Former Ku Klux Klans leader Edgar Ray Killen was sentenced Thursday to 60 years in prison for the killing of three civil rights workers in 1964.

Killen had been found guilty of felony manslaughter two days earlier in the killings of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner 41 years ago. The verdict was less severe than the more serious charge of murder that prosecutors had initially sought.

Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon handed down the maximum sentence yesterday - 20 years for each killing. Judge Gordon said, "Each life has value. There were three lives involved in this case and the three lives should absolutely be respected and treated equally." The sentence will likely keep the 80 year-old Killen locked up for the rest of his life.

Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney were helping African Americans register to vote in Mississippi during the Freedom Summer civil rights campaign when they were killed on June 21, 1964.
Prosecutors charged that Killen organized a posse to kidnap, beat and shoot the three civil rights workers and then bulldoze their bodies under an earthen dam.