The case of a Mississippi man accused of murdering his son's wife because she was black goes to the jury Wednesday.

Chiman Rai, a native of India, called a series of friends and family members Tuesday to tell jurors he is not a bigot.

Testimony ended with his eldest son, Dr. Roger Rai, a research physician, saying he had dated black women and would have no family concerns about marrying one.

The son said his father was concerned about the behavior of the brother, Rajeeve "Ricky" Rai, who had married Sparkle Rai shortly before she was killed but not because of the interracial marriage.

Ricky Rai had refused to go to college and was mismanaging one of the family businesses, a motel in Louisville, Ky., and had stolen money from the motel and an uncle before running off to Atlanta with Sparkle, Roger Rai and other siblings testified.

"There were issues but not with her being African-American," Roger Rai testified. "There were issues about Ricky himself."

Fulton County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Rai. A dozen non-family witnesses, black and white, testified that they had never seen the 68-year-old Rai act like a bigot.

They said he had a reputation for treating people fairly regardless of color or religion in Jackson, Miss., where he ran a grocery and other businesses.

"A racist? Somebody is lying," said Rickey King, a black businessman who owned a tire shop by Rai's store.

Jimmy Smith, a former linebacker for the Cincinnati Bengals, said he had got to know Rai after he retired from football and became a beer salesman.

"He is no racist," said Smith, who is African-American. "I've been knowing Dr. Rai for 30 years."

Wayne Hoover, a white man who owned a nearby grocery, said he had never heard Rai nor his relatives say anything even in private conversation that was ill toward blacks.

"It is not in his makeup," said Hoover. "A lot of people respected him and he would do things for other people that other people wouldn't do. If you were in a bind, he would help you out."

Prosecutors Sheila Ross and Eleanor Ross established with each witness that Rai had never told them that his son had married a black woman and that they had a daughter, now 8.

Sparkle was murdered in her Union City apartment on April 27, 2000, a month after they wed and a day before one of her husband's sisters was to marry. None on the Rai family members have seen Ricky Rai's daughter, Analla, who was adopted by Sparkle's father, Bennett Reid, and her stepmother, Donna Lowry, a reporter with WXIA-TV in Atlanta..

Rajeeve Rai told investigators at the time that his parents were bigoted and that he and Sparkle were essentially shunned by them.

Prosecutors have said the Rais, regardless of their relationships in Jackson, felt the interracial marriage would be a stain in the caste-conscious Indian community and would interfere with their other children.

"He did not want a biracial child in his family because that would affect his other children's ability to marry ... to good Indian family," Sheila Ross told jurors.

Prosecutors, however, never brought in any expert to testify how a biracial marriage would be viewed among that ethnic group.

Prosecutors earlier called two Mississippi men who testified they arranged the murder through underworld contacts.

The two men are expected to get probation in return for their testimony.

Defense lawyers Don Samuel and Jack Martin said the two witnesses were lying to cover up their roles in the killing, which the defense lawyers contend has more of the marking of robbery than a contract murder.