Prosecutors expect the jury to get the case around lunch time, when both sides finish their closing statements. The defense rested Monday afternoon after calling only two witnesses to rebut 22 called by federal prosecutors who are trying the case in state court under a special arrangement. He was convicted in the same Jefferson County courtroom where jurors are hearing Blanton's case. Chambliss died in prison in 1985 maintaining his innocence. In the years since the crime, key witnesses have died.
Prosecutors concede they have only circumstantial evidence.
They lack forensic evidence to link Blanton to the bombing. But Doug Jones, the U.S. attorney in Birmingham, said there were enough pieces presented for a guilty verdict. Witnesses categorized Blanton as a hate-filled segregationist who went to secret meetings to plan crimes against blacks. Jurors heard tapes recorded by an FBI informant, Mitchell Burns, a former Klansman who said Blanton liked to drive by the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church after the fatal explosion. The case, as we said, is what we call a building-block case.