Criminal Justice: End for a Klan Klawyer

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CRIMINAL JUSTICE End for a Klan Klawyer Whenever Ku Klux Klansmen needed legal aid in Mississippi, they invariably turned to Lawyer Travis Buckley. A cocky, stocky, pugnacious little man with jug ears, Buckley, 35, was chief defense attorney in last October's trial of Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers, Neshoba County Sheriff Lawrence Rainey, and the 17 others accused of conspiring to kill three civil rights workers in 1964. Bowers and six co-defendants were convicted, but Buckley filed an appeal that has kept them all out of jail. Next on his agenda was the defense of Bowers —and another gang of Klansmen—in the fire-bomb murder of Vernon Dahmer, a Hattiesburg, Miss., N.A.A.C.P. official. As always, Buckley was outwardly confident.

But last week Buckley's ever-present smile slid from his face. He was in jail, convicted of having helped to kidnap a witness in an effort to create an alibi for Defendant Bowers in the fire-bomb case.

Auto Persuasion. There was little Buckley could do to rebut the testimony of the victim, Jack Watkins, and one of Buckley's fellow kidnapers who cooperated with the prosecution. Watkins had been picked out apparently because as an ex-con he seemed more open to coercion. This is how the prosecution told the story: Buckley and another man drove Watkins to a secluded road near Pascagoula, where they were met by three Klansmen in full hooded regalia. The gang urged Watkins to perjure himself and say that Bowers had been with him at the time of the bombing. When Watkins refused, Lawyer Buckley pulled a knife. Watkins was dragged from the car and knocked around. One of the Klansmen stuck a pistol in his face. "There's one bullet in this gun," he said. "I'm gonna keep pulling the trigger until you say what we want you to or until I kill you." Said Buckley: "Let me get back in the car and run him over."

When Watkins still refused to co operate, Buckley decided to let him go on the theory that "he's an ex-convict; he won't say anything." Buckley was wrong. Watkins went straight to the police and brought kidnap charges. The trial took just two days; the jury just two hours.

Buckley is now awaiting a sanity hearing. He will almost certainly never defend a Klansman or anyone else again. If he is found insane, that means at least temporary disbarment. If sane, he will probably get a ten-year rap for the kidnaping, which means permanent disbarment. Moreover, if he manages to get his conviction reversed, Pascagoula District Attorney Donald Cumbest fully intends to bring as many other charges against Buckley as he can find. First on the list: an alleged attempt by Buckley to fix the jury that eventually found him guilty. Says the angry Cumbest: "These people have been terrorizing, kidnaping and murdering, and I'm damn sick of it."