Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Ex-Trooper Pleads Guilty in 1965 Ala. Slaying - CBS News

Ex-Trooper Pleads Guilty in 1965 Ala. Slaying - CBS News: "(CBS/AP) A former state trooper has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor manslaughter charge in the 1965 slaying of a black man in Alabama that triggered a key march of the civil rights era.

James Bonard Fowler, who is white, entered the plea Monday at Marion, two weeks before he was scheduled to go to trial on a murder charge for the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson.

Jackson, 26, was shot during a civil rights protest that turned into a club-swinging melee. His murder inspired a Selma march that became known as 'Bloody Sunday' when it was turned back by club-swinging troopers.

The march helped lead to passage of the Voting Rights Act.

The 77-year-old Fowler was sentenced to six months in jail in Geneva County, his home county."

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