James Ford Seale - Indictment, Trial and Conviction in 2007

Indictment, Trial and Conviction in 2007

The indictment affidavit filed January 24, 2007, in U.S. District Court in Jackson, charged Seale with two counts of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy. The "introductory allegations" begin: "The White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (WKKKK) operated in the Southern District of Mississippi and elsewhere, and was a secret organization of adult white males who, among other things, targeted for violence African Americans they believed were involved in civil rights activity in order to intimidate and retaliate against such individuals." The document says that Seale and other Klan members suspected Dee of being involved with civil rights activity. Moore was included because he was a friend of Dee.

Seale was arraigned and denied bond because he was considered a flight risk: he owned no property, was a pilot, and lived in a motor home. He and his wife had already left Roxie for a brief time after the reporting team's initial July 2005 visits, according to Roxie residents. Primary testimony was from fellow Klansman Charles Marcus Edwards. After being confronted by Thomas Moore and David Ridgen during filming of a scene in Mississippi Cold Case, state and federal officials gave him immunity from prosecution to tell the full story of what happened.

Seale was convicted of kidnapping and conspiracy on June 14, 2007, by a federal jury. On August 24, 2007, Seale was sentenced to serve three life terms for his crimes. The Judge Wingate said that he took into account Seale's advanced age and poor health, but added, "Then I had to take a look at the crime itself, the horror, the ghastliness of it." Seale was imprisoned for a year at a medical facility. The conviction was overturned by the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals on September 9, 2008. The court ruled that the lower court had failed to recognize the statute of limitations for kidnapping had expired. At the time of the kidnapping, kidnapping was a capital crime under federal law; capital crimes have no statute of limitations. However, Congress and the Supreme Court made kidnapping a non-capital crime, with a statute of limitations, in the 1970s. The lower court did not apply the newer statute of limitations, while the appeals court did. The prosecutors asked the appeals court to reconsider the ruling, and the court agreed to do so en banc.

On June 5, 2009, the en banc panel of 5th Circuit judges ruled in an evenly divided decision on the matter, thus upholding the district court's decision. Seale's three convictions and sentences were re-instated. On motion of defense counsel, the 5th Circuit asked the US Supreme Court to review the case. On November 2, 2009, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case, letting the lower rulings stand.