Klansman Found Guilty In Mississippi Killings

A former Ku Klux Klansman was found guilty of kidnapping on Thursday in the 1964 deaths of two black men in Mississippi.

A former Ku Klux Klansman was found guilty of kidnapping on Thursday in the 1964 deaths of two black men in Mississippi, a case that highlighted white supremacist violence during the civil rights era.

A federal jury deliberated just two hours before convicting James Seale, who was also charged with conspiracy in the killings of 19-year-olds Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore.

According to the indictment, Seale trained a shotgun on the teenagers while his companions beat them. Then they attached heavy weights to the pair and threw them alive into the Mississippi River.

The jury made clear that neither of the kidnapped men were "returned unharmed", a statement that may increase a sentence whose maximum amounts to a life term on each count.

As the verdict was delivered, Seale, 71, turned to his wife, Jean, and whispered "Are you OK?" Relatives of Dee and Moore, who had waited decades for justice, hugged each other and cried.

The main prosecution witness, another former Klansman who was granted immunity, testified during the trial that Seale told him he had killed Dee and Moore.

The trial is the latest of a series brought by federal prosecutors in an attempt to clear up crimes during the 1950s and 1960s by white supremacists who aimed to terrify the black community into not supporting a campaign for civil and voting rights.

In many cases, the Ku Klux Klan and other groups were able to operate with impunity because they were supported by local law enforcement and judicial authorities. By the same token, black Americans had few legal protections and crimes against them often attracted little publicity.