Knew all along who did this,did nothing to protect source. Former Klansman Heading to Trial in 1963 Church Bombing That Killed Four Black Girls By Bob Johnson Associated Press Writer Published: May 7, 2002
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - The trial of the final suspect in a 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls has been put on hold so attorneys can study the jury pool's answers to questionnaires. The 114 potential jurors in the trial of former Ku Klux Klansman Bobby Frank Cherry on Monday filled out the lengthy questionnaires on their opinions about race and other issues. Circuit Judge James Garrett then sent them home with instructions to return Thursday to be questioned individually by prosecutors and defense attorneys. Cherry's trial is one of the nation's biggest pieces of unfinished business from the civil rights era. He is accused of helping other Klansmen plant a dynamite bomb outside the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, which was a downtown rallying site for demonstrators seeking an end to segregation. The explosion blew a hole in a wall and killed the four girls, ages 11 and 14, as they prepared for a Sunday morning service on Sept. 15, 1963. It was the deadliest act of violence during the civil rights era. Cherry, 72, could get life in prison if convicted. "It's been a long time. It's time that this chapter comes to a close," prosecutor Doug Jones said before Garrett imposed a gag order. Cherry was one of a group of Klansmen who came under almost immediate suspicion. However, the first prosecution in the case did not come until 1977, when Robert "Dynamite Bob" Chambliss was convicted and sentenced to prison, where he later died. Ex-Klansman Thomas Blanton Jr. was convicted of murder last year and sentenced to prison. A fourth suspect, Herman Cash, died in 1994 without being charged. Cherry was supposed to have gone on trial with Blanton but was ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial. But after psychologists testified that Cherry was faking, the judge reversed himself and declared Cherry competent.
