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White jury exonerates racist of shooting

NZPA South Bend. Indiana A jury yesterday found an avowed white racist innocent of violating the civil rights of the former National Urban League director Vernon Jordan. Joseph Paul Franklin aged 32. was charged after Mr Jordan a civil rights leader, was ambushed and shot in the back on May 29, 1980. Mr - Jordan now a lawyer in private practice, was wounded as he stepped from a car outside a motel in Fort

Wayne, Indiana. Franklin is serving four life prison sentences on charges in the shooting of two black men in Salt Lake City. In his instructions to the all-white jury, United States District Judge Allen Sharp had said jurors must decide not only whether Franklin shot Mr Jordan but also whether he committed the crime to prevent Mr Jordan from using the facilities of the Fort Wayne ' Motor

Inn. Because of the special nature of the civil rights law passed by Congress in 1968. the jury had to decide whether Franklin shot Mr Jordan because he was black. Franklin denied his, guilt in the Jordan shooting, but testified, that he hates the black race and does not believe in black men and white women being together. Mr Jordan was accompanied by a white woman the night he was shot.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19820819.2.66.6

Bibliographic details

Press, 19 August 1982, Page 8

Word Count
217

White jury exonerates racist of shooting Press, 19 August 1982, Page 8

White jury exonerates racist of shooting Press, 19 August 1982, Page 8