Defense to Begin in 1963 Bombing Trial
Attorneys for a former Ku Klux Klansman accused of murder in a 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls say they will begin their defense in Birmingham today by arguing that prosecutors have not proven their case.
“Is that all they’ve got?” defense attorney John Robbins asked.
Robbins said that before he calls his first witness, he will ask Circuit Judge James Garrett to dismiss the case on the grounds that the prosecution did not offer enough evidence to convict Thomas Blanton Jr.
Prosecutors rested Saturday after playing jurors an FBI recording in which Blanton said he wouldn’t be caught “when I bomb my next church.”
The comment by Blanton was among dozens recorded more than 35 years ago by Mitchell Burns, a Klansman-turned-paid FBI informant.
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