Beckwith Convicted: Justice Served for Medgar Evers
Byron De La Beckwith was tried three times for the murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, who was shot in the back with an Enfield rifle in his own driveway on June 12, 1963. The first two trials in 1964 ended in hung juries despite Beckwith's fingerprint being found on the rifle's scope. All-white juries refused to convict. The case sat dormant for decades until journalist Jerry Mitchell uncovered evidence that the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission had secretly screened potential jurors to help Beckwith. A third trial in 1994, before a racially mixed jury, convicted Beckwith of first-degree murder. He was seventy-three years old. The thirty-year gap between crime and conviction exposed the depth of institutional racism in Mississippi's justice system and demonstrated that civil rights-era cold cases could still be successfully prosecuted with persistence and new evidence.
February 5, 1994
32 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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