Cold case civil rights initiative reminiscent of Nazi hunting?
There’s something about these cold case civil rights cases being investigated now that make me think of Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal.
Not that we're hunting heinous Nazi criminals, but that these civil rights cases were hate crimes committed decades ago that are just now being pursued.
The Alabama Supreme Court ruled Friday that a prosecutor didn’t have to disclose his list of possible witnesses and their expected testimony.
The case? The 44-year-old shooting death of Jimmie Lee Jackson during a civil rights protest in Marion Alabama.
The suspect? Former Alabama state trooper James Bonard Fowler, indicted in 2007 on murder charges by a Perry County grand jury.
Circuit Judge Thomas Jones had ordered Perry County District Attorney Michael Jackson to provide the witness information to the defense last year.
Writing for the Alabama Supreme Court, Justice Lyn Stuart said the judge exceeded his discretion by ordering "the production of information specifically prohibited from production by the Alabama Rules of Criminal Procedure."
The district attorney said he was concerned that public disclosure might affect some elderly witnesses who lived through intimidation during the civil rights movement.
The FBI has launched a civil rights-era cold case initiative on these cases, some going back to 1951. They are “seeking information and next of kin for more than 100 unsolved civil rights murders that occurred prior to 1969,” according to a notice on www.fbi.gov.
“These cases are being reexamined as a result of the Civil Rights-era Cold Case Initiative, a joint effort with federal, state and local law enforcement partners, as well as community leaders and civic organizations,” the release said.
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