U.S. House Passes Bill to Reopen Civil Rights Murders

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House has passed a bill to establish a new division of federal prosecutors and FBI agents focused strictly on cracking unsolved murders from the civil rights era.

A similar bill is being considered in the Senate.

The House version -- passed Wednesday, June 20, 422-to-two -- would authorize $10 million a year over the next decade to create a unit at the Justice Department to pursue cases that have sat cold for decades.

It also would earmark $2 million a year in grants for state and local law enforcement agencies to investigate cases where federal prosecution isn't practical.

The bill 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.



Read more: http://www.myeyewitnessnews.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=db45d5ae-f325-45d9-95f1-28037b0a4ef2&rss=59

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Which two members voted against the measure?

[TransitJohn]

4. Ron Paul, Lynn Westmoreland eom

[Spoonman]

5. No surprise on the first one...

Lynn Westmoreland (R - GA)
Ron Paul (R - TX)

[Sequoia]

2. Excellent.

[High Plains]

3. What about the present civil and human rights violations that is...

...our criminal justice system? Prosecuting a handful of ancient geezers is nice, I suppose, but we have more than 2 million people behind bars in the "land of the free." Congress would do better do try to deal with that situation.

[peacebird]

6. oh for crying in a bucket.... can this house do anything about our current problems?

I mean this is nice, but why all the window dressing activity instead of real actions?

"a new division of federal prosecutors and FBI agents focused strictly on cracking unsolved murders from the civil rights era." Not that this isn't important, but how about a division to investigate corruption in the government?

What about investigating the fraud and corruption in the Katrina recovery effort? What about the missing WH/RNC emails? Why not the laws that aren't being enforced because of *'s signing statements?