More than 300 potential jurors have been summoned for the US trial of a reputed Ku Klux Klansman accused of abducting, beating and dumping two young black men into the Mississippi River 43 years ago.

Reputed Ku Klux Klansman Edgar Ray Killen watched from a wheelchair today as jury selection began in his murder trial in one of most shocking crimes of the civil rights era – the 1964 slayings of three voter-registration volunteers that was later depicted in the movie “Mississippi Burning.”

An 80-year-old reputed Ku Klux Klansman will stand trial in Mississippi as scheduled next week in the 1964 murders of three civil rights workers despite injuries that are causing him discomfort, a judge ruled today.

More than 40 years after one of the most notorious crimes of the US civil rights era – the “Freedom Summer” killings of three young civil rights workers - a reputed Ku Klux Klansman was arrested on murder charges in the case.