm 80 years old! I can't do 60 years!" "Well then, just do the best you can, son."

    Re: Ex-Klansman Killen Gets 60 Years (none / 0) (#4)
    by Aaron on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:26 PM EST
    The murderer Ray Killian got the maximum sentence for his manslaughter convictions. Definitely something of a triumph for American justice, though admittedly far too slow in coming. Just when my faith in American jurisprudence is wearing tissue paper thin... some redemption. Lady liberty may be slow in dealing out her justice, but thankfully she usually gets around to it in the end.

    Re: Ex-Klansman Killen Gets 60 Years (none / 0) (#5)
    by Andreas on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:27 PM EST
    The decades-long failure to prosecute Killen and other arch-criminals of segregationist terrorism was bound up with political decisions made at the highest levels of the American ruling elite, and above all, the incorporation into the Republican Party of the Southern racists and Christian fundamentalists who now comprise the bulk of its popular base. The author of this policy was Richard Nixon, whose infamous “Southern strategy” called for displacing the Democratic Party, dominant in the South for a century, by making coded appeals to the white majority, using “law-and-order” demagogy as a surrogate for overt racism. Over the next three decades, the Republican Party came to dominate the politics of the South, first at the federal level, then increasingly at the state level. In Mississippi, the state’s two longtime senators, Trent Lott and Thad Cochran, are both Democrats-turned-Republicans. Three of the state’s four congressmen are Republicans, including Charles Pickering Jr., who represents the district that includes Neshoba County and Philadelphia.
    Ringleader in 1964 civil rights murders convicted of manslaughter By Patrick Martin, 23 June 2005

    Re: Ex-Klansman Killen Gets 60 Years (none / 0) (#6)
    by pigwiggle on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:27 PM EST
    I hope the murdering bigot lives 59 miserable years.

    Re: Ex-Klansman Killen Gets 60 Years (none / 0) (#7)
    by Jlvngstn on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:27 PM EST
    lol Pig.

    Re: Ex-Klansman Killen Gets 60 Years (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:28 PM EST
    Justice late is better than justice never, I guess. At least they finally convicted this guy.

    Re: Ex-Klansman Killen Gets 60 Years (none / 0) (#9)
    by Slado on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:28 PM EST
    If you haven't watched Missippi Burning recently go out and rent it while you drink a bottle of Dom in celebration of this guy being given a life sentance. Hard to believe only 40 years ago this stuff was going on but it was. Good to see you panty twisting liberals celebrating somebody getting roasted. Feels good don't it?

    Re: Ex-Klansman Killen Gets 60 Years (none / 0) (#10)
    by Quaker in a Basement on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:28 PM EST
    Good to see you panty twisting liberals celebrating somebody getting roasted.
    And it's equally good to see you hard-hearted conservatives step away from defending racist violence.

    Re: Ex-Klansman Killen Gets 60 Years (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:28 PM EST
    "celebrating somebody getting roasted"? He's not "getting roasted" Slado. And nothing about a case like this "feels good". A very troubling phrase you chose there.

    Re: Ex-Klansman Killen Gets 60 Years (none / 0) (#12)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:30 PM EST
    If anyone is still paying attention to this, here's the interstin thing about the sentence. I read somewhere that the 60 years he got was longer than he would have gotten for murder 41 years ago. Could this be true? If so, a striking connection to the sentencing practices of today in service of the same outcomes as lynchings and bubba justice in years past.