1966 Klan killing puts man on trial

JACKSON, Miss. -- A federal judge has ruled that a white man accused in a 1966 Ku Klux Klan slaying is competent to stand trial. Ernest Avants, 71, was indicted in 2000 on charges of aiding and abetting the murder of Ben Chester White. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge William H. Barbour Jr. set a Feb. 24 trial date for Avants, who suffered a stroke last year, A federal probation officer testified that Avants now communicates as he did before.

Defense lawyer Tom Royals said Avants' mental health wasn't as good as the officer depicted.

Avants, who has maintained his innocence, did not speak during the hearing.

Prosecutors believe the June 10, 1966, killing might have been part of a plot to lure the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to the area so he could be assassinated.

In 1967, a state court acquitted Avants in the death.

Federal prosecutors claimed jurisdiction in 2000 after learning the slaying occurred in a national forest.

Two other men accused in the slaying have died. One confessed but a mistrial was declared, and the other was never tried.