Alleged KKK member trying to overturn conviction (click here)
Associated Press - June 2, 2008 10:53 PM ET
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A lawyer for a reputed Ku Klux Klan member has argued that James Seale's conviction for his role in the abduction and deaths of 2 black Mississippi teenagers should be thrown out.
A public defender has told a New Orleans federal appeals court that there is a 5-year statute of limitations on kidnapping, under a 1972 congressional act that also abolished the death penalty for kidnapping. The two teenagers died in 1964, and Seale was convicted of kidnapping and conspiracy just a year ago.
The Justice Department is arguing that the statute of limitations was not changed retrospectively. A lawyer has told the court that a crime that is capital when committed, remains capital -- even if the death penalty can not be imposed.
The bodies of the two teenagers were pulled from the Mississippi River in July 1964.
