Judge Marcus Gordon

Here is more information about Judge Marcus Gordon, the judge who sentenced the sisters and who managed their case.

(Ed. note:  We have learned that the sentences themselves were set by the jury. Apparently 12 Scott County citizens unanimously decided to commit the sisters for two life sentences each. It would be interesting to hear a juror's story. Perhaps someday this will surface.

Judge Gordon remains a person of interest. Someday perhaps his own self-told story will join the rest, out in the info-sphere.)


Investigative reporter Jerry Mitchell of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger says that he sentenced Killen, the killers of Cheney, Goodman and Schwerner to 60 years. I read somewhere else that Killen's sentence was reduced to 10 years. Both could be true. Killen was very old. Killen was the clergyman of choice in the funeral of Judge Gordon's parents, but Killen had threatened Gordon years before and had spent months in jail for it. Killen was also a KKK leader. This would suggest that Gordon's father may have been involved in the organization. But Killen and Gordon were no friends.


... From a long retelling of the sisters' story by Evelyn Rasco, the sisters' mom:
http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/jackson-advocate/mi_8134/is_20100701/freedom-scott-sisterstakes-unity/ai_n54571245/
"I would also like it known that in 2003, an attorney, Edwin Thompson, one of the most crooked lawyers in Mississippi, told my husband that he knew Judge Marcus Gordon well and would talk to him about reducing Jamie and Gladys' time. It was a ploy to try'to get money out of my husband. My husband paid Thompson a large sum of money in order for Marcus Gordon to have Jamie and Gladys time reduced. Marcus Gordon brought Jamie and Gladys back from prison. He began thumbing through a rulebook. He then stated that a rule in there prevented him from reducing the sentence. This is something they knew from the beginning.
"They exploited my husband. Marcus Gordon pulled some undercover stuff that judges don't usually do. A lot of people don't really know about that. How do you bring someone back from the prison to socall reduce their time? Don't that sound stupid or strange? I will add that they had already served a lot of years before he brought them back. So all of a sudden, out of the kindness of his heart, he decides to bring them back? He did it for the money he could get out of my husband.
"How much money did Thompson get? How much did Judge Gordon get? I don't know! But I do know that my husband died a broke man. And a sad man! After they tricked him out of his money, it wasn't long before my husband died of a massive heart attack (2003)."


After Killen's conviction, he appealed and was released on bond for health reasons. But when Judge Gordon heard that Killen was walking around like a healthy man, he revoked bond and put Killen back in jail. Gordon does not like to be fooled. Judge Gordon considers himself to be a sensitive person. To himself, he is.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/klansman-who-misled-judge-over-health-to-win-bail-is-sent-back-to-jail-506273.html

Perhaps someone close to him could ask Judge Gordon, "How can we teach convicts about the Golden Rule?"