Ghosts of Mississippi Page #3

I didn't go to law school,

but that sounds like bullshit.

Nice talking to you.

Have a nice day.

Can you tell me how I can get

ahold of Lewis Skinner...

...or Fred Sanders?

If you want Lewis Skinner, you'll need

a shovel and six hours of digging time.

What's Fred's status?

As far as I know,

he's still aboveground.

Back in '63,

none of those houses were there.

That was all vacant lot.

And this here was

all covered over with brush.

I got out here eight minutes

after the call came in.

The way Mrs. Evers yelled at me,

you'd think I was the one who done it.

This is where they found the gun,

hidden in some honeysuckle vines.

Any idea where

that gun might be today?

Hell, no.

Back in those days...

...evidence had a habit

of disappearing after the trials.

Look at that.

My grandmother could have

picked Evers off from over here.

That's where he was shot.

That big tree wasn't there

at the time.

There was blood everywhere.

All over the driveway,

all over the car.

It was as if somebody

had butchered a hog.

But Evers must've been one hell of a

strong man because somehow he managed...

...to drag himself

all the way up to his door.

After that bullet tore through his back,

it slammed through that window...

...crashed through a wall...

...ricocheted off the refrigerator

and busted the coffeepot.

We found it on the kitchen counter

next to a watermelon.

You're kidding me.

No, sir.

Did he have any kids?

If my memory serves, I believe there

were three little ones there that night.

What kind of man shoots another man

in the back in front of his family?

I love the land of my birth.

I do not mean

just America as a country...

...but Mississippi...

... the state in which I was born.

So the deplorable things

I speak of here today...

... will be said to you

in hopes of a future...

... where such will not

be the case in Mississippi.

In the horrific deaths...

...of Emmett Till...

...Reverend G. W. Lee...

...Lamar Smith and a variety

of other atrocities...

...no one has been convicted.

And we feel those guilty of having

committed these ungodly acts...

...had the feeling of assurance

that nothing ever would be done.

For you see, ladies and gentlemen...

... white juries have yet to convict

a white man in Mississippi...

...guilty of a crime against a Negro.

The failure of the so-called decent

or moderate white person...

... to take a positive

and uncompromising stand....

Who's that?

Medgar Evers.

Why are you looking at it?

I just wanted to get

an idea of who he was.

I'd like to get

an idea of who you are.

What's that supposed to mean?

I was willing to go down

that road with you...

...when you got out of law school

and did that pro bono work.

And when you worked for

that Jew lawyer who ran you ragged.

I minded a little when you turned down

that offer from Morse & Braggs...

...so you could be assistant D.A.

at one-fourth the salary.

But I'll be damned if I spent

10 years supporting your career...

...just so you can humiliate me.

You're gonna pursue this, aren't you?

You're gonna humiliate me

in front of my friends...

...my family and the entire state.

I'm just looking

at a couple of tapes.

Fine. Look at your tapes.

That's all you'd better do.

-Why not?

-Because you can't win.

Who says?

-The Sixth Amendment.

-Suppose I could get around it.

It's one thing for

the grieving widow to carry on--

Suppose an argument could be made

that the Sixth Amendment doesn't apply.

You want to retry Beckwith?

Fine.

Dig up 26-year-old physical evidence

which probably no longer exists...

...identify it, and then you'll have

to locate the key witnesses...

...who, if you find them,

are probably dead or senile.

Their testimony could be read

from the transcript.

We haven't seen a certified

transcript in over 25 years.

-What if I found one?

-Let's say, by some miracle...

...you found one, got an indictment.

Then by some greater miracle...

...the state Supreme Court and U.S.

Supreme Court didn't throw it out...

...and you actually got to trial.

What if you lose?

The whole state, which is supposed

to have changed so much...

...will be facing the worst

public relations disaster...

...since that black kid, Emmett Till,

bobbed up out of the river.

Are you telling me

I can't go after this?

I'm telling you

you're dealing with the past.

Mississippi's not

a place you wanna be.

Hopefully, Jerry Mitchell can

keep this thing alive for us.

Jerry Mitchell's fine, but

what we need is national press.

Darrell, CNN won't run a major story

about how the D.A. of Hinds County...

...is refusing to re-prosecute a case...

...that's a quarter of a century old.

Stop annoying your grandmama.

The greatest joy in your mother's life

is being annoyed by her grandchildren.

Next to being annoyed by you, Walter.

I'll get it.

I'm not here no matter who it is.

Who?

Just a minute, please.

I want you to eat those beans.

It's long distance from Jackson.

A man by the name of DeLaughter.

You want me to take it?

No, I'll take it.

Eat those beans.

I don't eat beans.

Hello, Mrs. Evers.

I know you probably left here

feeling pretty discouraged...

...but I hope you understand

Mr. Peters was just being realistic.

I understand perfectly.

I also wanted you to know...

...that we are going to

be keeping this case open.

Mrs. Evers?

Did it suddenly occur to

Mr. Peters that he'd better...

...start making nice with the

black community before November?

-Mrs. Evers--

-He made it clear to me...

...that in addition to having

no evidence and no witnesses...

...he also had no interest.

Looking into this wasn't so much

Mr. Peter's idea as it was mine.

-Yours?

-Yes, ma'am.

Judge Russel Moore was perhaps

the most racist judge...

...in the history

of the state of Mississippi.

Why would his son-in-law

be interested in this case?

Mrs. Evers, I'm 37 years old,

just like Medgar was...

...and I've got three kids,

like he did.

I was 11 years old

when your husband was killed...

...and I hardly remember him at all.

But I went by your house the other day

and I could see him there...

...watering his lawn...

... working on his roof...

...playing with his children.

No man has the right to take

another man away from his children.

I appreciate the call,

Mr. DeLaughter.

I'll keep in touch, Mrs. Evers.

Did you plan on telling me...

...or was I just gonna read

about it in the papers?

We should be at the

Walkers' house in 15 minutes.

Well, I've got a lot

of work to do here.

Suit yourself.

Nobody gives a goddamn

what Byron De La Beckwith did...

...to some Medgar Evers 26 years ago.

Hell, Larry Smith got shot down

in his own driveway just last week.

And it wasn't for no civil rights.

It was for his spare change.

I could have had any investigator

I wanted, and I asked for you.

Am I meant to be flattered by that?

We're supposed to nail Eddie Williams

for killing Wendell Washington...

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