The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Senate section on pages S2460-S2462 on April 26, 2016.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS
By Mr. BURR (for himself, Mrs. McCaskill, Mr. Leahy, and Mr.
Blunt):
S. 2854. A bill to reauthorize the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of 2007; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Mr. BURR. Mr. President, today I, along with Senator Leahy, Senator McCaskill, and Senator Blunt, will introduce the reauthorization of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act.
To give a little bit of history for my colleagues on this, this really stems from 1955, and it was the summer of 1955 when a young 14-
year-old left Chicago, IL, and traveled to Mississippi to visit relatives. While on that trip, he made a grave mistake. He whistled at a White woman. Because of that, Emmett Till was killed. The investigation that resulted from his death culminated in a 67-minute deliberation by a jury that found both men and acquitted them. Both individuals, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam confessed to the murder in 1956. In our criminal justice system, when you are found not guilty, you can't be retried. There was an injustice that was done. In this particular case, the injustice was done to Emmett Till, a 14-year-old.
Without an understanding of how many people might have been affected by the same lack of justice applied equally, there was a self-taught individual that became an activist. His name was Alvin Sykes. Alvin Sykes became a civil rights advocate. He was a cold case researcher. Through the frustration of trying to get a bill to the U.S. Senate that my good friend Tom Coburn held up, Alvin Sykes did what most people don't do in this town. Rather than hold a press conference to talk about a civil rights bill, he called Tom Coburn and said: I would like to see you.
He sat down with Tom Coburn, and Tom said: What is it you are trying to do?
The two bonded at that point, and they rewrote the bill to reflect what Tom felt was the right legislative approach to create in this country--and fund, I might add--an effort to look back at all potential civil rights cases that were pre-1969.
Since the bill's passage, I think in 2008, the Department of Justice, along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, along with local law enforcement, has gone through 113 cases. I might add that 15 are still open, and in one they found a reason to convict an individual in the year 2010 from a case pre-1969.
So let me say for my colleagues, we will introduce a bill to reauthorize this act. Why? Very simply, because just last year, the Cold Case Justice Initiative at Syracuse University identified 196 potential cases that weren't caught when the Justice Department and the FBI looked at their cold case files.
Now, when Senator Coburn and Alvin Sykes put this legislation together, they funded the effort with a mere $13 million. With that $13 million, it created an effort within the Justice Department in the Civil Rights Division and in the FBI. What we found is that it is never too late to go back and fix mistakes that you make.
So I will ask my colleagues at some point in the not too distant future, probably by unanimous consent, to pass the Emmett Till Civil Rights Crime Reauthorization Act of 2016. What this does differently than what the original piece of legislation did that Tom Coburn and Alvin Sykes hammered out is that it reauthorizes within the existing offices of the FBI and the Department of Justice and it more clearly delineates the responsibility of the deputy crime chief of the DOJ Civil Rights Division and provides for a joint task force for enhanced collaboration. It eliminates the pre-1970 date, and says that if the law was applied unequally, it doesn't matter when it was, and we should look at it. It eliminates the sunset provision on the Emmett Till law.
This is a permanent piece of legislation, where the DOJ and FBI will consult with civil rights organizations, universities, and other entities to reach out and pull in potentially any other cases that should be reviewed. Of course, it allows for the Department of Justice to reopen certain cold cases that merit a second review as necessary, and it maintains the current funding levels. It is a very worthy bill to support.
As much as I would really like to make my comments about Emmett Till, I can fill in a number of potentially different names. But the name I want to come to the floor to talk about is Alvin Sykes. Alvin Sykes is a self-taught civil rights advocate, a person who taught himself how to do these investigations into civil rights cases, a guy who is passionate about trying to bring justice to individuals who are no longer here.
We are lobbied on Capitol Hill all the time by people who have an interest--it could be personal or it could be professional--in a particular issue. Alvin Sykes had nobody lobbying. They were dead. Alvin Sykes saw a potential injustice in our judicial system and spent a lifetime passionately pursuing how he as one individual could make this right.
This is a tremendous success story about something that Congress has done that is good. What we need to do is extend the good work of Tom Coburn and, more importantly, the passion of Alvin Sykes to say that not only was this needed then but it is needed now and into the future.
So I come to you today to give you a preview before this bill is presented and to thank my cosponsors, Senator Leahy, Senator McCaskill, and Senator Blunt, but more importantly, to thank Alvin Sykes. Without Alvin Sykes' passion and commitment, this injustice wouldn't have been brought to the attention of Tom Coburn, and Tom Coburn wouldn't have used his incredible passion to pass this bill originally.
It is my hope that we can make not only Alvin Sykes proud of the work of the Senate but that, in a small way, it might send a message to those who are related to Emmett Till and to the hundreds of others who might have been served an injustice and so that their relatives can understand that they did have value and that value is for others--that they may not be exposed to an injustice in the future.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I am proud to be part of the bicameral and bipartisan introduction for the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Reauthorization Act of 2016. There has been no stronger advocate on this bill than my friend, John Lewis, and I am proud to stand with him on this effort. In 2008, we passed this bill to strengthen the Federal Government's ability to investigate and prosecute unsolved murders from the civil rights era. The bill expires in fiscal year 2017, but it is important that we reauthorize the bill prior to its expiration so that the Department of Justice can continue its work on these unsolved cases, uninterrupted.
More than 60 years ago, Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African-American teenager, was brutally murdered, but no one was ever punished for it. His death was a pivotal--and tragic--moment in the Civil Rights era, and it continues to serve as a reminder that too many families suffer from the unsolved murders of their loved ones during the civil rights era without receiving justice. The way to best serve these families is to provide our Federal Government with the tools it needs to investigate these unsolved crimes, and to hopefully, bring some sense of closure for these families. The bill we are introducing today does just that.
Since the bill's passage in 2008, the Justice Department and others have been assisting families in their quest for justice in resolving these unsolved murders. Specifically, the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project of Northeastern University and the Cold Case Justice Initiative at the Syracuse University College of Law have both served as invaluable resources and guides for these families. I thank them for their work on these cases, as well as their input in improving this bill. Besides reauthorizing the bill, we have made some changes to address the issues that the families and the organizations have raised. This bill will improve coordination between the various law enforcement branches and the organizations involved; increase transparency and accountability; and continue to resolve these cases without concern of the legislation sunsetting.
I thank Congressman Lewis for his tireless work on behalf of the families of these victims of unsolved murders from the civil rights era. I also thank Senator McCaskill of Missouri, Senator Burr of North Carolina, and Senator Blunt of Missouri, who have joined us in introducing this bipartisan bill. I hope that Senators Burr and Blunt can convince the Republican Chairman to move this bill through the Judiciary Committee and Republican Leadership to give this bill a vote on the floor.
The road to justice can be long and winding, but we must continue to do our part to help these families obtain justice and closure for their losses.
____________________
