New Evidence Spurs 3rd Trial in Evers Case

JACKSON, Miss. —  The white supremacist twice tried for the assassination of civil rights leader Medgar Evers faces a third murder trial in the 1963 sniper killing that shocked the nation, prosecutors said today.

“Byron De La Beckwith has again been indicted for the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers,” Dist. Atty. Ed Peters told a news conference. “Although Beckwith was vigorously prosecuted in 1964, those prosecutions did not have the benefit of certain evidence accumulated during the course of our investigation.”

Peters said that individuals, both black and white, “have taken the courageous step of coming forward.” He said their identities would not be revealed but that they had agreed to testify “at the appropriate time.”

“If he is innocent he should be acquitted. If he is guilty he should be convicted. It’s that simple,” Peters said in urging the community to join ranks to see that justice is done.

Beckwith, 70, was arrested Monday at his home in Signal Mountain, Tenn., on a fugitive warrant issued by the state of Mississippi.

The indictment came after a county grand jury in Jackson heard two days of testimony about the assassination of Evers, who was field secretary for the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People when he was shot to death.

Evers led black voter registration drives in the state and filed complaints with the federal government concerning civil rights violations.

The assassination, termed “barbaric” by President John F. Kennedy, who would be slain five months later, helped focus national attention on the civil rights struggle in Mississippi and helped push forward civil rights reforms.

Sheriff’s Lt. Lenda Clark in Hamilton County, Tenn., said Beckwith was being held without bail in Chattanooga, Tenn., pending an extradition hearing this afternoon.

Evers, 37, was slain June 12, 1963, outside his Jackson home.