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FD-350 (Rev. §-8-81) t (Mount Clipping in Space Below) Beckwith surprises own lawy spect Evers slay su & er . Seeks appeal right Byron De La Beckwith, appar- ie iis ently worried that his sta of ex- tradition might be disso ived, has filed his own appeal with the Ten- nessee Supreme Court. Beckwith filed an application for permission to appeal on Mo a n- day without the knowledge of his court-appointed attorney, Russell Bean of Chattanooga. “I was just flabbergasted and first,” Debbie Mays, a spokes- woman for Bean’ : Tuesda ans office, said y Beckwith, 70, of Signal Moun- tain is charged with murder in the 1963 slaying of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, and Mississippi has been trying to extradite him since late last year. The Tennessee Court of Crimi- nal Appeals ruled June 3 that Beckwith should be returned to Mississippi to stand trial. Two days later, the Mississippi attorney general’s office asked the appeals court to lift a stay - that allowed Beckwith to remain in Tennessee while he appealed extradition. Bean filed a reply to. that request on June 6, noting-his intention to appeal the appeals court ruling with the Supreme Court by the July 3 deadline. Beckwith, who has vowed to fight his extradition “tooth, nail and claw,” apparently didn’t want to wait for Bean to file the appeal, Mays said. “They were worried that the Court of Appeals was go- ing to rule on that motion to dis- Solve the stay and they would grant it and he would be gone to Mississippi.” Evers, a field secretary for the NAACP, was shot to death on June 12, 1963, in front of his Jack- son, Miss., home. Beckwith was tried twice by all-white juries in 1963, but neither could reach a verdict, and the murder charge was dropped in 1969. However, 8 second indictment was returnéd late last year in Jackson after authorities said new evidence had surfaced, and Beck- with was arrested Dec. 17. In his 26-page appeal brief, Beckwith crossed out Bean’s name three times and wrote, “By- ‘ron De La Beckwith Pro Se.” Pro se means a client is his own law- yer. 140-369 9/.7 ® | (indicate page. name of j Newspaper, city and state.) > KNOXVILLE or ecloramdibuy, 11214) Edition: Lo ons