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Once prosecuting attorney Bobby DeLaughter reopened the murder case of Medgar Evers, a huge break came through for the prosecution when the murder weapon that Byron de la Beckwith used was found. Ironically, the rifle was found in DeLaughter's father-in-law's gun collection. A well-known circuit court judge, the prosecutor's father-in-law acquired the rifle after the first two trials. With the weapon found, the State moved to exhume Medgar Evers' body to determine if the wound was compatible with bullets from the rifle. Rob Reiner, who had obtained footage of newsreels and private films of marches and protests of the era, now received permission from the Evers family to capture the exhumation on film. To the amazement of all present, the body had barely begun to decompose. The coroner noted that Evers looked as if he had been buried only a few days rather than 30 years.
The idea of making a major feature film around the Medgar Evers case was initiated by producer Frederick Zollo, who also produced the film Mississippi Burning in Jackson, Mississippi. On a visit to Jackson during the 1994 trial of Byron de la Beckwith, Zollo attempted to attend the trial verdict but could not due to its overflow crowds. However, his friend Willie Morris, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Jackson resident, witnessed most of the proceedings and suggested to Zollo that the story of the trials would make an uplifting motion picture.
Castle Rock Entertainment assigned screenwriter Lewis Colick to travel to Jackson and compile an exhaustive history of the murder case and its three trials. Colick initially wavered on the length of the investigation trip to Jackson, as he was the father of a two-year-old son and wasn't looking to be away from home. "But the more you learn about Medgar Evers, the more you are tempted to spend time in the past and uncover his story through its many phases," says Colick. Colick based his screenplay on Maryanne Vollers' 1994 book, Ghosts of Mississippi.
Director Rob Reiner had already proved his ability with courtroom drama. A Few Good Men (1992) was fitting evidence that Reiner was skillful in creating an authentic courtroom battleground between two or more warring points of view.
James Woods aggressively lobbied director Rob Reiner for the role of Byron de la Beckwith, which Reiner originally meant for a much older actor, like Paul Newman. Although he wanted the juicy part badly, Woods had no intention of meeting his real-life counterpart. Even though the convicted murderer was jailed inside the Hinds County Courthouse and only a short distance from actual filming there, Woods chose not to even approach Beckwith. Woods said, "I had no desire to meet the man himself. For one thing, he shot somebody else in the back in front of his wife and kids. There is no reason that could ever justify that kind of horrible behavior. So why would I want to meet him? I also didn't want to further glorify his inflated sense of himself. I wouldn't want to breathe the same air." Woods elaborated in another interview when he said, "This guy is scum, and I don't want to meet scum." Woods believes it's important to play evil well, to make people emotionally aware of it. He maintained that he wouldn't play clich¿or stock villains. Woods said, "I'm so sick of evil being justified. People ask, 'Why did Beckwith do it?' Because he's an evil [expletive]. You know? Period. It doesn't take a rocket scientist. He was a bad guy."
Ghosts of Mississippi was filmed on location in Jackson, Mississippi, where Medger Evers lived, worked and died. They secured such locations as the actual Evers home at 2332 Guynes Street in northwest Jackson and the Hinds County Courthouse in downtown Jackson. While shooting the emotionally wrenching assassination at night at the former Evers residence, several visitors to the set brought an uncanny realism to the production. Charles Evers, older brother of Medgar, appeared as a bystander and silently watched the filming, keeping to himself. Some neighbors on the block were living there in 1963, so the production had priceless resources for accuracy.
Producer Frederick Zollo maintained, "In the film, Medgar Evers is assassinated on the exact spot he was standing that night in 1963. The actual interiors of the Evers house were used, including the same room Mrs. Evers was in during that fateful night. Even when we went inside to shoot interiors in Los Angeles, those details were keenly observed and reproduced." The interior of the Hinds County Courthouse courtroom, as well as the District Attorney's offices, were built on sets at Culver Studios in California. The company finished shooting there after six initial weeks in Mississippi. Some private homes, such as the DeLaughter and present-day Evers' residences, were recreated at homes in Southern California. But overall, the aim was to shoot as much on actual location as possible with many of the actual participants either on-screen or off-camera.
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