Apartheid. USA 1988

February 5, 1988:

The trial of two former Ku Klux Klansmen charged in the beating to death of a black teenager, Michael Donald (19)

[p. 167]

ended in a mistrial when a defendant collapsed during the testimony of a former associate describing how he made the noose to hang the youth's body from a tree. Judge Micahel Zoghby of Mobile, Alabama County Circuit Court said the illness of the defendant, Benny Jack Hays (71) left no choice but to declare a mistrial. Mr Hays's son, Henry Francis Hays, was convicted of capital murder in 1983 and was sentenced to death for the killing of Mr Donald. James Knowles pleaded guilty in 1983 to Federal charges of violating Mr Donald's rights and was sentenced to life in prison on the condition that he co-operate in future investigations. Mr Hays collapsed with chest pains 15 minutes after Mr Knowles, the prosecution's star witness, began his second day of testimony.^212.

212. The New York Times, from a report by the Associated Press