| |
KKK Killen Wants to Serve Time in All-White Prison
Edgar Ray Killen, the ex-Ku Klux Klansman sentenced to 60 years in the 1964 slayings of three civil-rights workers in Mississippi, today asked a judge to send him to an all-white prison.
The 80-year-old Killen "fears for his life if he is placed in the general population at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, which has a sizeable African-American population," said defense lawyer James McIntyre.
"Let's be honest, Mr. Killen isn't going to be terribly popular in any prison setting, black or white," McIntyre said. "And two of the three civil-rights workers killed were white, which sort of works in his favor for safety reasons, I guess.
"But, quite honestly, Mr. Killen is scared to death to be behind bars with people who aren't the same color as him," McIntyre said. "He spent his entire life avoiding black people, hating them from a distance.
"Now, at age 80, he's not keen on the thought of living with them, interacting with them, eating at the same table as them and drinking from the same water fountains," McIntyre continued. " We just can't see 'Chillin' with Killen' becoming a popular reality TV show."
Killen feels "especially vulnerable because he's confined to a wheelchair because of what he says are two broken legs. We think the broken legs are real, and not some Michael Jackson-like, trip-to-the-emergency-room-during-a-trial stunt.
"Besides, Michael Jackson is black, or used to be, or something," McIntyre added. "There's no way Mr. Killen would mimic the actions of a black person, no way. He's dedicated his entire life to the `white is right' philosophy."
McIntyre said he knows Mississippi has no all-white prisons and that it would be costly for the cash-strapped state to move prisoners around to make it so.
"We know it's a slim chance that it could happen," McIntyre said. "But if not, we'd request that Mr. Killen get moved to a prison in North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas or somewhere like that, where he'd feel more at home, if you know what I mean."
Get DeadBrain delivered to your Inbox! Click here to sign up at our parent site. Consider the weekly and monthly editions, each of which contain all-new, laugh-out-loud office comedy you won't see on the website!
|
|
