Concurrence Black | Date decided 1966 | |
Full case name United States v. Cecil Price, et al. Citations 383 U.S. 787 (more)
86 S. Ct. 1152; 16 L. Ed. 2d 267 Prior history Indictments dismissed by District Court (reversed and remanded) Subsequent history 7 of the 18 defendants convicted on remand Majority Fortas, joined by a unanimous Court Similar United States v Lopez, United States v Jones, United States v Miller, Brady v Maryland, Heart of Atlanta Motel - Inc | ||
United States v. Cecil Price, et al. also known as the "Mississippi Burning trial", was a criminal trial where the United States charged a group of 18 men with conspiring in a Ku Klux Klan plot to murder three young civil rights workers (Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman) in Philadelphia, Mississippi on June 21, 1964 during Freedom Summer. The trial, conducted in Meridian, Mississippi with U.S. District Court Judge W. Harold Cox presiding, resulted in convictions of 7 of the 18 defendants.
Contents
Initial proceedings
Indictments were originally presented against 18 defendants, three of whom were officials of the Mississippi government, for conspiracy to commit as well as substantial violations of deprivation of rights secured or protected by the Constitution. The District Court initially dismissed the indictments, but the dismissal was unanimously reversed by the Supreme Court upon appeal. The trial then proceeded.
The verdict
Guilty verdicts were returned against:
Not guilty verdicts were returned for:
No verdict was reached for:
The jury
An all-white, mostly working-class jury consisting of five men and seven women heard the case. The jurors were:
Film adaptation
In 1988, a film was made based on the trial and the events surrounding it, titled Mississippi Burning. It starred Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe as two FBI agents who travel to Mississippi to uncover the events surrounding the murder of three civil rights workers.
Several of the fictitious characters in the movie were based on real-life defendants in the trial. Deputy Sheriff Clinton Pell (played by Brad Dourif) was based on Cecil Ray Price, Sheriff Ray Stuckey (played by Gailard Sartain) was based on Sheriff Lawrence Rainey, and Frank Bailey (played by Michael Rooker) was based on Alton W. Roberts. The film also starred R. Lee Ermey and Frances McDormand.