Commentary: Reputed Klansman's conviction overturned in 1964 deaths

Commentary:  Reputed Klansman's conviction overturned in 1964 deaths

 

I was very hurt upon learning of the overturning of the conviction of James Ford Seale, a former Mississippi Deputy Sheriff. He was convicted in 2007 for kidnapping and conspiracy to kidnapping of two black Mississippi teenagers, both 19.  They were Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee. The deputy and his cohorts of picking up the two men hitchhiking and driving them into the Homochito National Forest in Franklin County, Mississippi, where the teenagers were beaten and interrogated at gunpoint. Dee and Moore were then bound with duct tape, weighted down by an engine block and railroad rail.  They were still alive when they were thrown into the Old Mississippi River.  Seale and another man, Charles Edwards, were arrested in the slayings in 1964, but released on bond and never tried. The FBI turned the case over to local authorities, and the case was dropped after a justice of the peace said witnesses had refused to testify.

 

The Fifth Circuit Court overturned the lower courts decision stating "...[Seale] stated he should have never been tried in connection with the teens' deaths because a five-year statute of limitations on kidnapping-related offenses had expired."  The Court ruled. "The more than 40-year delay clearly exceeded the limitations period," Judge Harold DeVoss wrote in the panel's ruling. "While we are mindful of the seriousness of the crimes at issue, we cannot abdicate our duty to faithfully apply a valid limitations period."

 

While I understand the reason for the ruling, I also understand the Fifth Circuit of Appeal's decision, sent a clear message to those who wish to ethnically cleanse the United States of America of Black Americans, African Americans, Native American, Asian Americans and Hispanic American and Jews can do so without playing the ultimate penalty, the death penalty. There are examples to validate my opinion.

Edgar Ray Killen was convicted of manslaughter for his role in the Mississippi Burning case in 2005, yet he was never convicted of First Degree Murder, which carried a death sentence.

Shawn Allen Berry, the last of three white men to stand trial for the dragging death of a black man, escaped the death penalty late he was sentenced to life in prison. Under Texas law he must spend 40 years behind bars before he can be considered for parole. He and two others murdered James Byrd Jr., Two other men, white supremacists John William King and Lawrence Russell Brewer, already have been convicted and sentenced to die for chaining James Byrd Jr. by his ankles to a pickup truck and dragging him along a country road until his body was torn apart.

Four members of a white supremacist group plotted to kill Alan Berg, the Jewish host of a radio talk show, because of his religious background and argumentative personality.  The defendants are charged with violating the civil rights of Mr. Berg, the talk show host on radio station KOA-AM in Denver, who was shot to death with a submachine gun outside his town house here on June 18, 1984. The defendants are Bruce Carroll Pierce, 33 years old; David E. Lane, 39; Richard Scutari, 40, and Jean Margaret Craig, 54. All of the defendants were members of a right-wing group based in eastern Washington and northern Idaho known as The Order or the Silent Brotherhood. ''They all believed in something called the Aryan race, and they believed the Aryan race was in danger from what they saw as the enemy of the Aryan race: the Jewish people. They shared a belief that there was Jewish control of our country.'' A 'Plan to Save the Aryan Race.  They agreed upon an ambitious and serious plan to save the Aryan race, and this plan included assassination. The defendants are serving prison terms ranging from 40 to 100 years for a wide range of terrorist acts, including bank robberies and three armored car robberies. Robert Matthews, founder of The Order, who was killed in a shootout with the police at his hideout on Whideby Island in Washington in December 1984, actually murdered Mr. Berg.

For many decades Blacks and other racial and religious minorities counted on the Federal Courts to protect their rights and lives.  However, in the past few years, most of the achievements of the Civil Rights era have been diluted until the laws have only lost all meaning.  Nor longer can minorities depend on their government to protect them. In some cases they have more to fear from law enforcement officials and the courts.  Whites bigots and racist can openly express the hatred of brown skinned people and Jews without sincere condemnation, unless it causes the focus of the press on them and their activity. In 2008, there are whites, which continue to flee to the suburbs or rural communities to avoid minorities. Their suburban and rural communities are predominately white and use the law and social sanctions to isolate those minorities who wish to move into their communities.  In addition, many urban whites put their children in private schools to keep their children away from possible miscegenation later in the children's lives.  I am fearful that this country will recreate the era in which "brown skinned people and Jews" lived in fear of the "White man", instead of being his equal.