US:An alleged former Ku Klux Klansman has been convicted of kidnapping and conspiracy in the murders of two black teenagers more than 40 years ago, in a case that could trigger new investigations into more than 100 unpunished killings from the civil rights era.
James Ford Seale (71) showed no emotion as the jury delivered its verdict following two hours of deliberation, but his lawyer said the former policeman, who has denied ever belonging to the Klan and pleaded not guilty to the charges, would appeal.
Charles Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee disappeared from Franklin County on May 2nd, 1964, and their bodies were found later in the Mississippi River.
Seale was arrested shortly afterwards but charges were dropped and the case ran cold until Mr Moore's brother, Thomas, tracked Seale down with the help of a Canadian documentary film-maker.
"I now feel that Mississippi is my home. Mississippi, you came a long way and I'm so proud the jury spoke," Mr Moore said after the verdict.
The prosecution's star witness was Charles Marcus Edwards, who testified that he and Seale belonged to the same Klan chapter, which was led by Seale's father. Mr Edwards testified that the teenagers were kidnapped and beaten after Seale picked them up while they were hitch-hiking. They were stuffed, still alive, into the trunk of Seale's Volkswagen and driven to a farm. They were later tied up and driven across the Mississippi River into Louisiana. Mr Edwards said that Seale told him Dee and Moore were attached to heavy weights and dumped alive into the river.
"Dee was taken out and chained to a motor block while Charles Moore observed it. He may not be able to see it, but he can hear it. Even though his mouth was taped, Charles Moore could make a sound. He heard the splash, and then they come back for him. He's taken out. He is beginning to think about the manner in which he was going to die. He went under water. He gasped for breath," prosecutor Dunn Lampton told the jury during his summing up.
Mr Lampton said he was unhappy the prosecution had to offer immunity to Mr Edwards, who admitted taking part in the beatings but claimed he left the scene before the victims were killed.
The US justice department has collected the names of more than 100 African-American victims of unpunished killings from the civil rights era and Congress is debating a proposal to fund a national effort to reopen the cold cases.
The renewed effort to prosecute these old cases began with the resurrection of the 1963 assassination of Medgar Evers, leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People Mississippi.
"There's one word that embraces it all - perseverance for those that care about the justice system being what it is supposed to be and working relentlessly that these cases are . . . prosecuted," his widow, Myrlie Evers-Williams, told the House Judiciary Committee this week.