Selma and the Liuzzo Murder Trials by Turner James P

Author:Turner, James P. [Turner, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Michigan Press

County Solicitor Carlton Perdue (who had joined Gamble in the prosecution) also made a short argument. He publicly addressed Murphy as “my dear friend” and his accompanying klansmen as these “gentlemen.” To me, he looked for all the world as if he was swallowing a dose of distasteful medicine. Perdue asked “for a verdict that would say, ‘murder must stop’” (Judith Helms, “Klansman’s Fate In Hands of Jury,” Montgomery Advertiser, May 7, 1965, 1).

Matt Murphy then rose, took center stage, and proceeded to address the all-white jury for over an hour in carefully coded language. He began speaking slowly in a calm voice. Murphy said he appeared there as “one white man to another,” but quickly disclaimed any intention “to speak to your prejudices.” He asked that if he had done anything “that met with your disapproval, don’t blame that boy over there. Blame me.” As reported in the Los Angeles Times (Nelson, May 9, 1965, 16):

Then he launched into Rowe quoting Jesus Christ as saying, “What advantage is there if a man gain the whole world and then lose his soul?”

“What kind of a man is Gary Tommy Rowe,” he bellowed, “who comes into a fraternal organization—by hook or crook—cares not what he swears to—joins the United Klans for 30 pieces of silver.”

Murphy called the FBI informant “a treacherous rattlesnake and viper” and said he would accept money from Communists, the NAACP and Dr. Martin Luther King.

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