The jury, once selected, was sequestered at the nearby Delta Inn, where a cross was burned in the yard the morning of opening arguments. It’s well established that this trial was corrupted from the beginning by the familial ties stretching from the Hills down to the courthouse in Sumner. The killers and most of the jurors, the defense attorneys and the sheriff and the local congressman, were all from the same tiny corner of Tallahatchie hill country.
