And it's about time!
The Justice Department would get more than $100 million for new prosecutors, FBI agents and other resources to revisit unsolved murders from the civil rights era under a bill passed by the House Wednesday.
The bill, which is also moving swiftly through the Senate, would authorize $10 million a year over the next decade to build on the Justice Department's recent successes in reopening racially motivated crimes that had sat cold for decades. It also would earmark $2 million per year in grants for state and local law enforcement agencies to investigate cases in which federal prosecution isn't practical, and an additional $1.5 million to improve coordination among investigating agencies.
The bill, passed 422-2, is named in honor of Emmett Till, a black teenager from Chicago who was beaten and murdered in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of whistling at a white woman. His killers were never convicted.
"We must do something to right these wrongs," said Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat and civil rights veteran who sponsored the bill. "We have an obligation ... let us move to close this dark stain on our nation's history."
Two Republicans, Ron Paul of Texas and Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia, voted against the bill.
"We must do something to right these wrongs," said Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat and civil rights veteran who sponsored the bill. "We have an obligation ... let us move to close this dark stain on our nation's history."
Two Republicans, Ron Paul of Texas and Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia, voted against the bill.
Brian Robinson, a spokesman for Westmoreland, said the congressman supports pursuing civil rights cases where leads and evidence exist but that the Justice Department should be able to handle those cases within its existing budget.
"It's creating a new bureaucracy where existing law enforcement divisions can handle the caseload," Robinson said. "This was named for Emmett Till and that's illustrative of the point. The guy who killed him has been dead for many, many years. We can't prosecute dead people."
2 comments:
I remember the Emmett Till case. I was old enough to understand and my Father would not let me visit family in the South. Yes I had a big mouth and asked to many questions to be let loose. I am glad this bill will help heal the pass. I wrote Ron Paul as he was 20 years old in 1955 and was old enough to understand right from wrong. I watched the trial of the defendants and it was a joke. When I read the magazine article and the men admitted to the killing and bragged about it. even the woman said her husband killed Emmett.
The worse part about this is that Emmett Till was a child, an innocent child.
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