The question I have about trying a case from the 1960's is, can the accused receive a fair trial today? Are people born in the 1970's & 80's really peers for persons accused of committing crimes against Black citizens years before they were born?
Civil rights-era prosecutions running out of time Published: Saturday, November 05, 2011 By The Associated PressEvery time we think we've seen the last of the trials for civil rights-era atrocities, it seems, prosecutors will parade some stooped, white-haired defendant before the cameras in shackles.
Byron de la Beckwith. Sam Bowers. Bobby Frank Cherry. Edgar Ray Killen. James Ford Seale.
There is no statute of limitations on murder, and age and infirmity offer no refuge for the guilty, these cases have proved. But if justice has an enemy, it is time. And now, officials are conceding that the spectacle of juries passing judgment on such aging killers is just about past.
The Department of Justice, under its 5-year-old "Cold Case Initiative" and the 2007 Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, has combed through that dark period of American history, seeking any cases that could still be prosecuted. Isolating 111 incidents involving 124 deaths, investigators have sought to determine whether those who died were victims of racially motivated crimes ? and then whether there's anyone left to charge.
In about two-thirds of those cases, FBI agents have hand-delivered letters to next of kin, informing them that the government had taken things as far as they could.
In some cases, all of the suspects are dead; in others, suspect individuals have been acquitted in the past and cannot legally be retried. In a few, the agency can find no evidence that a crime was racially motivated ? or even that the death resulted from foul play.
"We regret to inform you that we are unable to proceed further with a federal criminal investigation of this matter ..., " a DOJ official wrote to the daughter of Harry and Harriette Moore, who died following the dynamiting of their Florida home six decades ago. "Please accept our sincere condolences on the loss of your parents."
More: http://blog.al.com/wire/2011/11/civil_rights-era_prosecutions.html The Badges Law Enforcement Discussion Group - Est. 1997
