This is a short diary on the development today in the Murder trial of Louisiana Ku Klux Klan leader Raymond Foster for the 2008 killing of 43 year old Cynthia Lynch.
The trial of Raymond "Chuck" Foster had screeched to a halt ..... Around noon, Foster admitted to murdering Cynthia Lynch, 43, on Nov. 9, 2008, the day after she had been initiated into the Bogalusa Sons of Dixie Knights.
St. Tammany District Attorney Walter Reed called the Bogalusa Sons of Dixie Knights "a small, secretive group" that was "an embarrassment" to the north shore, where he described race relations as "not just good but excellent."
Lynch was a recruit to Fosters KKK group who decided she wanted out.
Frankie Stafford, a former member of the Klan group, testified Monday that Lynch cried tears of joy the night of her initiation but the next day angrily cursed Foster and yelled "I want out" before Foster shot her to death.
It is a win for the good guys today.
The defense was in full "blame the victim mode".
Defense attorneys had asked potential jurors to set aside whatever ill feelings they might have for the Klan and judge the case strictly on facts. As they sought a lesser verdict than second-degree murder, they elicited testimony from Stafford about Lynch's wide-ranging mood swings. He said she was intermittenly cheerful and angry, given at times to outbursts of blistering obscenities, including an hour-long tirade against Foster that preceded the shooting.