Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act
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The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act is an Act of the United States Congress that exists to reopen cases of racially suspicious violent crimes that were committed during the pre-Civil Rights era, in an attempt to bring closure to families and bring criminals to justice.
Contents
Background
Why This Act Was Created
Before the 1960s, when several important pieces of civil rights legislation were passed, many racially motivated violent crimes were committed in the United States. These crimes were rarely investigated, and the perpetrators were rarely prosecuted.[1] One study found that almost four thousand lynchings took place in Southern America between 1877 and 1950.[2] The vast majority of the people responsible for these lynchings were never held responsible for their actions. The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, first passed in 2008, aims to reopen these cold cases and discover the truths behind them.[1]
Why It Was Named For Emmett Till
Emmett Till was a fourteen-year-old black boy who, in 1955, was accused of whistling at, or flirting with, a married white woman in a grocery store. As a result of this incident, he was abducted, beaten, mutilated, then finally shot in the head.[3] Till’s murderers went to trial but were acquitted by an all-white jury. They later confessed to killing him; however, no one was ever convicted for his murder. Many years later, the woman who had accused Till of behaving inappropriately admitted that she had lied about the events.[3]
The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act was named for Till because his case is a prime example of the criminal justice system excusing violence against racial minorities in the years before the Civil Rights era. The bill was put into place to investigate unsolved cases similar to Till’s, and to deliver the truth to families of victims of race-related violence.
The Bill
2008 Bill
The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act was first proposed in 2007 and was eventually passed in 2008. The bill serves several purposes, such as assisting the families of victims, as well as creating increased collaboration between law enforcement, the FBI, and the Department of Justice. Overall, its primary purpose is to advocate for the reopening of racially suspicious cold cases, in an attempt to find the truth. As of its authorization in 2008, the bill could apply to any case before December 31, 1969.[4]
Success
The 2008 bill has resulted in the closing of several cases from the pre-Civil Rights era, but it has been far less successful in actually prosecuting the perpetrators of these crimes. In fact, as of 2015, only one of these several cases had made it to court and resulted in a successful prosecution.[5] This was the case of Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was shot by a US state police officer named James Fowler. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and served six months in prison.[5]
As the numbers clearly show, the implementation of the bill was not as successful as its supporters had hoped; however, many believe that this is understandable, given the legal obstacles that seem to be working against this bill. For example, the Fifth Amendment protects Americans from going to trial for an offence for which they have already been found not guilty.[5] This can make it difficult to prosecute criminals from the pre-Civil Rights era, as many, such as Emmett Till’s murderers, were tried and found not guilty at the time of their crimes.[5] Further, as the Department of Justice has noted, it can be extremely difficult to prosecute cold cases, given that the involved parties can be challenging to locate, or even dead, and evidence can be missing or destroyed.[5]
2016 Reauthorization
The bill was reauthorized on Saturday, December 10, 2016. In the House of Representatives, the original sponsors of the bill were Rep. John Lewis, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, and Rep. John Conyers. In the Senate, it was led by Sen. Claire McCaskill, Sen. Richard Burr, and Sen. Patrick Leahy.[1]
When the bill was reauthorized, changes were made, as after the first version of the bill, there were concerns about how it was operating. The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Reauthorization Act contained a number of new provisions that aimed to make the bill more successful.[1]
The new bill aimed to connect the FBI, the Department of Justice, and law enforcement officers to organizations such as universities or advocacy groups that had also been investigating cold cases from the pre-Civil Rights era. Other modifications to the bill included changing the time period to which the bill applied (including all cases before December 31, 1979), clarifying the purpose of the bill, urging the Department of Justice to review specific cases, and eliminating the sunset provision of the original bill, which stated that the bill expired at the end of the 2017 fiscal year.[1][4]
Related
References
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