Delay expected in '64 slayings case

The judge in the case of a reputed Ku Klux Klansman charged with kidnapping in the 1964 slayings of two black men rejected a defense motion to remove himself from the case Thursday.

James Ford Seale's trial is scheduled to begin April 2, but it is likely to be delayed because of several pending pretrial motions, including one by the defense to move proceedings out of Jackson.

Federal prosecutor Paige Fitzgerald said the planned start date "is appearing less realistic at this point."

Seale, 71, was arrested in January and has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and conspiracy in the May 2, 1964, abductions of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore. The teens were hitchhiking in Meadville when they were grabbed and beaten _ allegedly by Klansmen _ and then drowned in the Mississippi River, according to FBI reports.

Seale's attorney Dennis Joiner argued Thursday that U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate should recuse himself and that U.S. Magistrate Judge Linda Anderson should be taken off her part of the case because both previously worked in the U.S. attorney's office.

Wingate said he had never heard Joiner make a similar argument in years of prior cases, and when the lawyer made a reference to "diversity" the judge asked whether the real issue was that he and Anderson are black.

"You would prefer not to have two judicial officers of minority extract hearing your case? Is that what you mean by diversity?" Wingate asked.

"I didn't mean anything about race, your honor," Joiner responded.

Wingate did not rule on other pending motions, but said he hopes to decide next week on a defense request to move the trial from Jackson to Natchez, near Seale's home in the tiny southwestern Mississippi town of Roxie.

Seale's attorneys say the trial should be moved because of extensive news coverage in Jackson, even though the Natchez federal courthouse is still being built and will not be completed until May at the earliest.

In a motion to dismiss filed Wednesday, the defense asks Wingate to throw out the charges against Seale because the government did not provide a speedy trial. Defense attorney Kathy Nester wrote that the government gained an advantage by waiting more than four decades to file charges, during which time witnesses have died, physical evidence has been lost and Seale's own memory has dimmed.

Also pending are prosecution requests, opposed by the defense, to keep jury selection secret and to sequester jurors during trial.

Seale is being held in the Madison County jail just outside Jackson.

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Associated Press Writer Chris Talbott contributed to this report.