Discuss the case of Byron de la Beckwith, who was charged with the murder of Medgar Evers. How many times was Beckwith tried? What were the outcomes of these trials?
What will be an ideal response?
Answers may vary.In the mid-1800s, juries acquitted abolitionists of helping slaves escape from the South even though the abolitionists' actions violated the fugitive slave law. But there are also cases of nullification where White southern juries refused to convict members of the Ku Klux Klan and others who terrorized Blacks during the early years of the civil rights movement. One case concerns Byron de la Beckwith and the murder of civil rights leader Medgar Ever.The case against Byron de la Beckwith was strong but circumstantial. His rifle with his fingerprint was found at the scene, and a car similar to his was seen in the vicinity of Evers's home. But no one saw Beckwith pull the trigger, and his claim that he was 90 miles away at the time of the shooting was substantiated by two former police officers.Beckwith was tried twice in 1964; both times the all-White, all-male jury deadlocked and failed to reach a verdict. This was an era of volatile race relations in which African Americans were excluded from jury service and in which attorneys for Ku Klux Klan members charged with killing civil rights leaders openly appealed to White jurors for racial solidarity. Beckwith's segregationist views were a common bond between himself and the juries that failed to convict him.But things were different when Beckwith was retried in 1994. Despite the obstacles presented by stale evidence, dead witnesses, and constitutional questions, prosecutors put Beckwith on trial for the third time. This time, Beckwith's racist ideology was a liability. Despite pleas from defense attorneys that jurors not focus on Beckwith's sensational beliefs, a jury of eight Blacks and four Whites convicted him of murder in 1994. He was immediately sentenced to life in prison.
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