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Liuzzo, Viola (d. 1965)
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1965 May 13 p. 3
Birth date: 1926
text of obituary:
Alabama Murder Trial Ends in Deadlock
In Alabama, the murder trial of a young Ku Klux Klansman charged with the slaying of Mrs. Viola Liuzzo, a white civil rights demonstrator, ended in deadlock.
The jury of 12 white men reported that their vote had been 10-2 for conviction. Two holdout jurors refused to change their vote on the excuse that an undercover FBI informer within the Klan had violated his oath to the secret order by turning star witness for the prosecution.
The two dissenting jurors denied that they themselves were Klan members.
The FBI informer testified that he personally saw the defendant, Collie LeRoy Wilkins, Jr., fire the fatal shot from a speeding car. The FBI also said that it had the death weapon which the defendant allegedly used.
A re-trial is to be held at a later date, when also two other accused accomplices are to be brought into court.
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1965 Oct 28 p. 5
text of obituary:
Tried for the second time, Klansman Collie Leroy Wilkins, Jr., 21, was acquitted at Hayneville, Ala. of the slaying of a white civil rights worker last March 25.
The jury announced its verdict after one hour and 45 minutes of deliberation.
An FBI informer, who was in the car at the time the shooting occurred, testified that he saw Wilkins fire the gun which killed Mrs. Viola Liuzzo, 39, of Detroit as she was driving with a Negro companion at night near Montgomery.