Jackson Free Press

Attorneys for James Ford Seale, convicted in 2007 on federal kidnapping and conspiracy charges related to the 1964 killings of two 19-year-old African Americans, have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court today.

The full, 18-member panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Seale's conviction last week after a smaller three-judge panel of the same court overturned the original conviction last year. At issue was whether the statute of limitations had run out on the kidnapping charges. In last week's decision, the court split evenly, which automatically affirmed the original conviction, but the justices did not provide a ruling on the issue.

Seale's attorneys requested today that the court certify the question of law to the Supreme Court or rehear the case with an odd number of justices to avoid another tie.

Seale, a former member of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan according to FBI informants, was among several men who allegedly kidnapped Charles Moore and Henry Dee, whom the men suspected of civil rights activities. Franklin County officials arrested Seale and fellow klansman Charles Edwards after navy divers found the beaten and drowned bodies of Moore and Dee in the Mississippi River in 1964. Officials refused to prosecute the pair at the time, however.

Seale was rumored to be dead when Moore's brother, Thomas, began his own investigation with the assistance of the Jackson Free Press and Canadian filmmaker David Ridgin in 2005. The team's investigation quickly found Seale to be alive, and the Justice Department reopened the case later the same year.

Under immunity from prosecution, Edwards testified against Seale in the 2007 trial, and Seale received three life sentences for his part in the crime.

In 1964, when the crimes took place, kidnapping was a capital offense when the victims did not survive. As a capital offense, no statute of limitations applied.

The U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the death-penalty provision of the kidnapping law in 1968 as unconstitutional in United States v. Jackson. Then, in 1972, Congress amended the statute, probably in response to the Jackson case, eliminating the death-penalty language altogether, arguably attaching a statute of limitations of five years similar to other non-capital federal crimes. The death penalty was added back to the statute in 1994.

Read the court filings (PDFs): Motion to Stay and Motion to certify and exhibits

Previous Commentsshow

I truly hope the federal government goes to as much effort to keep as many non-white-supremacist criminals out of prison. There are people who have served more time on federal drug charges that Seale has served in his lifetime for what he did to those young men.

DonnaLadd

Jun 12 2009

Also at issue, of course, are the other cold cases that could be affected by this decision. Federal prosecutors could lose an important tool to close on other murderers who are still walking free.

Ronni_Mott

Jun 12 2009

It does amaze me that so many "tough on crime" people suddenly believe in due process, healing and forgiveness, rehabilitation, generous statutes of limitations, etc. when a Klansman is involved. If only they were all such benevolent Gandhis with respect the to low-income black juvenile offenders they like to refer to as "thugs." (Note that the word almost sounds out of place when applied to folks like Seale and Killen, who actually are thugs.)

Tom Head

Jun 12 2009

I simply MUST reply to Donna's comment which suggests that the federal defender system works harder to defend white supremacists than those accused of drug offenses. First, let me assure you that if the federal government ever waits 43 years to prosecute a drug deal, we will also take that to the Supreme Court. Second, the reason so many drug cases result in such long sentences is NOT because of defenders who don't care - it is because congress has passed mandatory minimum sentences in drug cases, which we fight every step of the way and continue to lobby against. Also, the US Sentencing Commission for years has enforced a 100:1 ratio in crack cocaine cases. The defender services in Washington and across the country have fought that for years and taken it to the appellate courts and the US Supreme Court over and over. Thanks to the unfailing efforts of defenders across the country, the sentencing commission has changed their policy and DOJ has recently announced they will no longer argue in support of this baseless increase in crack cases. Many will spend significantly less time in jail because of this victory. I hope this addresses your concerns.

UTgrad

Jun 14 2009

Federal defenders have a tough job and are required to give James Ford Seale the best defense they can or the system means little. No criticism of them intended--I realize this is a case that requires new ground rules because of the amount of time Seale, well, got away with murder.

Tom Head

Jun 14 2009

It's the perfect example of why I couldn't be a defense attorney. I believe in our system and a good defense, but at what point do we stop trying to get clearly very bad people off on technicalities? And don't tell me the whole fight over the statute of limitations for kidnapping is not a technicality. And getting precedent if the case is kicked out due to that will make it harder to prosecute other such cases. Seale has benefited from our screwed-up system for many years, starting back when the feds had a case against him that held up state charges and the local district attorney dropped it. He has lived free for many years; I am only going to get so excited about how his rights are now being "protected" to the utmost extent of the law by the effort to get him out of jail based on statute of limitation issues. And, of course, it can't escape any of us that no one has actually been prosecuted for murder in the case where two young men were taken off the street, hauled into the woods and beat nearly to death with big sticks while tied to a tree. And then they were still alive when they were thrown into the trunk of a car and driven across state lines and then tied to Jeep parts and thrown overboard to drown. Just because they were black and men like James Ford Seale were willing to do anything -- anything -- to keep them from having a single right. We're all so horrified by the torture of waterboarding now as we should be. Imagine the friggin' torture of these young men by people who have walked free all these years, and in the case of Seale, doesn't seem to have apologized to a damn soul about it. So as we sit here and consider Mr. Seales "rights," let's take a few minutes and remember what this is about. Or damn well ought to be. There needs to be justice for the deaths of those two young men, and if the federal government (or state) had put as much effort over the years into prosecuting him (or even knowing he was still alive) as they are to trying to get him out of prison, we could have had justice a long time ago.

DonnaLadd

Jun 15 2009

And I'm sorry: In these kind of cases, the whole "took 43 years so let's worry about Seale's rights" is a crock. He *benefitted* from the government's refusal to do anything real about this case for all those decades. He was free. He watched his kids grow up. He ate his wife's butterbeans. Charles Moore and Henry Dee were eaten by fish and brought up out of a river in pieces. Moore's mother died not thinking the federal or state government gave a damn because her boys was plucked off the face of the plant. So the whole speedy trial thing holds no water for me in this kind of case even if it gives Seale's defense team something to keep pushing for. I just can't get past the irony that the government did nothing all these years (even though they had plenty of files and evidence to pursue), and now all of a sudden the government is doing everything in its power to get that man out of prison once we got a modicum of justice. And not based on him not doing it, of course; based on the fact that, well, the government didn't do anything all those years while laws and statutes of limitations changed. He needs to die in prison, and he needs to know that the system was not designed to protect him, no matter what he does. Others need to know it, too. This is about Dee and Moore, and we all need to remember that. Even people defending James Ford Seale.

DonnaLadd

Jun 15 2009