U.S. vs. Cecil Price et. al.
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Arguably one of the most famous court cases in American history, United States vs. Cecil Price et. al. (1967, also known as the Mississippi Burning trial) pitted the United States against a group of 18 men charged with conspiring in a Ku Klux Klan plot to murder three young civil rights workers (Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman) in Philadelphia, Mississippi on June 21, 1964. The trial, conducted in Meridian, Mississippi with U.S. District Court Judge W. Harold Cox presiding, resulted in convictions for 7 of the 18 defendants.
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The Verdict
Guilty verdicts were returned against:
- Cecil Price, the chief deputy sheriff of Neshoba County
- Sam H. Bowers, Jr., of Laurel, the Imperial Wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
- Horace Doyle Barnette, a one-time Meridian salesman
- Jimmy Arledge, a Meridian truck driver
- Billy Wayne Posey, a Williamsville service station operator
- Jimmie Snowden, a Meridian laundry truck driver
- Alton W. Roberts, a Meridian salesman
Not guilty verdicts were returned to:
- Lawrence A. Rainey, the sheriff of Neshoba County
- Bernard L. Akin, a Meridian housetrailer dealer
- Travis M. Barnette, a Meridian mechanic and half-brother of Horace Doyle Barnette
- James T. Harris, a Meridian truck driver
- Frank J. Herndon, the operator of a Meridian drive-in restaurant
- Olen L. Burrage, the owner of the farm on which the bodies of Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman were buried
- Herman Tucker, the builder of the dam in which the bodies were found
- Richard A. Willis, a one-time Philadelphia policeman
No verdict was reached for:
- Edgar Ray Killen, a fundamentalist minister and sawmill operator
- Ethel Glen Barnett, the Democratic nominee for Neshoba County sheriff
- Jerry McGrew Sharpe, a pulpwood hauler
The Jury
An all-white, mostly working-class jury consisting of five men and seven women heard the case. The jurors were:
- Langdon Smith Anderson (foreman), a Lumberton oil exploration operator and member of the State Agricultural and Industrial Board
- Mrs. S.M. Green, a Hattiesburg housewife
- Mrs. Lessie Lowery, a Hiwannee grocery store owner
- Howard O. Winborn, a Petal pipefitter
- Harmon W. Rasberry, a Stonewall textile worker
- Mrs. Gussie B. Staton, a Union housewife
- Jessie P. Hollingsworth, a Moss Point electrician
- Mrs. James C. Heflin, a Lake production worker
- Mrs. Nell B. Dedeaux, a Lumberton housewife
- Willie V. Arneson, a Meridian secretary
- Edsell Z. Parks, a Brandon clerk
- Adelaide H. Comer, a cook at an Ocean Springs school cafeteria
The Movie
In 1988, a movie was made based on the trial and the events surrounding it, entitled Mississippi Burning. It starred Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe as two FBI agents who go down to Mississippi to uncover the events surrounding the murder of three civil rights workers.
Several of the fictitious characters in the movie were based on real-life defendants in the trial. For instance, Deputy Sheriff Clinton Pell (played by Brad Dourif) was based on Cecil Ray Price, Sheriff Ray Stuckey (played by Gailard Sartain) was based on Sheriff Lawrence Rainey, and Frank Bailey (played by Michael Rooker) was based on Alton W. Roberts.
External Links
Mississippi Burning trial information (http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/price&bowers/jury.html)
