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The Road to Justice: a Timeline

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The Road to Justice: a Timeline by Matt Saldaña Shuffl ing behind a young black woman in an identical Dee, who had just returned from living in Chicago, orange jumpsuit, James Ford Seale entered the fourth- was involved in civil rights activity in the area. fl oor courtroom of the James O. Eastland Federal Five days later, in a packed courtroom on a lower Building in Jackson on Feb. 22 with shackles hanging SALDAÑA MATT level of the Eastland Building, U.S. Magistrate Judge loosely around his waist and ankles, and his hands Linda Anderson denied bond to Seale, stating, “Nei- cuffed in front of him. The 71-year-old retired crop- ther the weight of the crime nor its circumstances have duster from Roxie, Miss., wore thin wire glasses, orange been diminished by the passage of time.” sandals and thick white socks. The words “Madison It had been 42 years and eight months since Dee County Jail” were printed across his slight, but well- and Moore died, the longest wait for a case to be suc- postured back. He stood no taller than 5’8” and looked cessfully tried in a civil rights era killing. to weigh about 125 pounds, but he showed traces of his Dunn Lampton, the U.S. attorney who re-opened muscular past with a thick neck that recalled his open- the case against Seale in 2005, now sat 50 feet from the collared mug shot from 1964—the year he was arrested defendant, along with his legal team from the Civil and released weeks later for the murders of two black Rights Division of the Department of Justice: Special teenagers in Franklin County. Litigation Counsel Paige Fitzgerald and Trial Attorney As a U.S. marshal led him to a seat next to his Eric Gibson. One day after the grand jury indictments, lawyers, Seale smiled at his wife, Jean Seale, who sat Lampton stood alongside U.S. Attorney General in the front row on the defense’s side of the court. Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Bob Mueller in One of his stepsons-in-law arrived late, scanning the Washington, D.C., to announce the charges. As he half-empty room with his buzzed head held high as he Reputed Klansman James Ford Seale left his did then, on Jan. 25, 2007, he let his colleagues do the placed his arm around Seale’s stepdaughter, a blonde bond hearing on Jan. 29, 2007, in shackles. talking in the courtroom. Fitzgerald, the quick-lipped, woman in high heels who blew bubbles with her gum. short-cropped lawyer of blonde hair and dark suits, Other than fl ashes of eye contact with his family, Seale One month earlier, on Jan. 24, 2007, a federal emerged early as the voice of the prosecution. sat upright and still. At one point, he turned to stare at jury had indicted Seale for two counts of kidnapping Sitting next to Seale in identical black leather a large security camera behind a glass plane, high in the and one count of conspiracy leading to the deaths of chairs were his lawyers: Public Defender Kathy Nester back corner of the courtroom. Charles Moore and Henry Dee, the 19-year-olds beat- and Federal Public Defender Dennis Joiner. They When U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate—the en by members of the Ku Klux Klan in the Homochit- urged Wingate to reverse Anderson’s bond ruling and court’s black-robed, baritone-pitched voice of author- to National Forest and then drowned in a backwater of throw the case out due to the statute of limitations. ity—granted the defense a 15-minute recess to review the Mississippi River in 1964. The prosecutors believe Joiner, a stout, ruddy-faced veteran of the public case history, Seale sat still and looked at the ground. that Seale chose Dee and Moore because they thought defender’s offi ce, stumbled when Wingate pressed him The Road to Justice: A Timeline May 2, 1964 Nov. 6, 1964 sippi Highway Patrol investigators Charles July 9, 2005 Klansmen kidnap Charles Eddie Moore Mississippi highway patrolmen and Snodgrass and Gwyn Cole. He says he does A joint investigative effort in Meadville and Henry Hezekiah Dee, two African FBI agents arrest reputed Klansmen James not have “suffi cient evidence” to give the case by Thomas Moore (the brother of Charles American teenagers in Meadville, Miss., beat Ford Seale and Charles Marcus Edwards for to the grand jury. Forman says the defen- Moore), Canadian Broadcasting Corp. pro- them at gunpoint in a Mississippi national the Dee-Moore murders. Franklin County dants “had put out the story” that they were ducer David Ridgen, and Donna Ladd and forest, and forcibly throw them into a back- Justice of the Peace Willie Bedford issued the “brutally mistreated”; therefore, he was sure a Kate Medley of the Jackson Free Press reveals water of the Mississippi River to die. arrest warrants. During the two-hour drive grand jury would not indict. that James Ford Seale is still alive. The Clari- to Jackson, FBI special agent Lenard Wolf on-Ledger and other media had reported that July 12, 1964 tells Seale, “We know you did it, you know Jan. 11, 1965 Seale was dead in 2001, presumably after his A fi sherman fi nds body parts in the Ole you did it, the Lord above knows you did it.” The district attorney fi les a “motion to family told them so. The case had been con- River and alerts authorities. The FBI believes Seale replies: “Yes, but I’m not going to admit dismiss affi davits” with Bedford, who signed sidered closed. they may be the bodies of three men killed it; you are going to have to prove it.” the motion the same day. June 21 by Klansmen in Neshoba County. July 13, 2005 But personal effects found in the pockets of Nov. 11, 1964 Jan. 14, 1966 Thomas Moore visits U.S. Attorney the pants on the torsos—the second one was Franklin County Sheriff Wayne Hutto Seale, along with 10 other reputed Dunn Lampton in Jackson and tells him found July 13—indicate that the bodies were notifi es the FBI that the men had been re- Klanmen, including his father and Seale was still alive and living in Roxie. those of Dee and Moore. leased on $5,000 bond each. Archie Prather brother, appears before the House Com- Lampton agrees to jumpstart the investiga- (Edwards’ father), Rosa Davis and Gene mittee on Un-American Activities in tion, which would last until January 2007. Oct. 30-31, 1964 Seale (Seale’s brother) paid the bond. Washington to be questioned about his Navy divers dredge up “a human skull, alleged crimes, including the abduction July 20, 2005 bones, two shirts, a Jeep engine block with a Jan. 5, 1965 and murders of Dee and Moore. He takes The JFP publishes “I Want Justice, chain attached and two pieces of railroad rail District Attorney Lenox Forman calls the 5th Amendment 41 times during Too,” a detailed narrative about Moore’s visit May 24 - 30, 2007 and two small steel wheels tied together with a meeting with Sheriff Hutto, Assistant questioning. to Mississippi that reveals Seale is still alive. 14 a chain,” according to an FBI memo. Attorney General Garland Lyle, and Missis- The case, and the revelation about Seale, on the specifi cs of his motion to dis- Americans, Wingate and Anderson to ask jury candidates, specifi cally queries that sought miss. Citing U.S. v. Jackson, a 1968 might be biased against Seale. to profi le their racial opinions. During an earlier tele- ruling that removed the death pen- “Let’s just say that, if I were a pros- conference, Nester had expressed disdain for “shocking alty as a punishment for kidnapping, SALDAÑA MATT ecutor in this case, I would pick Your questions related to race, interracial dating, interracial Joiner argued that kidnapping charges Honor even though you’ve served for rape and white-power groups.” stemming from the 1964 Dee-Moore 20 years without bias,” Joiner said. “It’s clear that the government wants to make this murders would have exceeded the The public defender then said, in case about race (and) racial issues, when at the end of statute of limitations in 1969. (Non- vague terms, that certain issues might the day, it’s a criminal case. To allow the government to capital crimes must be tried within affect Wingate in a certain way, and set the tone and create racial hysteria before the jurors fi ve years.) However, Joiner could not that these unique responses are the even step into the room, is to deny (Seale) a fair trial,” prove that the removal of the death reason law schools need diversity. Nester argued on April 12. penalty as a kidnapping penalty in “Maybe you’re dancing around “It was the defendant who inserted race into this 1968 changed its status as a capital some issues,” Wingate replied. “Does case,” Fitzgerald replied. crime, or that the 1968 ruling would the ‘diversity’ argument you made Fitzgerald argued that jury candidates would not Dennis Joiner apply retroactively to 1964. mean that you don’t want two judges respond honestly to the question, “Are you a racist?” “Kidnapping is typically recog- of minority status?” Instead, questions about their positions on racial issues nized as a capital offense,” Wingate said. “Race has nothing to do with it,” Joiner answered. would illicit more candid responses, she said. “I can’t argue with that,” Joiner replied. He said that by diversity he was referring to different The questionnaire, similar to one federal prosecu- Wingate appeared annoyed that Joiner used “ex- areas of law.
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