LONG TIME COMING

A limit was placed on civil rights leader Medgar Evers' life; a bullet in the back saw to that. Three decades after his slaying, though, there's no limit on justice. The Mississippi Supreme Court has cleared the way for a third trial of white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith, 72, in the assassination of Evers on June 12, 1963. Beckwith was tried twice in 1964 by all-white juries, which deadlocked. Beckwith's wife Thelma wept at the news of the new trial. So did Evers' widow Myrlie.

TERMS OF ENDEARMENT

Republican Governor John Ashcroft of Missouri has commuted the life sentences of two women, Helen Martin and Becca Hughes, both convicted of murdering abusive husbands. Ashcroft said he commuted the sentences because the women were convicted before a 1987 law allowing the "battered-spouse syndrome" as a defense. They are now eligible for parole, but probably neither will be released for over a year. Critics say Ashcroft should release the women now.

SO SUE ME

When the Treasury Department ordered chess genius Bobby Fischer to obey U.S. sanctions and forgo a $5 million match in Yugoslavia last fall, Fischer, the sole American-born world chess champion, delivered an unambiguous reply: he spit on the department's letter. He also won the match. Now that a federal jury has issued a warrant for Fischer's arrest, the misanthropic grandmaster continues his defiance, telling a Belgrade newspaper that he will play additional matches there.