Reputed KKK member's conviction overturned

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
An appeals court has overturned the conviction of a reputed member of the white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan who is serving three life sentences for his role in the 1964 abduction and killing of two black teenagers. A three-judge panel of the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals said Tuesday that it agreed with arguments by James Ford Seale's attorney that the statute of limitations in the case had expired. Seale was convicted in June 2007 of kidnapping and conspiracy in the abductions of Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee, both 19, who disappeared from Franklin County in Mississippi May 2, 1964. Their decomposed bodies were later pulled from the muddy waters of the Mississippi River. The 20-page ruling noted the alleged crimes occurred in 1964 and the indictment against Seale was issued in 2007. "The more than 40-year delay clearly exceeded the limitations period," said Judge Harold R. DeMoss Jr., writing for the panel of judges that included W. Eugene Davis and Jerry E. Smith.