[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 64 (Tuesday, April 26, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2460-S2462]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          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.

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  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.

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