a criminal trial for folks who are card carrying members of the klan. you d have a reason to be afraid, a reason to be concerned, and particularly when the text and the sub-text of the trial is white supremacy and american racism. today, it was a tense one at the courthouse. a bomb threat was phoned in, and a prosecution witness says hays father threatened to kill him. he said if i ever opened my mouth about anything that i would be dead within 8 hours, 24 hours at the most. i was really scared. i moved out of my mother and father s house cause when i was started testifying, bennie hays came to my mom and daddy s house looking for me, to shut my mouth to keep me from talking. so, when my mother and father went to the store to buy groceries, i wrote them a note saying i moved out.
happening. a black life still has no value? in this trial, the final jury was 11 whites and one black lady. i certainly had some concerns about the makeup of the jury. white people and black people see things differently. we show black folks the film where the police was beating rodney king in l.a., and we say, police brutality! and white folks see that same film, and say to the jury he resisting arrest! they figure they can kill a black person. the all white jury is gonna find him not guilty. and that s been the practice over the years. the admitted klansman stood stone-faced as the verdict was read, but moments later turned ashen as the words guilty of capital murder sank in. there were gasps and muffled cries in the packed courtroom, not only from hayes family, but the family of michael donald as
i couldn t live here no more. and i started staying at the salvation army in pritchard. i honestly believed that they would have killed my mom and daddy. 29-year-old henry hays looked chipper as his capital murder trial got under way. security is very tight at the trial where in his opening argument, acting district attorney tom harrison charged that hays and 20-year-old james tiger knowles went out looking for a black man and found michael donald. i put tiger knowles on the stand, and we went through, you know, who he is, did he know henry hays, and how did he know him. just asking what happened that night. soon as he leaned over into the car to give us directions, i put a pistol in his face and made him get in the car. then he started begging for his life. you ve changed. so have we. that s why new dove body wash now has 24-hour renewing micro moisture for continuous care.