Help kill 3 people, be a terrorist = Bail ?!?!

Edgar Ray Killen, the former Klansman whose conviction in June in the 1964 killing of three civil rights workers in Mississippi seemed to close one of the state's darkest chapters, was released yesterday when a judge granted bail pending an appeal.

The release raises the possibility that Mr. Killen, 80 and in poor health, will die a free man after serving barely six weeks of his sentence.

He was convicted on three counts of manslaughter on June 21, 41 years to the day after a mob of Klansmen killed the three campaigners - James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner - in an incident that galvanized national support for the civil rights movement. Prosecutors said Mr. Killen organized the mob.

Judge Marcus Gordon of Circuit Court, who gave Mr. Killen the maximum possible sentence, said in court that he had little choice but to set bond while Mr. Killen appealed his conviction. Judge Gordon said the state had not proved that Mr. Killen, who uses a wheelchair, was a flight risk or threat.

"It's not a matter of what I feel, it's a matter of the law," Judge Gordon said.

Rita Bender, wife of Mr. Schwerner, said the judge had not considered the danger to the community in the broader sense.

"To me this indicates a lack of understanding the seriousness of, and conveying the seriousness of, crimes of racial violence," Ms. Bender said by telephone from Seattle, where she lives.

Mr. Killen's release, she said, increases "the risk of violence by people who get the message once again that there is no control over them."

Jewel Rush McDonald, a member of the black church where the three victims had made contacts for a voter registration drive, also denounced the decision after attending the court proceedings.

"We have worked so hard in trying to clear this dark cloud from over Neshoba County, and as far as I'm concerned the judge just set us back 41 years," Ms. McDonald said.

Her church, Mount Zion United Methodist, has been a major force in a multiracial coalition that issued a "call for justice" in the case last year, before Mr. Killen's indictment.

To make the bond, which Judge Gordon set at $600,000, five friends of Mr. Killen put up property, County Clerk Patti Duncan Lee said. Mr. Killen and his brother Bobby also put up a parcel of land valued at $38,000, Ms. Lee added.

Seven witnesses, including a man who put up property, vouched for Mr. Killen.

Mr. Killen took the stand, complaining of a lack of medical care since he entered the Central Mississippi prison in Pearl, though he acknowledged that he had been seen by doctors.

"They checked me through the line like a cattle auction," he said. "I'm very unhappy with the treatment I've received."

Mr. Killen is recovering from a logging accident in March and required an oxygen tank at his trial.

Mr. Killen said he had to bribe a convict to obtain a pillow.

"I can barely sleep," he said. "I still don't understand how I could lie in severe pain for 24 hours and no one even brings me an aspirin. I'm not a drug addict."

A spokesman for the State Corrections Department said Mr. Killen had received proper medical care and he was not aware of any complaints.

Prosecutors worked for years to build the case against Mr. Killen, as other cases from the civil rights era were successfully reopened, resulting in convictions that at had one time seemed impossible.

When Mr. Chaney, Mr. Goodman and Mr. Schwerner disappeared, the nation was riveted by the search for them. Their bodies were found in an earthen dam, and the federal government tried 18 men in 1967 on charges that they conspired to deprive the three victims of their civil rights. Seven men were convicted. None served more than six years in prison.

In Mr. Killen's federal case, the all-white jury hung, 11 to 1, in favor of conviction. In the state trial this year, the jurors did not convict him of the most serious charge of murder, but rather manslaughter. The prosecution and the defense agreed that Mr. Killen was not present at the actual killings. Prosecutors maintained that he had planned the deaths and disposal of the bodies.

If Mr. Killen had been convicted of murder, he would not be eligible for release on bond.

Legal experts and others questioned the bail decision. James E. Prince III, publisher of The Neshoba Democrat, a weekly newspaper, said:

"He may not be capable of enacting revenge, but he has stature within a certain community. And they are capable of enacting revenge. It's difficult to bring closure on the reign of terror with him out of prison It's difficult, because that fear is still there with him out."

Mr. Prince criticized District Attorney Mark Duncan, for "a fairly weak presentation," saying Mr. Duncan had failed to emphasize Mr. Killen's connection to hate groups that might be capable of terror or violence. Mr. Prince noted that Mr. Killen was convicted of telephone harassment, a felony, in the 70's.

Experts have said Mississippi law is not crystal clear on when a judge has to grant bail. The law says a person convicted of any felony other than child abuse, sexual battery of a minor or a crime in which a death sentence or life imprisonment is imposed is entitled to be released on bail pending appeal if the convict shows that he is not a flight risk or a danger.

The statute also says the convict is entitled to release "within the discretion of a judicial officer," and "only when the peculiar circumstances of the case render it proper."

Jerry Mitchell contributed reporting from Philadelphia, Miss., for this article.

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I know we don't think of the KKK as a terrorist organization - but I think that they are closer than we think. Mississippi cannot move out of thier racist past. Racism is simply underground and the white supremicists hide behind the law when it is convienient.

And he complained about poor medical treatment - you helped kill three people you inhuman troglodite... where was thier medical treatment?

TTF