Trial begins for final suspect in 1963 Alabama church bombing

Jet, May 27, 2002

Nearly four decades after a bomb blast killed four Black girls inside a crowded church in Birmingham, AL, a former Ku Klux Klansman finally stands trial for his alleged role in the deadly explosion.

The recent selection of 16 jurors, including four alternates, cleared the way for opening statements in the trial of Bobby Frank Cherry, the final suspect in the 1963 church bombing. Cherry, 71, who now lives in Mabank, TX, is accused of planting dynamite with three other Klansmen outside the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, a rallying site for demonstrators seeking an end to segregation.

The explosion killed three 14-year-olds, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson, and 11-year-old Denise McNair as they prepared for a Sunday service on Sept. 15, 1963. The bombing occurred on the heels of President Kennedy's executive order to desegregate Alabama schools and is considered the deadliest act of violence during the Civil Rights Era. Cherry could get life in prison if convicted.

Prosecutor Doug Jones said it's time to put the case that has haunted Birmingham for 39 years to rest. "It's time this chapter comes to a close," he said. Potential prosecution witnesses in the trial include Cherry's granddaughter Teresa Stacy and ex-wife Willadean Towns, who both have said Cherry admitted involvement in the blast. A son, Tom Cherry, has publicly contradicted one of his father's potential alibis in the bombing.

Cherry, along with Thomas Blanton Jr., was indicted on murder charges in 2000. Although Blanton was convicted of murder in 2001 and is serving a life term, a judge found Cherry mentally incompetent to stand trial. In January, the judge reversed that competency ruling after examiners determined Cherry was faking mental illness.

Another Klansmen, Robert Chambliss, had been convicted of murder in the bombing in 1977 and died in prison. A fourth suspect, Herman Cash, died in 1994 without being charged.