The death of Jimmie Lee Jackson was said to be the spark that reignited the fire beneath the 1965 civil rights movement.

Fifty years after the movement changed the course of history, the Alabama State Trooper responsible for Jackson’s death has passed away.

James Bonard Fowler, 81, died Sunday, July 5 due to complications from pancreatic cancer in Geneva County, according to his obituary in The Dothan Eagle.

“It is very ironic that he died the same year we had the Selma movie released, the 50th anniversary of the voting rights marches and signing of the Voting Rights Act,” said Perry County District Attorney Michael Jackson, who reopened the case. “It is all very ironic.”

Jackson reopened the case because Fowler confessed to killing Jackson in self-defense during a 2005 interview with The Anniston Star.

“I started getting a lot of calls from people telling me that I need to investigate that situation. I said I would look into it, and we started an investigation,” Jackson said.

“Of course the case was 40 years old, so I wasn’t expecting a whole lot out of it, but as I got more and more into the case, we were able to come up with enough evidence to take it to a Perry County grand jury.”

Jackson also wanted to bring closure to Jimmie Lee’s family and close the book on his tragic death.

“It was important to bring closure to the family but also to bring closure to the history. This was a very important incident that happened in Perry County,” Jackson said. “When Jimmie Lee Jackson got killed it galvanized the movement, and that is what led to the Selma to Montgomery marches.”

Fowler pleaded guilty in 2010 to manslaughter, and a judge ordered him to apologize for his actions and sentenced him to serve six months in jail.

Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot after hundreds of civil rights activists were attacked by law enforcement officers in Marion on Feb. 18, 1965. The group planned to march to the city jail to peacefully protest the arrest of a civil rights worker.

Jackson and others tried to escape the melee between the protestors and law enforcement by going into Mack’s Café.

Fowler, along with other officers followed them into the café and allegedly attacked them. Jackson reportedly defended his mother and was shot by Fowler in the stomach. Fowler said he shot Jackson because he was going for his gun.

Jackson died several days later at Good Samaritan Hospital in Selma on Feb. 28.

“This case was a pivotal moment in our country’s history and of course Alabama’s history,” Jackson said. “Once this happened, it reenergized everybody.”

Jackson’s death led to the infamous Bloody Sunday march, which took place just seven days after his death.

Hundreds of marches were beaten, gassed and trampled by former Dallas County Sheriff Jim Clark and his posse of deputies and Alabama State Troopers.

The death of the Rev. James J. Reeb days after Bloody Sunday further galvanized the movement, which was capped off with the final of three marches that went 50 miles from Selma to Montgomery. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 months later.

“It is an important case for the history books, and of course prayers go out to Fowler’s family also,” Jackson said.