1965 Civil Rights Killing Still Inching Its Way Toward Trial
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — It took more than four decades to indict a former Alabama state trooper in a 1965 civil rights killing, and getting him to trial is taking years, too.
The former trooper, James B. Fowler, was indicted in May 2007 in the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was shot to death 44 years ago during a civil rights protest in western Alabama.
A trial date for Mr. Fowler seems to be nowhere in sight because of feuding between the prosecutor and the judge.
Civil rights advocates worry that delays could jeopardize the case because elderly witnesses could die...
... On Feb. 18, 1965, Mr. Fowler was one of several state troopers patrolling a night march by voting rights advocates in Marion. They were marching to the Perry County Jail to protest the arrest of one of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s lieutenants, the Rev. James Orange, for organizing blacks to try to vote.
Mr. Fowler has maintained that he fired because Mr. Jackson, who died eight days later, had hit him in the head with a bottle...
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The former trooper, James B. Fowler, was indicted in May 2007 in the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was shot to death 44 years ago during a civil rights protest in western Alabama.
A trial date for Mr. Fowler seems to be nowhere in sight because of feuding between the prosecutor and the judge.
Civil rights advocates worry that delays could jeopardize the case because elderly witnesses could die...
... On Feb. 18, 1965, Mr. Fowler was one of several state troopers patrolling a night march by voting rights advocates in Marion. They were marching to the Perry County Jail to protest the arrest of one of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s lieutenants, the Rev. James Orange, for organizing blacks to try to vote.
Mr. Fowler has maintained that he fired because Mr. Jackson, who died eight days later, had hit him in the head with a bottle...