Jury Selection Has Begun for 1964 Murders

According to the Associated Press after 43 years, a cold case is going into the trial faze. Jury selection started today in the 43 year old murder case that involved 2 black teenagers named Charles Moore and Henry Dee. The 2 were allegedly beaten by James Ford Seale.

The Associated Press and prosecutors are saying that in 1964 Seale drove the two young men into the Homochitto National Forest and beat them. Then he allegedly stuffed the youngsters into the trunk of his car and drove them 70 plus miles to the Mississippi River and weighed their bodies down with engine parts. It is believed that Dee and Moore were still alive when they were dumped into the river.

According to public record and the Associated Press it was 2 long months before the bodies of Dee and Moore were found. The bodies were discovered in the search for 3 other missing boys that were involved in the Civil Rights Movement.

James Ford Seale and another man named Charles Marcus Edwards were know Ku Klux Klan members and were arrested in 1964 for the deaths of Charles Moore and Henry Dee. According to the Associated Press the case against Seale and Edwards in 1964 was dropped and the case went cold. The reasoning for the case being dropped was due to the fact the FBI was busy investigating the case of "Mississippi Burning" and had turned over the case to local authorities and that is when the case against Seale and Edwards was dropped says the Associated Press.

The case started to gain speed again in 2000 when the Justice Department reopened the case and started to look for new leads. Since the reopening of the case Edwards has agreed to testify against Seale and has been granted immunity in this crime for his cooperation says the Associated Press.

The Associated Press is reporting that all prospective jurors have had to fill out a "extensive questionnaire that touched on a wide range of topics designed to reveal attitudes about race", with questions such as "Have you or any of your relatives ever belonged to the Klan or the NAACP? What do you think about interracial relationships? Do you attend religious services with people of other races?" It is the hope that with questions like the above jurors will be more fair in the decisions of the trial. Assistant Public Defender Kathy Nester has said she feels the questionnaire will cause "racial hysteria."