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PHILADELPHIA, Miss. - Former Ku Klux Klansman Edgar Ray Killen was wheeled before a judge Thursday, an 80-year-old vestige of Mississippi's hate-filled past, and sentenced to 60 years in prison for the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers.
Killen sat in his wheelchair in a bright yellow jail uniform and stared straight ahead, stone-faced, offering no remorse and no explanations, as Judge Marcus Gordon gave him the maximum and closed one of the most shocking chapters in the movement to end segregation across the South.
"Each life has value. Each life is equally as valuable as the other life and I have taken that into consideration," the judge said. "The three lives should absolutely be respected and treated equally."
In imposing the prison term, Gordon noted that some people "would say a sentence of 10 years would be a life sentence."
The judge asked Killen if he had anything to say.
"None, your honor," he said.
The Baptist preacher and sawmill operator was convicted of manslaughter Tuesday, exactly 41 years after the three civil rights volunteers were killed while working in Mississippi to register blacks to vote.
The victims
