Talent’s Civil Rights Bill Passes
Filed Thursday, June 21, 2007 at 12:00 PM
It seems former Senator Jim Talent is getting his legislation passed from beyond the political grave.
Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill whose original version was sponsored in 2005 by Talent, who was defeated last year by Democrat Claire McCaskill, and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut). The bill calls for the US Department ofJustice to reopen “cold” cases of civil rights crimes committed prior to 1970.
The House version of the bill is named in honor of Emmett Till, a 14 year-old black teenager murdered in Mississippi in 1955 by two white men. It passed by a vote of 422 to 2. McCaskill was one of the bill’s co-sponsors.
The two nay votes came from Congressman Lynn A. Westmoreland (R-Georgia) and Congressman Ron Paul (L-Texas). The Senate has already passed a similar bill.
The passage of this bill comes just five days after the June 15 “cold case” conviction of Klansman James Seale for kidnapping and conspiracy in the 1964 slaying of two black teenagers in Mississippi. Seale was indicted this past January, nearly 43 years after the killings. He now awaits sentencing on August 24 and potentially up to life in prison.
The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Act is headed to conference committee to work out the minor differences between the Senate and House versions.
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