Bill would release records from civil-rights cold cases

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Jay Reeves, Associated Press
Updated 4:25 pm CDT, Tuesday, July 10, 2018

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — The federal government would be required to release records from unsolved criminal cases linked to the civil-rights era under a bill proposed Tuesday.

Alabama Democratic U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, a former prosecutor who sent two Ku Klux Klansmen to prison for a racist killing, introduced the legislation, saying existing laws don't go far enough to require the release of documents from the period. The bill would require officials to gather and make public records from unsolved, racially motivated crimes.

Speaking on the Senate floor, Jones cited reporting by the Clarion Ledger newspaper of Jackson, Mississippi, as helping uncover information that led to the prosecution of some people linked to decades-old crimes.

More than 100 unsolved cases remain, Jones said, and better public access could result in breaks in additional cases.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Bill-would-release-records-from-civil-rights-cold-13063759.php

[yallerdawg]

1. Just today we went to the Civil Rights Memorial Center in downtown Montgomery (AL).

These are the names of 74 men and women who died between 1952 and 1968 under circumstances suggesting they were the victims of racially motivated violence. The information below was gathered by the Southern Poverty Law Center as it planned a timeline of killings and other civil rights era events for the Civil Rights Memorial.

The Memorial, dedicated in 1989, includes the names of 40 civil rights martyrs who were slain during that era. The names below were not inscribed on the Memorial because there was insufficient information about their deaths at the time the Memorial was created. They are, however, identified in a display at the Civil Rights Memorial Center as "The Forgotten."

[Nitram]

2. Releasing the records would also give a clearer picture of what was going on during that era.

I'm not surprised conservative politicians in the state are opposed o releasing the information.