Church Bombing Defense Rests
B I R M I N G H A M, Ala., April 30 -- Testimony ended today in the murdertrial of a former Ku Klux Klansman after the defense tried todiscredit witnesses linking him to a church bombing that killedfour black girls in 1963.
Thomas Blanton Jr., who contends he had nothing to do with theblast, did not testify.
"I didn't think he needed to," said defense lawyer JohnRobbins, who called only two witnesses compared to nearly two dozenfor the prosecution.
Jury deliberations will begin Tuesday after closing argumentsand instructions from Circuit Judge James Garrett, who denied adefense request today to dismiss the case.
Disputable Evidence
In refusing to halt the trial, Garrett rejected Robbins' claimsthat prosecutors had failed to present anything tying Blanton tothe explosion at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church on Sept. 15, 1963.
Robbins criticized government witnesses and secretly recordedtapes from the mid-1960s as ineffective in proving anything.
"There is no evidence that my client placed the bomb there,"said Robbins.
But Garrett ruled that prosecutors over the course of a weekpresented enough evidence "to make it a jury question."
Blanton, 62, is charged in the deaths of Denise McNair, 11, and14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and CaroleRobertson. The bombing, on a Sunday morning, was the deadliestsingle act against the civil rights movement.
Blanton, who has shown little emotion during the trial, heldhands with his daughter Lisa and hugged her during a break intestimony. She later quoted scripture to reporters.
"I just try to keep my mind on the word," said the woman, whodeclined to give her last name.
Taped Words Out of Context?
Prosecutors claimed Blanton was part of a group of Klansmen thattargeted Sixteenth Street Baptist because the big brick church indowntown Birmingham was a gathering point for youthfuldemonstrators during weeks of civil rights protests.
The state's main evidence against Blanton came on a series ofsecretly recorded tapes in which he discussed going to a meeting toplan the bomb. On another tape, Blanton claimed he wouldn't becaught when he blew up "my next church."
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