Forty-One Years Later

Decades ago, members of a Klan group kidnapped and murdered three civil-rights workers. More than forty years later the state charged an elderly man with their murder. He had been a Klan recruiter. Prosecutors say he organised the killing: he met with Klan members, told them to intercept the three workers after their release from jail, then went to a funeral home to build an alibi. He was not at the scene. He says the long delay has made a fair trial impossible. The jury may also consider the lesser crime of manslaughter.