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rCNN - Former KKK leader co -icted of 1966 murder - August 21, 1998 Page 1 of3 MAIN PAGE WORLD ASIANOW U.S. LOCAL POLITICS WEATHER BUSINESS SPORTS TECHNOLOGY NATURE ENTERTAINMENT BOOKS TRAVEL FOOD HEALTH STYLE IN-DEPTH Headline News brief daily almanac CNN networks CNN programs on-air transcripts news quiz CNN WEB SITES: □ myCMtcom ami all politics vJNNj'V-' EN ESPAftOl emportuguea SVEllSKA NOROE dMfflirk TIME INC. SITES: | Go To... zl MORE SERVICES: video on demand video archive audio on demand news email services free email accounts desktop headlines PointCast pagenet DISCUSSION: message boards u.s. > story page .com Former KKK leader convicted of 1966 murder August 21, 1998 Web posted at: 3:21 p.m. EDT (1921 GMT) HATTIESBURG. Mississippi (CNN) — Former Ku Klux Klan Wizard Sam Bowers was found guilty of murder on Friday in the firebomb killing of a civil rights activist 32 years ago. X bowers „ r . Bowers, left, is escorted into court Bowers, now 73, races an automatic Monday sentence of life in prison for masterminding the arson attack that killed Vernon Dahmer in his home. Bowers had been brought to trial four previous times in the killing, and each time all-white juries were unable to agree on a verdict. The jury this time was made up of six whites, five African-Americans and an Asian-American. In closing arguments Thursday, prosecutor Bob Hilfrich said that, although the firebombing that killed Dahmer happened in 1966, "justice delayed is not justice denied". Bowers defense attorney, Travis Buckley, said Bowers was the victim of aspiring politicians and an aggressive media, which pursued the case through repeated trials. "That's not justice, that's persecution," Buckley said. Dahmer, his lungs seared by flames, died in his wife's arms hours after two carloads of Klansmen shot up and bombed their home. Prosecutors say Dahmer, an NAACP official, was killed for helping fellow blacks register to vote by letting them pay their poll tax at his grocery store. Prosecution witnesses said Bowers ordered the firebombing and then bragged about it. "Look at what my boys did to that http://www.cnn.com/US/9808/21/klan/ 6/18/2013
Ku Klux Klan Former-KKK-Leader-Convicted-of-1966-Murder-(1)