Another of Mississippi’s civil rights murders was back in a courtroom this week &045; a case that was one of the most famous and, at least once, thought among the most difficult to find justice for.

Former Ku Klux Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen stood in a courtroom Friday, 41 years after his alleged role in the slayings of civil rights workers James Chaney, a 21-year-old black Mississippian, and two white New Yorkers, Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, 24.

The case was made famous in the movie &uot;Mississippi Burning,&uot; bringing fame &045; or infamy &045; the town of Philadelphia may not have wanted.

Some in the town have said they are upset the case is back in court. &uot;I wouldn’t mess with it,&uot; one resident said this week.

But, like other civil rights cases in which justice has finally been served, this one can bring healing to the community and to our state.

Many of us are far removed from the attitudes and issues of 1960s Mississippi, but the burden of injustice in cases like the Philadelphia murders is still too great for our state to bear.

We applaud the people who have kept at this case so many years after hung juries and lesser convictions. Not the least of those are three teenage girls in Illinois who learned about the case and made a documentary that spurred officials to reopen it.

A long road lies ahead for prosecutors and for the town of Philadelphia.

But a long road of injustice lies behind, and it is high time to right the wrong.