Beckwith guilty of Medgar Evers killing

JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI - After 30 years and three trials, a white supremacist, Byron De La Beckwith, was found guilty yesterday and sentenced to life for murdering the civil rights leader, Medgar Evers, in 1963.

Beckwith, 73, was tried twice before all-white juries in 1964. Both times, the juries were deadlocked and mistrials were declared. The jury who convicted him comprised eight blacks and four whites. He was indicted a third time in 1991 after new witnesses came forward to say they had heard him claim responsibility for Evers's death. Beckwith has steadfastly maintained that he did not kill Evers. The trial was seen by many blacks as an important symbol of delayed justice in civil rights abuses. AP