James Seale is on trial in federal court in Jackson, Mississippi, for kidnapping and murdering two black teenagers, Charles Moore and Henry Dee, in 1964. It's fitting that a trial so extraordinary has extraordinary local press coverage; the Jackson Free Press has reporters Matt Saldaña and Donna Ladd in the courtroom, and their blog is the best trial reporting I'm seeing right now.
Voir dire, Day 1
The voir dire was last week, Wednesday through Friday, and it was nearly as emotional as the trial promised to be. The first day was spent on the jurors who might not be able to serve -- the one who needs to tend to his six chickenhouses, the one who had plane tickets to accompany his wife for eye surgery. Even when the questioning was at that general level, though, it was dramatic, because people's lives often are. One juror "referred to her own chronic depression and anxiety," one was an alcoholic who "“wished (she) could be drinking,” and then there were these exchanges:
The defense argued for the dismissal of Juror No. 8, a black male construction worker who admitted that he could not read well. “I have no problem being on the trial,” Juror No. 8 said. He said that he merely wanted to court to know about his inability to read large words. After confirming that he could read work manuals, motorbike magazines and occasional newspaper articles, Wingate kept the juror in the pool.
Juror No. 53, a white female from Lawrence County, broke down in tears when she described how nervous driving in Jackson made her.
“I’ve been thinking about it for a month. I can’t sleep,” she said.
Day 2
On the second day of voir dire, the questioning turned to experiences with race and crime. The jurors cried, and told stories like this:
Juror No. 6 described an incident in which he narrowly avoided a race-motivated church bombing.
“The preacher said, ‘Run, run!’ We had to run,” he said.
“(The Ku Klux Klan) rode through—shot up houses. You had to cut your lights out,” he added. “I really don’t want to be on (the trial) because I couldn’t be impartial or anything like that.”
And this, from a juror who said she couldn't stop crying at night:
When prompted, she revealed to the courtroom that her father had shot and killed her former boyfriend in 1982, one of the day’s many candid—and, at times, disturbing—revelations. U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton, a district attorney in 1982, told the court that he had attempted to prosecute her father in the ensuing murder trial, but neither Lampton nor Juror No. 36 could recall one another.
And more; you have to read the post.
Day 3
The final day of voir dire on Friday was the same. "My grandmother grew up on a farm. When white people came by, they would run away to the woods,” one juror said. The blog quotes another juror:
“My family moved from Mississippi to get away from racism and hatred. I had a difficult experience with an older white man. Sexually—he just did things that were not permissible, but I couldn’t do anything about it,” she said.
She said that, as she looked at Seale—seated again, in Dockers slacks and a green oxford shirt—she saw a “mindset of superiority” that reminded her of the experience, which she said happened five or six years ago.
Her experience would be “a hard thing to let go,” she said.
And now the witnesses
This week there are jurors in the box, and witnesses on the stand, and the blog continues. Yesterday Charles Edwards testified as to his part in the kidnapping. After the jury left the room, Saldaña reported, this happened:
"I want to speak to the families of Mr. Moore and Mr. Dee," the former Klansman said to the judge.
Edwards then turned and looked directly at Thomas Moore, sitting on the far end of the front row, and whose efforts jumpstarted the investigation in 2005. "I can't undo what was done 40 years ago, and I'm sorry for that. And I ask you for your forgiveness for my part in that crime. That's exactly what I wanted to say to you."
Thomas Moore, the brother of Charles, first looked at the wall and then looked back at Edwards and nodded his head slightly.
(Photo posted by pingnews.com at http://www.flickr.com/photos/pingnews/434444310/; license details there.)
