The trial, conducted in Meridian, Mississippi with U.S. District Court Judge W. Harold Cox presiding, resulted in convictions of 7 of the 18 defendants.

[1] Indictments were originally presented against 18 defendants, three of whom were officials of the Mississippi government, for conspiracy to commit as well as substantial violations of deprivation of rights secured or protected by the Constitution.

That law was still in effect and it made it a federal crime for state officials to deny a person any of the rights and privileges guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution because of race.

The jurors were: The penalties exacted by the federal penal system were, In 1988, the film Mississippi Burning was loosely based on the trial and the events surrounding the murder.

It starred Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe as two FBI agents who travel to Mississippi to uncover the events surrounding the disappearance of three civil rights workers.