civil rights killings. For three men, including Killen, the trial ended in a hung jury, with the jurors deadlocked 11–1 in favor of conviction. The lone holdout said that she could not convict a preacher. The prosecution decided not to retry Killen and he was released. None of the men found guilty would serve more than six years in prison. More than 20 years later, Jerry Mitchell, an award-winning investigative reporter for The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi, wrote extensively about the case for six years. Mitchell helped to secure convictions in other high-profile Civil Rights Era murder cases, including the assassination of Medgar Evers, the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, and the murder of Vernon Dahmer. Mitchell assembled new evidence regarding the murders of the three civil rights workers. He also located new witnesses and pressured the state to take action. Assisting Mitchell were high school teacher Barry Bradford and a team of three students from Illinois. The students persuaded Killen to do his only taped interview (to that point) about the murders. The tape showed Killen competent, aware, and clinging to his segregationist views. The student-teacher team found more potential witnesses, created a website, lobbied the United States Congress, and focused national media attention on reopening the case. Carolyn Goodman, the mother of one of the victims, called them "super heroes". The film Mississippi Burning is related to the murders. Reopening of the case In early January 2004, a multiracial group of citizens in Neshoba County formed the Philadelphia Coalition, to seek justice for the 1964 murders. Led by co-chairs Leroy Clemons and Jim Prince, the group met over several months and then issued a call for justice, first in March 2004 and then on June 21, the 40th anniversary of the murders. That event was attended by over 1500 people. The sitting Mississippi governor was present and four congressmen, including Rep. John Lewis and Rep. Bennie Thompson. Former Mississippi Secretary of State Dick Molpus made a speech imploring those with information about the crimes to come forward. The Coalition met over the summer with state attorney general Jim Hood, along with Andrew Goodman's mother Carolyn Goodman and brother David Goodman. They asked Hood to re-open the case. The group also met with local district attorney Mark Duncan. The group was supported throughout by the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation. In the fall of 2004, an anonymous donor