Ex-Policeman Offers Alibi for Beckwith in Murder Case : Trial: Repeating 30-year-old testimony, witness says accused was 90 miles away when Medgar Evers was killed. He admits friendship with suspect.

Unwavering and sometimes combative, a retired police officer Wednesday repeated the testimony he gave 30 years ago in the Medgar Evers murder trial: that he had seen accused assassin Byron De La Beckwith 90 miles away from Jackson less than an hour after Evers was killed.

Under cross-examination, James Holley also said he was a longtime friend of Beckwith, whom he referred to by his nickname, Delay. Holley, 65, who is white, also said that in 1963 he was a strong believer in segregation. Beckwith is an avowed racist.

Evers, the Mississippi field secretary for the NAACP, was slain about 12:30 a.m. on June 12, 1963, as he got out of his car at his home in Jackson. Holley’s testimony--and that of two other officers--placing Beckwith at a gas station in Greenwood, Miss., was considered crucial in 1964, when two all-white juries failed to reach verdicts in the case.

But this time eight of the 12 jury members are African Americans. And in the current trial--Beckwith’s third for the murder--the officers’ testimony must be weighed against that of witnesses who say they heard Beckwith brag over the years that he killed the 37-year-old civil rights leader.

Evers had spearheaded voter-registration drives and campaigns to end segregation of schools and public facilities in Mississippi.

According to previous testimony, Beckwith was an outspoken racist and gun enthusiast given to threatening violence against civil rights leaders.

Dist. Atty. Ed Peters tried to discredit Holley, accusing him of coordinating his testimony with Lt. Hollis Cresswell, his former partner who was ruled to be too ill to testify at this trial.

Peters suggested that Holley lied to help a “buddy.” Holley, who earlier said he and Beckwith had been friends since the late 1940s or early 1950s, replied that he and Beckwith were not close and said: “There were very few times I ever talked to the man.”

Holley also contradicted himself when answering questions about Beckwith’s racial views. He first said he knew Beckwith’s views regarding segregation, adding: “He’s outspoken.”

But Holley later said he did not know if Beckwith was a segregationist.

Holley also acknowledged that he never reported seeing Beckwith in Greenwood to anyone other than Beckwith’s attorney during the seven months the suspect was in jail awaiting trial.

“You let your buddy Delay stay there all that time and never once went to any law enforcement officer to say: ‘You’ve got the wrong m” Peters asked.

“No police officer ever asked me,” Holley answered.

Evers’ death is one of a number of unsolved murders stemming from the civil rights struggle of the 1960s. Interest in the case was evidenced by the packed courtroom and the presence of civil rights leaders.

During a break in the trial, National NAACP Chairman William Gibson said he hoped this trial would be a step toward resolving the others, which include the deaths of three civil rights workers in Philadelphia, Miss., a NAACP official in Florida and a civil rights worker in South Carolina.

“Statements have been made that maybe there should not be another trial because so much time has passed or there’s been too many trials,” Gibson said. “But the NAACP stands firmly supporting this trial.” Calling Evers a “great man and a great civil rights warrior, husband and father,” he said: “We hope that justice is done finally, finally.”

“The fact that this trial is going on is a sign of change,” said D’Army Bailey, a circuit court judge in Memphis who helped found the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. “The makeup of the jury is evidence that there has been change.”