Three young civil rights workers were killed more than a half century ago and concrete justice for their deaths will never come to pass. Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman were working to register black voters at a church in Neshoba County, Mississippi on June 21, 1964. After working the voter registration the three men vanished.

It took 44 days for their bodies to be discovered.

They were shot to death and their bodies placed in a dam off the side of the road. Three years later, eight men were convicted of violating the victims’ federal civil rights. None of them served more than six years of their sentences.

The case was closed and then reopened decades later in 1999. Upon reopening the case, Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen was convicted in 2005 and is now serving a 60-year sentence for manslaughter. No one was prosecuted for murder.

Since the conviction of Killen and the deterioration of evidence, no other charges have been filed which prompted Mississippi Attorney General, Jim Hood to close the case.

“It has been a thorough and complete investigation. I am convinced that during the last 52 years, investigators have done everything possible under the law to find those responsible and hold them accountable; however, we have determined that there is no likelihood of any additional convictions. Absent any new information presented to the FBI or my office, this case will be closed,” Hood said at a press conference.

Hood released the 48 page FBI report related to the three murders. The majority of individuals close to the case are deceased. The widow of Michael Schwerner, Rita Schwerner Bender, believes that it is essential for Mississippi to address its history of racism.

“As a nation, we have to come to terms without our racist past and our continuing inability to move past it,” Bender said.

The murders of Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman inspired the 1998 film, Mississippi Burning.

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