Reputed Klansman Says He'll Be Exonerated

[Rose Siding]

JACKSON, Miss. -- A reputed Ku Klux Klansman accused of killing three civil rights workers in 1964 said in television interviews Wednesday he will be exonerated because he was attending a funeral at the time of the slayings.

Edgar Ray Killen told Jackson's WLBT and WJTV that all he knew of the case at the time was what he had heard from media reports.

"I am accused of murdering someone that I didn't even know existed until the news media broke that they were missing," Killen told WLBT. "I wasn't even in the location and they'll learn that."

The 80-year-old part-time preacher was indicted last month on state murder charges in the killings of Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney, who had been helping register blacks to vote.
...
...District Attorney Mark Duncan said it appeared the suspect was talking to the media in a bid "to influence the jury pool."

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-civil-rights-killings,0,2481733.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines