Byron De La Beckwith

Byron De La Beckwith
De La Beckwith in 1973
Born(1920-11-09)November 9, 1920
DiedJanuary 21, 2001(2001-01-21) (aged 80)
OccupationSalesman
Criminal statusDeceased
Conviction(s)Murder
Criminal penaltyLife imprisonment

Byron De La Beckwith Jr. (November 9, 1920 – January 21, 2001) was an American white supremacist and member of the Ku Klux Klan who murdered civil rights leader Medgar Evers on June 12, 1963 in Jackson, Mississippi.

In 1964, he was tried twice on a murder charge in Mississippi. The all-white male juries each ended in hung juries, and De La Beckwith went free. In 1994, based on new evidence, he was tried again. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, where he eventually died in 2001 at the age of 80.