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Prosecutors Reopen Civil Rights Case

Alabama indicts ex-state trooper in 1965 murder

By Greg Atwan,  Newser User

Posted May 11, 2007 4:39 PM CDT

(Newser) – Alabama prosecutors have reopened a decades-old murder case that helped spark the seminal Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. James Bonard Fowler, 73, a former state trooper, turned himself in yesterday after being indicted the 1965 murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson, whom prosecutors say he shot and killed during a demonstration in Marion.

Fowler, who is white, has acknowledged shooting Jackson but maintains he acted in self-defense. Fowler, who faces life in prison if convicted, winked at reporters as he left the sheriff's office. A cousin of Jackson's who is now a deputy sheriff was present at the booking, he said, "to stand for Jimmie Lee, my family and for justice."

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'   (Associated Press)
Retired Alabama state trooper James Bonard Fowler, 73, center, leaves the Perry County Sheriff's Office after turning himself in Thursday May 10, 2007, in Marion, Ala for the shooting death of Jimmie Lee Jackson in 1965. A grand jury indicted Fowler on Wednesday for the shooting that became the catalyst...
Retired Alabama state trooper James Bonard Fowler, 73, center, leaves the Perry County Sheriff's Office after turning himself in Thursday May 10, 2007, in Marion, Ala for the shooting death of Jimmie...   (Associated Press)
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'   (Associated Press)
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