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Opening Statements Expected in 1963 Church Bombing Trial

Aired May 13, 2002 - 12:11   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: In a Birmingham courtroom, lawyers taking up some unfinished business from the civil rights era. Opening statements today expected in the trial of the final suspect in the deadly 1963 church bombing.

Brian Cabell covering that case, joining us live now from Birmingham, Alabama with more -- Brian, hello.

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Bill.

They are in the final process now of selecting a jury inside here. We're told they're down to a pool of about 50 jurors at this point. They're expecting to whittle that down to 12 jurors and four alternates, probably by mid-afternoon. We could have opening statements this afternoon, or it could be held off until tomorrow morning.

Of course, on trial now is Bobby Frank Cherry, 71 years old, a former Klansman. Just last year he was ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial, but a subsequent examination of him proved that he was apparently faking his incompetence. So now he stands trial. If he is convicted in this trial, he will go to prison for life.

He is the last of four suspects charged in the church bombing back on September 15, 1963. Four girls killed in that bombing. One of them 11 years old, three of them 14 years old, as they were getting ready for a church service. The first of four suspects finally convicted in 1977, a second one died in 1994, a third convicted just last year. And now Bobby Frank Cherry, 71 years old, the last of the four original suspects fingered by the FBI now going on trial.

This trial expected to last two or three weeks. And it represents probably the final chapter in this awful story. The story that represents probably the single-most horrible crime of the civil rights era in Alabama back in the '60s -- Bill.

HEMMER: Brian, thanks. Brian Cabell, in Birmingham.

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