U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Killen Appeal

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of Edgar Ray Killen, convicted in 2005 for the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers in Mississippi.

The court ruled Monday that it won’t review lower court rulings that found no violations of Killen’s constitutional rights during his trial in Mississippi.

Killen, now 88, was convicted of manslaughter 41 years to the day after the slayings of Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman. He is serving 60 years.

On June 21, 1964, Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman disappeared in Neshoba County. The FBI found their bodies buried in an earthen dam on Aug. 4, 1964, in what became known as the “Mississippi Burning” case.