Man to Stand Trial in 1966 Slaying
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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. U.S. District Judge William H. Barbour Jr. in Jackson set a Feb. 24 trial date for Avants, who suffered a stroke last year.
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.
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