Jackson, Miss. – A confessed Ku Klux Klansman testified Monday that he believed he would end up dead if he told authorities about the group’s activities, including the abduction, beating and drowning of two black teenagers in 1964.
Granted immunity from prosecution, Charles Marcus Edwards is the government’s star witness in the federal kidnapping and conspiracy case against longtime friend James Ford Seale.
Seale, 71, has pleaded not guilty in the attacks on Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore in Mississippi. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.
Edwards said he honored the Klan’s oath of secrecy for decades because he feared reprisals. Edwards testified that he and Seale were among those who attacked Dee and Moore on May 2, 1964.
The jurors – eight white and four black – could start deliberating by midweek.
On Monday, Moore’s brother, Thomas Moore of Colorado Springs, said on the witness stand – but when jurors were out of the room – that he spoke last week to Edwards, who had apologized to the victims’ families and asked their forgiveness.
“I told him when I saw him at the hotel that I accepted his apology,” said Moore, who had pushed investigators to reopen the cold case.
HOUSTON
Astronauts will try to fix thermal blanket
Astronauts will try to fix a thermal blanket that peeled back during Atlantis’ launch, extending the space shuttle’s mission from 11 days to 13, NASA managers said Monday.
No decision had been made on whether the loosened blanket, covering a 4-by-6-inch area over a pod for engines, will be repaired during a previously planned third spacewalk or a fourth, extra one, managers said.
The loosened blanket was discovered Saturday during an inspection. Engineers think it was loosened by aerodynamic forces during launch.
Also Monday, two astronauts floated outside the international space station to begin connecting a 35,000-pound segment that will increase its power capability.
WASHINGTON
President Ford to be on new postage stamp
President Gerald R. Ford, who died in December, will be honored on a new postage stamp to be issued Aug. 31, the Postal Service announced Monday.
The design of the 41-cent stamp was unveiled at the annual dinner of the Ford Foundation.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska
Air Force jets brush; no one seriously hurt
An F-15C fighter jet crashed Monday after it apparently clipped the wing of another military jet during a training exercise, Air Force officials said. The other jet, an F-16, landed safely, and no one was seriously injured.
The pilot of the F-15C ejected before the crash, said a spokeswoman at Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks.
WASHINGTON
Mom asks court to find autism tied to vaccine
An Arizona mother on Monday described severe autism and devastating health problems that plague her 12-year-old daughter and asked a court to find that common childhood vaccines were the cause.
The test case is being closely watched by nearly 5,000 families of autistic children who have lodged similar claims.
The case of Michelle Cedillo, of Yuma, Ariz., is the first alleging a vaccine-autism link to be heard in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. It and eight other test cases will guide the handling of the other pending claims. Most contend that a mercury-rich preservative called thimerosal is to blame for the impaired social interaction typical of the disorder. Should they prevail, the families will be eligible for compensation from a federal vaccine injury fund.
NAIROBI, Kenya
Restaurant explosion kills one, hurts dozens
A rush-hour explosion killed one person and injured dozens of others Monday, but Kenyan police said they did not believe the blast was an act of terrorism.
The 8:15 a.m. explosion scattered glass and shrapnel across streets outside the Citygate restaurant. Many of the 37 people injured were standing at a bus- transfer station.
An official with Kenya’s anti-terrorism unit, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the nature of the injuries and damage from Monday’s explosion suggested it might have been caused by a grenade, perhaps detonated accidentally by a criminal or gang member.
The body recovered on scene probably was of the man who was carrying the device, he said.
“We are ruling out terrorism,” he said. “Terrorists would have no interest in that location. There are no Americans. We don’t think this was something planned.”
YENAGOA, Nigeria
Hostage-takers free dozen foreigners
Hostage-takers released a dozen foreign hostages Monday in Nigeria’s restive southern oil heartland, officials said.
The nationalities of the freed captives weren’t immediately available. Militants had said they would release three Americans, four Britons, a Filipino, a South African and at least one Indian.
BRASILIA, Brazil
Novelist bemoans Venezuela’s direction
Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa urged Venezuelans to mobilize against their nation’s “dangerous trajectory” toward totalitarianism following President Hugo Chavez’s decision to force an opposition-aligned TV station off the air, according to a Brazilian news agency.
Vargas Llosa criticized Chavez’s decision not to renew the broadcast license of Radio Caracas Television.
“The important thing is for Venezuelans to resist,” Vargas Llosa said. “Shutting down RCTV … will hopefully encourage opposition against a … trajectory which for Venezuela and the rest of Latin America is very dangerous.”
