United States v. Price

United States v. Cecil Price, et al., also known as the Mississippi Burning trial or Mississippi Burning case, was a criminal trial where the United States charged a group of 18 men with conspiring in a Ku Klux Klan plot to murder three young civil rights workers (Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman) in Philadelphia, Mississippi on June 21, 1964 during Freedom Summer. The trial, conducted in Meridian, Mississippi with U.S. District Court Judge W. Harold Cox presiding, resulted in convictions of 7 of the 18 defendants.

United States v. Price
Argued November 9, 1965
Decided March 28, 1966
Full case nameUnited States v. Cecil Price, et al.
Citations383 U.S. 787 (more)
86 S. Ct. 1152; 16 L. Ed. 2d 267
Case history
PriorIndictments dismissed by District Court (reversed and remanded)
Subsequent7 of the 18 defendants convicted on remand
Court membership
Chief Justice
Earl Warren
Associate Justices
Hugo Black · William O. Douglas
Tom C. Clark · John M. Harlan II
William J. Brennan Jr. · Potter Stewart
Byron White · Abe Fortas
Case opinions
MajorityFortas, joined by unanimous
ConcurrenceBlack

Initial proceedings

Indictments were originally presented against 18 defendants, three of whom were officials of the Mississippi government, for conspiracy to commit as well as substantial violations of deprivation of rights secured or protected by the Constitution. The District Court initially dismissed the indictments, but the dismissal was unanimously reversed by the Supreme Court upon appeal. The trial then proceeded.

The verdict

Guilty verdicts were returned against:

  • Cecil Price, the chief deputy sheriff of Neshoba County, Mississippi, sentenced to six years in prison (served four years)
  • Sam H. Bowers, Jr., of Laurel, the Imperial Wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, sentenced to ten years in prison (served six years)
  • Horace Doyle Barnette, a one-time Meridian salesman, sentenced to three years in prison
  • Jimmy Arledge, a Meridian truck driver, sentenced to three years in prison
  • Billy Wayne Posey, a Williamsville service station operator, sentenced to six years in prison
  • Jimmy Snowden, a Meridian laundry truck driver, sentenced to three years in prison (served two years)
  • Alton W. Roberts, a Meridian salesman who shot two of the three civil rights workers, sentenced to ten years in prison (served six years)

Not guilty verdicts were returned for:

  • Lawrence A. Rainey, the sheriff of Neshoba County
  • Bernard L. Akin, a Meridian housetrailer dealer
  • Travis M. Barnette, a Meridian mechanic and half-brother of Horace Doyle Barnette
  • James T. Harris, a Meridian truck driver
  • Frank J. Herndon, the operator of a Meridian drive-in restaurant
  • Olen Lovell Burrage, the owner of the farm on which the bodies of Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman were buried
  • Herman Tucker, the builder of the dam in which the bodies were found
  • Richard A. Willis, a one-time Philadelphia policeman

No verdict was reached for:

  • Ethel Glen Barnett, the Democratic nominee for Neshoba County sheriff
  • Jerry McGrew Sharpe, a pulpwood hauler
  • Edgar Ray Killen, a fundamentalist minister and sawmill operator; however, on June 21, 2005 he was found guilty of three counts of manslaughter. On May 7, 2000, the jury revealed that in the case of Killen, they deadlocked after a lone juror stated she "could never convict a preacher".[1]

The jury

An all-white, mostly working-class jury consisting of five men and seven women heard the case. The jurors were:

  • Langdon Smith Anderson (foreman), a Lumberton oil exploration operator and member of the State Agricultural and Industrial Board
  • Mrs. S.M. Green, a Hattiesburg housewife
  • Mrs. Lessie Lowery, a Hiwannee grocery store owner
  • Howard O. Winborn, a Petal pipefitter
  • Harmon W. Raspberry, a Stonewall textile worker
  • Mrs. Gussie B. Staton, a Union housewife
  • Jessie P. Hollingsworth, a Moss Point electrician
  • Mrs. James C. Heflin, a Lake production worker
  • Mrs. Nell B. Dedeaux, a Lumberton housewife
  • Willie V. Arneson, a Meridian secretary
  • Edsell Z. Parks, a Brandon clerk
  • Adelaide H. Comer, a cook at an Ocean Springs school cafeteria

Film adaptation

In 1988, the film Mississippi Burning was made based on the trial and the events surrounding it. It starred Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe as two FBI agents who travel to Mississippi to uncover the events surrounding the murder of three civil rights workers.

Several of the fictitious characters in the movie were based on real-life defendants in the trial. Deputy Sheriff Clinton Pell (played by Brad Dourif) was based on Cecil Ray Price, Sheriff Ray Stuckey (played by Gailard Sartain) was based on Sheriff Lawrence Rainey, and Frank Bailey (played by Michael Rooker) was based on Alton W. Roberts. The film also starred R. Lee Ermey and Frances McDormand.

See also

Further reading
  • Linder, Douglas O. (2002). "Bending Toward Justice: John Doar and the "Mississippi Burning Trial"". Mississippi Law Review. 72 (2): 731–79. SSRN 1109093.

References
  1. Jerry Mitchell, The (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion-Ledger (February 4, 2014). "Congressional honor sought for Freedom Summer martyrs". USA Today. Retrieved February 11, 2014.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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