New Twist In 1964 Miss. Killings

(AP)  One of Edgar Ray Killen's relatives threatened to kill the judge before Killen stood trial in June in the 1964 slayings of three civil-rights workers, officials allege in new court papers.

Attorney General Jim Hood filed papers late Monday asking the state Supreme Court to revoke the $600,000 bond that Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon granted Killen last Friday. Hood said Gordon was the target of the alleged threat.

Killen, a preacher and one-time Ku Klux Klan leader, has been free since a few hours after the bond was granted. Killen is 80 and ailing, and the granting of bond pending his appeal could mean that he spends no more time in prison before he dies.

"Prior to the trial, a relative of Edgar Ray Killen threatened to kill the trial court judge and other individuals in the courtroom," Hood's petition to the Supreme Court said. It did not name the relative.

Gordon told The Associated Press on Tuesday that about a week before the trial, he was told that an "indirect" threat had been made on his life by one of Killen's brothers, J.D. Killen. Gordon said he chose not to press charges.

He said the investigator who told him about the threat also chose not to pursue charges.

A call to a J.D. Killen listing in east Mississippi was not immediately returned.

The judge said during a hearing Friday in Philadelphia that bond must be granted in a manslaughter case unless a defendant is either a flight risk or a danger to the community. He said prosecutors didn't prove either.

Killen was convicted in June on three counts of manslaughter for masterminding the 1964 slayings of civil-rights workers Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman.

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