Mississippi: Indictments This Time

• Share

The case involving the murder last June of three young civil rights workers near Philadelphia, Miss., was back in the courts. This time U.S. Assistant Attorney General John Doar took it directly to a federal grand jury of Mississippians, avoiding a preliminary hearing that had derailed the case before (TIME, Dec. 18). This time, too, there was stronger evidence for an indictment, including two confessions from men who had been in the crowd that lynched the three victims.

The jury quickly handed down indict ments against 18 men, including Neshoba County Sheriff Lawrence Rainey, 41, his deputy Cecil Price, 26, and several Klan members. They were charged with violating a broad 1870 U.S. law, originally passed to curtail the Klan, and prohibiting interference with constitutional rights.

At week's end U.S. marshals made their arrests. The Government would like to bring the case to a quick trial, hopefully before the end of January. Any possible murder charges are a matter for the Neshoba county grand jury, which is to convene the first week of February.