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Former KKK Member's Conviction Vacated

by nukegingrich | September 10, 2008 at 03:57 am | 319 views | 3 comments | 2 recommendations

James Ford Seale, the former KKK member who was convicted of kidnapping and conspiracy last year in the 1964 murder of two black teens was granted an acquittal by the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The court said the statute of limitations had expired.

Seale is the former KKK member convicted of kidnapping and conspiring to kidnap Thomas Moore's brother, Charles Eddie Moore and his friend, Henry Hazekiah Dee in 1964. The teenagers were taken into the woods and beaten, driven across the state line into Louisiana, strapped to an old engine block and some railroad ties and dumped alive into the Mississippi River....murdered for no apparent reason other than the color of their skin.

The 2007 conviction, 3 life sentences, left Thomas Moore with a better feeling about the Magnolia state. Said Moore, "I now feel Mississippi is my home that I would not have owned up to even last night. So, Mississippi, you've come a long way." But that relief will likely turn to grief and anger with the decision of the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Court said: "The district court erred by failing to recognize the presumption that changes affecting statutes of limitation apply retroactively, even without explicit direction from congress. ... While we are mindful of the seriousness of the crimes at issue, we cannot abdicate our duty to faithfully apply a valid limitations period."

Update: McComb native, and U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton said he was disappointed in the decision....(link)

"We spent a great deal of time and effort in this case," he said. "They were just brutal murders. The court didn't reverse it on the facts. They reversed it on a technicality."

Lampton said he's going to discuss the matter with Paige Fitzgerald, a lawyer from the Justice Department who helped prosecute the case, to determine if prosecutors will ask the entire 5th Circuit to review Tuesday's decision.

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CJaye

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 11:42 on September 10th, 2008

nukegingrich, I like this story. It's good stuff. Murder is Murder, I didn't know we had a statute of limitations on Murder. What now? He gets out can walk around free while families still suffer the loved ones death with no closure. This is so wrong! What's wrong with our system? The KKK not just a simple man, once in always in unless you choose otherwise.

nukegingrich

at 15:53 on September 10th, 2008

the US Atty decided to prosecute under Federal kidnapping and conspiracy statutes. Murder is a state statute, and the local DA did not have sufficient evidence to prosecute a murder charge, given that so much time had passed, material evidence was not available, and witnesses no longer living.

Thomas Moore, brother of one of the teenagers said this today...

"It's a shock, but there's nothing I can do," said Thomas Moore. "The truth was told, and the law is the law."

When Seale was arrested in January 2007, "I rested my case on what I tried to do," he said. "I also found out the other people involved in the murders of Charles Moore and Henry Dee - Curtis Dunn, Jack Seale, Clyde Seale, Archie Prather, Ernest Parker, Charles Marcus Edwards and James Ford Seale." All but Seale and Edwards have died, he said. Edwards, who was given immunity, testified he saw Seale pick up the teens in his car and hold a gun on them while they were beaten. source

CJaye

at 16:46 on September 10th, 2008

I read that too I feel bad his hands were tied. It's a bunch of crap Seale should be in prison. I can't think of anything nicer than that to say so I'll stop. Thank you for posting.