(Klansman) Killen taken from courtroom on stretcher

[Maddy McCall]

Killen taken from courtroom on stretcher
The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — One-time Klansman Edgar Ray Killen was removed from court on a stretcher today on the opening day of testimony in his trial for the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers.

Killen, 80, was taken to a hospital to be treated for high blood pressure, said District Attorney Mark Duncan, who said he had no other details.

Killen was sitting up on the stretcher as he was loaded into the ambulance.

Killen came to court in a wheelchair and has been attended by a nurse because of his health. He broke both his legs in a wood cutting accident several months ago and has other ailments.

Killen was not in the courtroom during the 45-minute testimony by Rita Schwerner Bender, the widow of Michael Schwerner, who was slain along with James Chaney and Andrew Goodman during the "Freedom Summer" of 1964.


http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050616/NEWS010702/50616008

[merwin]

1. Oh come on. High blood pressure? That's a ridiculous reason. Even worse

than Michael Jackson's sudden onset of flu requiring hospitalization.

[trumad]

2. Guilt can do funny things.

[HulkamaniacUM]

14. Liveblogging from the trial...

I'm in Neshoba County, Miss., running a blog from the trial, in case any of you want to stop and take a look. I'd love to have a few suggestions from you too, if you've got any.

Neshoblog

[Maddy McCall]

15. I'll check it out!

Thank! Welcome to DU. :toast:

[mbperrin]

3. Unwilling to face his accuser face to face, eh?

Figures. I never knew anyone with an XY chromosome pair who did sneaky shit like this to be "man" enough to face the truth, much less the consequences....

[Sequoia]

4. Oh, just go lynch the bastard

and stop wasting tax payers money on that monster.

[Maddy McCall]

5. Imagine him being intimidated by little ol' Rita Schwerner.

I think it's going to be a more torturous punishment for "Preacher Killen" to have to sit through the testimony of the people he has harmed.

Son of a bitch.

[funkybutt]

6. Maybe he'll die in court and save Mississippi some court costs

Maybe he collapsed due to guilt.

[Maddy McCall]

7. Seems unlikely.

If the old buzzard's lived for 42 years carrying the weight of the three boys he killed, the futures he snuffed out, then I doubt guilt will bring him down now.

:grr:

[Zan_of_Texas]

8. Anybody think the "broken legs" were on purpose?

To get sympathy? I mean, after all, who could send an 80-year-old man IN A WHEELCHAIR to jail? Right?

He was mighty brave in a hood, with guns and his boys and the police and the State of Mississippi to get his back. Now though.....

[Maddy McCall]

9. No. A tree fell on his head and almost killed him.

I have no sympathy for him, but I doubt he cut down a huge pine tree and let it fall on his head for sympathy. It could have killed him. (Too bad it only broke his legs.)

I do think the wheelchair is for sympathy. It's been almost four months since his accident.

When another Klansman was tried here several years ago, he claimed heart troubles and went to court strapped to an oxygen tank throughout the whole trial. I think he died before his trial began.

But Sam Bowers is rotting away in prison. He burned down the Dahmer house with the whole family inside, and the father (Vernon Dahmer--who had been registering blacks to vote at his grocery store) died from injuries during the fire. Bowers was tried, convicted,and will serve out the rest of his life in prison.

[Up2Late]

12. He dropped a Tree on himself, I think GOD just forgot to factor...

in the Wind that day. Him being killed by that tree would have truly been Poetic Justice.

[Maddy McCall]

13. LOL!

Only God would have finished the job. :D

[BiggJawn]

10. Forgot to take your pills, Edgar?

False pussy sack of shit. Load that fucker up with beta-blockers and get his ass back in court. Awful gawd-dam brave when you were wearing that hood, weren'tcha?

I control *MY* high blood pressure, and let me tell YOU, with all this fucking bullshit that goes on in my name from Washington these days, that aint easy!

[Up2Late]

11. I say, We Get the boys, head down to that Hospital and Take him...

...for a Ride in the Country. See how he like the feeling of being dragged out of a building by an angry mob.

If he becomes physically incapacitated, they should put him on every form of life support possible, so he can spend as much time as possible in a 8'x 5' Prison Cell.:mad:

[Maddy McCall]

16. Check out this Mississippi DUer's blog of the trial!

HulkamaniacUM from Meridian is in Neshoba and is keeping a blog of the trial. Great first-hand info available there. Bookmark it!

http://www.neshoblog.com/

[Endangered Specie]

17. High blood pressure? he has a heart?

:shrug: