After the 1964 nightrider slaying of Lemuel Penn, a Negro educator from Washington, D.C., a Georgia jury wasted little time acquitting Klansmen Joseph H. Sims and Cecil W. Myers of murder. Despite the verdict, the Justice Department went ahead and built its own case by dusting off an obscure anticonspiracy law dating back to Reconstruction days. Last week, in the small U.S. District Court in Athens, Ga., that law brought Sims and Myers to trial.
No Emotion. The 96-year-old statute under which they and a third Klansman, George H. Turner, were accused makes...
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