A federal judge has denied efforts by reputed Ku Klux Klansman Edgar Ray Killen for access to FBI files obtained by The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson.

On Tuesday, the judge quashed the subpoena for the 40,000 pages of FBI files the newspaper contended it obtained for a source on the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner.

Killen was convicted of manslaughter in 2005 in the deaths and is serving a 60-year sentence.

Defense lawyer Rob Ratliff of Mobile, Ala., had subpoenaed the files on behalf of Killen in his ongoing federal court appeal. Ratliff contends Killen has never seen the FBI files the paper has.

The government has said all FBI files used in Killen’s case had been given his trial attorney.