[JURIST] Mississippi Judge Marcus Gordon on Friday granted bail to former Ku Klux Klansman Edgar Ray Killen [JURIST news archive], who, in June, was sentenced to 60 years in prison [JURIST report] for the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers. Gordon granted Killen's release on bond of $600,000 after determining through testimony that Killen, who is 80 and wheelchair bound, was neither a flight risk nor a danger to the public while his appeal is pending. Killen was found at trial to have organized a group to kidnap, assault, and shoot Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney. The three had just arrived in Mississippi to advance black voting rights during the 1964 Freedom Summer [US State Department information] when they were killed. Killen had not posted bond as of early Friday afternoon. Reuters has more.