Mississippi picks historic jury

Mr Killen was acquitted on related charges in 1967

Mississippi has begun picking a jury to try the only person ever charged locally over the notorious 1964 murder of three civil rights workers.

Edgar Ray Killen, 80, is due to stand trial later this week over organising their murder as they worked to register black voters - a charge he denies.

He arrived in a wheelchair at the courthouse in the town of Philadelphia.

The potential jurors, about 400 in all, arrived by bus and were ushered into the building through a side-door.

Mr Killen had been due to go on trial in March but proceedings were delayed when he hurt himself while chopping wood. An appeal last week for a further delay on health grounds was rejected.

Opening arguments are due to be heard on Wednesday or Thursday, lawyers told the Associated Press news agency, and the trial is expected to last several weeks.

Outrage

Michael Schwerner, 24, and Andy Goodman, 20, both whites from New York, were in Mississippi with a black fellow worker, James Chaney, 21.

The victims became martyrs to the cause of civil rights

They were abducted and murdered in the dead of night as they drove out of Philadelphia, and the bodies were buried at a dam, where FBI agents eventually discovered them.

Despite nationwide outrage, state murder charges were not brought against the Ku Klux Klan members suspected of killing the three.

A federal court did, however, convict seven of them of violating the dead men's civil rights and they received prison terms of three to 10 years.

Mr Killen, a sawmill employee and Baptist minister, was among those charged but acquitted.

TV broadcast

Prosecutors have reportedly refused to discuss the evidence that led to the new charges.

However, US media suggest the recent appointment of new prosecutors in the state created a momentum for a fresh trial.

Alan Parker's 1988 thriller Missisippi Burning, starring Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe, brought the events of 1964 to a world audience.

The trial is due to be broadcast on US cable television.