PHILADELPHIA (Mississippi) — When accused killer Edgar Ray Killen arrived Monday morning at the Neshoba County Courthouse, a well-wisher from out of town immediately greeted him.
"Anything I can do," said J.J. Harper of Cordele, Ga., imperial wizard of the American White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, who clasped Killen's fingers in a handshake as the 80-year-old defendant exited a white Mercury Grand Marquis.
In January, Harper requested permission to demonstrate on the courthouse lawn in support of Killen. At the time of the request, the Web site of the American White Knights showed a hanging post with three nooses holding the severed hands of African Americans. The post read "Murder in Mississippi," but the word "Murder" was crossed out in red with the word "Justice" written over it.
Harper was joined in the courtroom Monday by several others, one of them wearing the same Klan cross on his coat lapel. None of them would speak to reporters. Moments after a bailiff sat the Klan group next to an African American, the Klan group moved, only to have a black potential juror come and sit next to them. One of Killen's lawyers, James McIntyre of Jackson, didn't appreciate their presence. "I don't want them here," he said.
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