Medgar Evers' Assassin Dies

J A C K S O N, Miss., Jan. 22 -- Byron De La Beckwith, convicted assassinof civil rights leader Medgar Evers in 1963, died Sunday nightafter he was transferred from his jail cell to a hospital. He was80.

Barbara Austin, a hospital spokeswoman, said Beckwith enteredUniversity Medical Center at 2:07 p.m. CDT. She could not elaborateon his ailment or the cause of death.

"It's a matter for the coroner's office to determine," shesaid.

Shot in the Back

Evers, a 37-year-old NAACP field secretary who pushed for an endto segregation, had stepped out of his Oldsmobile when he was shotin the back on June 12, 1963. He was walking to his house with anarmful of "Jim Crow Must Go" T-shirts.

Beckwith was convicted at a third trial in 1994 after twomistrials three decades earlier. After his conviction, he wassentenced to life imprisonment.

His fingerprint was found on a deer rifle used to kill Evers. Itwas abandoned in the lot across the street. But the formerfertilizer salesman insisted he was 90 miles away in Greenwood whenEvers was murdered.

Two all-white juries deadlocked in trials in 1964. Twelve yearsago, Evers' widow, Myrlie Evers Williams, asked for the case to bereopened, and Hinds County District Attorney Bobby DeLaughteragreed.

"At the very beginning … we didn't have anything,"DeLaughter said. "The DA's file was nowhere to be found. We didnot have the benefit of a trial transcript to know who thewitnesses were. None of the evidence had been retained by thecourt."

New Evidence, New Witnesses Bagged Beckwith

But DeLaughter and his officers stumbled across new evidence,including negatives from the crime scene and new witnesses whotestified Beckwith had bragged to them "about beating thesystem."

Beckwith was arrested Dec. 17, 1990, and when he stood in frontof a new jury in 1994, he was 74 years old.

His prosecutors were armed with new evidence and a 127-pagedocument claiming 21 errors were made in Beckwith's original trial.Also, eight of the 12 jurors were black.