Birmingham Church Bombing Trial
 

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — One of the nation's largest pieces of unfinished business from the civil rights era will play itself out as the final suspect in a 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls goes on trial.


Opening statements were expected to begin Monday in the trial of former Ku Klux Klansman Bobby Frank Cherry.

Cherry, 72, is accused of helping plant dynamite outside the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, a rallying site for demonstrators seeking an end to segregation.

The resulting explosion killed three 14-year-olds and an 11-year-old as they prepared for a Sunday morning service on Sept. 15, 1963. It was the deadliest act of violence during the civil rights era.

Cherry could get life in prison if convicted.

Prosecutor Doug Jones said it's time to put the case that has haunted Birmingham for 39 years to rest.

``It's been a long time. It's time this chapter comes to a close,'' Jones said.

Potential prosecution witnesses in the trial include Cherry's granddaughter Teresa Stacy and ex-wife Willadean Towns, who both have said Cherry admitted involvement in the blast. A son, Tom Cherry, has publicly contradicted one of his father's potential alibis in the bombing.

The defense is expected to call other relatives as witnesses to say they never heard Cherry admit involvement in the deadly blast.

``I have the most general of plans but my approach is largely, `Stay as flexible as you can because you don't know how a case will try,''' said attorney Mickey Johnson. ``If I talk about anything in terms of trial strategy, that might change.''

Cherry was indicted along with Thomas Blanton Jr. on murder charges in 2000.

Blanton was convicted of murder and is serving a life term. Another Klansman, Robert Chambliss, was convicted of murder in the bombing in 1977 and died in prison. A fourth suspect died without being charged.

A judge initially found that Cherry wasn't mentally competent for trial, but in January the judge reversed that ruling after examiners determined Cherry was faking mental illness.

It's about darn time...

It took long enough, but I'm glad this has come back to light again. People who were and are doing this need to realize that we may not get you today, and we may not get you tomorrow, but we will get you.

Mental illness, huh? Don't get me started...

Re: Birmingham Church Bombing Trial
 

heck, I'm sure the klucker wasn't mentally competent when he assisted in the bombing of the church, so what's the judge's point?

:confused: :rolleyes: :mad:

GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY
 

Church bombing defendant found guilty of first-degree murder
May 22, 2002 Posted: 3:54 PM EDT (1954 GMT)


BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (CNN) -- The latest chapter in U.S. civil rights history was concluded in an Alabama courtroom Wednesday when a jury found a former Ku Klux Klansman guilty of first-degree murder in a 1963 church bombing that killed four African-American schoolgirls.

Bobby Frank Cherry, who maintained his innocence all the way to the verdict, was sentenced to life in prison.

The jury of six white women, three white men and three black men deliberated for a total of seven hours Tuesday and Wednesday before returning its verdict. Cherry, 71, could also could have been found guilty of second-degree murder or manslaughter.

"The whole bunch lied all the way through this thing. ... I don't know why I'm going to jail for nothing. I haven't done anything," Cherry told the judge after the verdict was read.

Circuit Judge James Garrett immediately sentenced Cherry, and said, "Good luck, sir" before Cherry was led from the courtroom.

Cherry was charged with four counts of murder and four counts of arson in the slayings at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. He was accused of helping a group of Klansmen plant a bomb that exploded on September 15, 1963, as worshippers arrived for services.

It killed 11-year-old Denise McNair and 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley.

Prosecutor Doug Jones called Cherry and his alleged co-conspirators "the forefathers of terrorism" in closing arguments Tuesday.

"Bobby Frank Cherry is a murderer who has lived among us, " Jones told the jurors, referring to the 39 years since the crime that Cherry has lived as a free man.

Two other men have been convicted in the bombing.

Robert Chambliss, known as "Dynamite Bob," was convicted of murder in 1977 and died in prison. Ex-Klansman Thomas Blanton Jr. was convicted of murder last year and was sentenced to life in prison. A fourth suspect, Herman Cash died in 1994 without being charged.

Cherry was to have gone on trial with Blanton, but Cherry's trial was delayed over questions about his mental competence.

Referring to the previous convictions, defense attorney Mickey Johnson argued, "We are not going to let the state convict purely on guilt by association."

Johnson admitted that his client's former membership in the Ku Klux Klan was a strike against him, but he urged jurors had to look beyond that in weighing their verdict.

The key defense witness Saturday was 78-year-old Mary Cunningham, an informant for the FBI in the 1960s, who denied information in a 1964 FBI memo that quoted her as saying she had seen Cherry plant the bomb at the church.

"I did not make that claim. ... I didn't do it. I didn't see it," Cunningham testified.

Witnesses for the prosecution included family members who said Cherry had talked about being involved in the bombing.


http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/05/22/ch...ial/index.html