A federal appeals court will hear arguments Thursday in the case of a reputed Ku Klux Klansman who was convicted, then acquitted, in the 1964 kidnapping of two black teenagers.

James Ford Seale, now 73, was found guilty in June 2007 of abducting Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee, two 19-year-old friends allegedly killed by Klans members on May 2, 1964 and dumped in the Mississippi River.

Seale was serving three life sentences when the conviction was thrown out in September by a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The judges acquitted Seale based on the argument the statute of limitations had elapsed between the time the crime occurred and when he was indicted almost 43 years later.