Andrew Goodman
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Queens Civil Rights Worker Case Closed
By LIZ GOFF
MISSISSIPPI-JUNE 25, 2005: Federal Judge Marcus Gordon today sentenced Edgar Ray Killen to a maximum of 60 years in prison for masterminding the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers, including Queens College student Andrew Goodman.
Killen, who was convicted June 23, was sentenced to consecutive terms for each of three counts of manslaughter for the murders of Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney.
The three victims were volunteers with the Mississippi Summer Project, working on minority voter registration in Jessup County, Miss, when they were abducted and shot to death by members of a local Ku Klux Klan chapter.
Killen is the only person who faced murder charges in the state of Mississippi in the highly publicized case. The story of the murders was translated to the big screen in the blockbuster movie, “Mississippi Burning.”
Killen was tried on three murder counts, but at the request of prosecutors, Gordon allowed jurors to also consider the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Killen, 82, wearing a bright yellow jail jumpsuit, showed no emotion when Gordon sentenced him to the maximum on each count.
A Brutal End
Andrew Goodman was only 20 years old when he was shot to death on June 21, 1964 on Rock Cut Road in Jessup County. Tempers had erupted after teams of Civil Rights workers arrived in the dirtwater town to register local blacks to vote in an upcoming election.
Jessup County residents were vocal in their resentment of the volunteer workers, showing particular disdain for Schwerner, who they described as “a rabblerousing Jew.”
Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney spent part of the day on June 21, 1964, visiting the site of a church that had been burned to the ground by Klan members.
The county sheriff stopped and arrested the three men for speeding as they headed back to the project offices in the late afternoon. Despite his repeated requests, Schwerner was denied access to a phone by both the sheriff and jail employees.
When the men were released later that night, they were followed by the Sheriff’s Deputy and other members of the Klan onto Rock Cut Road – where one by one, they were executed with a shot to the head.
FBI agents flooded the town, searching for the bodies of the three volunteers. The agents discovered the remains in late June, buried in an earthen dam at a construction site near Philadelphia, Miss.
Federal agents rounded up Klan members involved in the murders and charged them with violating the Civil Rights of Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney. Six of the Klansmen were convicted and sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.
Only the Sheriff remained unscathed by the charges. The jury acquitted him, when the panel found reasonable doubt that he was present at the murders.
