Washington Afro
October 2008
Legislation that would empower the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute Civil Rights-era crimes was signed into law Tuesday.
The bill, known as the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, was named after an African-American teenager who was mutilated and murdered for allegedly whistling at a White woman while on a summer vacation in Money, Miss., in 1955. The case remains unsolved today and his death helped propel the modern Civil Rights Movement.
After passing the House 422-2 in June 2007, the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act passed the Senate by unanimous consent on Sept. 24 and was signed Tuesday by President Bush. The unprecedented bill authorizes the attorney general to spend $10 million annually over 10 years to investigate and prosecute cold cases from past years.
Deborah J. Vagins of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Legislative Counsel said the bill comes at a time when “witnesses and suspects are aging and physical evidence may be scant,” but proves that justice will be delayed and not denied in the resolution of civil rights crimes and violations. [To read the entire story, go to: http://www.afro.com/tabid/456/itemid/1778/New-Law-to-Prosecute-CivilRights-Era-Crimes.aspx ]
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