Byron De La Beckwith
Byron De La Beckwith
Byron De La Beckwith (1921-2001) was an American white supremacist and the assassin of civil rights leader Medgar Evers on June 12, 1963 in Jackson, Mississippi.
Two trials ended with deadlocked all-white juries unable to reach a verdict. Beckwith was finally convicted in 1994, based on new evidence that he had boasted about the killing at a Ku Klux Klan rally. He was given a life sentence for murder and died in prison in 2001 of heart problems, while his case was still being appealed.