Ellington

See full JFP coverage of the Dee-Moore case.

The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court Appeals voted today to uphold the original convictions of admitted Ku Klux Klansman James Ford Seale, 73, according to The Washington Post. Seale was convicted of federal kidnapping and conspiracy charges for his part in the 1964 murders of Charles Moore and Henry Dee. In 2007, 43 years after the crime, a jury found Seale guilty and he received three life sentences. Last September, a smaller, three-judge panel of the same court ruled to overturn those convictions, agreeing with his defense on a technicality concerning the statute of limitations on the kidnapping charges. The entire, en banc court was evenly split on today's decision, according to the Post story.

According to court testimony, Seale was among several men who kidnapped 19-year-old Moore and Dee, whom the men suspected of civil rights activities. After tying the two young men to a tree in the Homochitto National Forest and severely beating them with bean sticks, Seale and his companions took them across the state line into Louisiana, then back to Palmyra Shoot, an offshoot of the river where Warren County, Miss., and Madison and Tensas Parishes in Louisiana converge.

Alleged Klansman Ernest Parker, now deceased, owned property there, where informants say they tied the pair to a Jeep engine block and threw them overboard to drown.

FBI records from 1964, reported by the JFP in 2005, revealed that Seale allegedly told the informant that shooting the pair before throwing them overboard would have splattered the boat with blood.

The Jackson Free Press revealed in 2005 that Seale, the primary suspect in the case for 40 years, was still alive although The Clarion-Ledger and national media had reported him dead.

Previous Comments

ID

148514

Comment

Oh, Good. He can wait there just fine.

Author

Ironghost

Date

2009-06-05T17:19:54-06:00

ID

148522

Comment

Yaaaaaaaaay!

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2009-06-06T09:21:50-06:00