Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Saturday

The Case Against Bobby Frank Cherry

Aired May 18, 2002 - 17:15   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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD: It is an indelible mark on American history, the 1963 bombing of a Birmingham church that killed four African-American girls. The last of four men implicated is now on trial. Here is CNN's Brian Cabell.

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The state's case portrayed Bobby Frank Cherry as a former Ku Klux Klansman who was violently opposed to school integration and later complained Birmingham was turning into a "little Africa."

Prosecutors, through audiotapes and testimony, tied him closely to Bob Chambliss (ph) and Tom Blint (ph), both of whom were convicted of the church bombing. Particularly damaging was the testimony of Cherry's own granddaughter Theresa Stacey (ph) who said he bragged in taking part in the bombing. His ex-wife, recalling a time when Cherry's car broke down near the church, said much the same.

WILLABEAN BROGDON, CHERRY'S EX-WIFE: He just said that was where he planted a bomb under the steps.

CABELL: He said that? Did he say he was sorry about it?

BROGDON: Sometimes he would say he's sorry, other times he'd brag about it.

CABELL: FBI testimony also revealed that Cherry boasted of learning how to make bombs while in the military.

(on camera): But the state's case does have its problems. There are inconsistencies, contradictions, plenty of unanswered, maybe unanswerable questions.

(voice-over): One problem for prosecutors, no timing device was ever found at the scene. They don't know how the bomb was set off or precisely what role Cherry may have played in the bombing. Some testimony said he planted the bomb, some said he built it, some said he lit the fuse. But there is no direct eyewitness testimony tying him to the bombing.

DOUG JONES, PROSECUTOR: No one has ever said we relied on an eyewitness to this bombing. You don't always have eyewitnesses to a crime. And we didn't have anybody there, we don't feel like we need anybody. CABELL: Also unexplained, a phone call that was made to the church just before the bombing. A male caller simply said, "Three minutes," then hung up.

Who made the call and why? Nobody knows. Another puzzling report, two men seen running away from the church after the bombing. If that's true, who were those men? Those are questions that leave the murders of four girls after 39 years still unresolved, and leave the fate of Bobby Frank Cherry in doubt.

Brian Cabell, CNN, Birmingham.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com