The Emmett Till Antilynching Act is a U.S. Federal Law which makes lynching a Federal hate crime
AGN.News Team
April 12, 2022
WASHINGTON (AGN.News) – The Emmett Till Antilynching Act is a United States Federal Law which makes lynching a Federal hate crime. The act amends the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act and prior hate crime laws.
Prior hate crimes laws define lynching as any conspired bias-motivated offense which results in death or serious bodily injury. The Emmett Till Antilynching Act was passed by the U.S House of Representatives on February 28, 2022, and U.S. Senate on March 7, 2022, and signed into law on March 29, 2022, by President Joe Biden.
The bill was named after 14-year-old Emmett Till, a 14-year-old youth from Chicago who was lynched while visiting an uncle in Mississippi in 1955, sparking national and international outrage. A federal antilynching bill had been in discussion for over a century and had been proposed hundreds of times.
Past attempts which passed at least one legislative chamber include the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill. It was first introduced in the 65th U.S. Congress by Representative Leonidas C. Dyer, a Republican from St. Louis, Missouri, in the U.S. House of Representatives as H.R. 11279 in order “to protect citizens of the United States against lynching in default of protection by the States.”
It was intended to establish lynching as a federal crime. The Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill was re-introduced in subsequent sessions of U.S. Congress and passed, 230 to 119, by the House of Representatives on January 26, 1922 but failed in the Senate.
Then came the Costigan-Wagner Bill by U.S. Representative Edward Prentiss Costigan and New York Democratic Senator Robert F. Wagner sponsored a federal anti-lynching law in 1934. It later died in the Senate.
In 2018, came the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act. The act was introduced in the U.S. Senate in June 2018 by the body’s three Black members: Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Tim Scott. The legislation passed the Senate unanimously on December 19, 2018. The bill died because it was not passed by the House before the 115th Congress ended on January 3, 2019.
U.S. Representative Bobby Rush of Chicago introduced a bill, H.R. 35, on January 3, 2019, during the 116th United States Congress. Senator Rand Paul prevented the bill from being passed.
The bill was reintroduced in the 117th Congress by Bobby Rush as H.R. 55, this time revised to include a serious bodily injury standard, and was passed by the House on February 28, 2022.
The vote was 422–3, with Republicans Andrew Clyde, Thomas Massie, and Chip Roy voting against. The Senate passed the bill through unanimous consent on March 7, 2022, and the bill was signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 29, 2022.
What is the text of the law: The act amends section 249(a) of Title 18 of the United States Code to include:
(5) LYNCHING.—Whoever conspires to commit any offense under paragraph (1), (2), or (3) shall, if death or serious bodily injury (as defined in section 2246 of this title) results from the offense, be imprisoned for not more than 30 years, fined in accordance with this title, or both.
(6) OTHER CONSPIRACIES.—Whoever conspires to commit any offense under paragraph (1), (2), or (3) shall, if death or serious bodily injury (as defined in section 2246 of this title) results from the offense, or if the offense includes kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, be imprisoned for not more than 30 years, fined in accordance with this title, or both.
The Emmett Till Antilynching Act makes lynching a federal crime. This law makes this very clear: “Whoever conspires to commit any offense”, that is, every crime of lynching will be investigated by federal authorities and prosecuted in U.S. Federal Court.
The perpetrators who commit this type of crime, including the conspirators, can have confidence in the fact that this type of hate crime, will not go unpunished. Federal authorities will find them and they will face the consequences for their actions as the law explains.
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