Current Events > Biden signs into law first anti-lynching bill in U.S. history

(+) Yeah! (+)

President Biden signed into law Tuesday a historic bill to make lynching a federal hate crime in the U.S. for the first time.

Why it matters: The new law comes after more than 200 attempts to codify federal anti-lynching legislation.

The absence of a statute allowed the vast majority of perpetrators to go unpunished in cases of nearly documented 6,500 racial terror lynchings between 1865 and 1950.

Details: Under the new law, a crime would be prosecuted as a lynching when death or serious bodily injury results from a conspiracy to commit a hate crime.

A convicted perpetrator would face up to 30 years in prison.

The bill was named in honor of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Black boy whose brutal 1955 torture and murder in Mississippi helped spark the civil rights movement.

Between the lines, via Axios' Russell Contreras: By finally making lynching a unique federal crime, the nation is coming to terms with how lynching was used to enforce a racial social order at the risk of violence against people of color.

Federal prosecutors will have another tool to use against violators, even if local prosecutors and weak grand juries look the other way.

What they're saying: "Thousands of people in states across our nation were tortured and murdered by vigilantes," Vice President Harris said at the signing ceremony. "They were dragged from their homes, they had ropes wrapped around their necks. They were hanged, earned, drowned and dismembered."

"Lynching is not a relic of the past," she added. "Racial acts of terror still occur in our nation. And when they do, we must all have the courage to name them and hold the perpetrators to account."

Good that he did this. Fucking sad that he had to do this.

A convicted perpetrator would face up to 30 years in prison.

Good that he did this. Fucking sad that he had to do this.

I'm pretty sure that any murder is going to be prosecuted.

• African-American
• Tampa Hillsborough
• Florida1859
• In response to the murder of a white man, and "in keeping with local custom, a slave man was selected to be killed in retribution".
• Adam was tried and convicted of the murder of a white man. He was represented by Ossian Hart who appealed the conviction. The Florida State Supreme Court declared a mistrial following which a mob broke into the jail, seized Adam and hanged him.[15]: 269
• Outlaw, Wyatt 4950
• African-American
• Graham Alamance North Carolina 1870
• Prominent local figure (no crime alleged)
• 63 indictments, but the North Carolina Legislature, to end their cases, repealed the law they were charged with violating

• Stephens, John W. 35 White
• Yancyville Caswell North Carolina 1870
• State senator who worked to help freedmen
• Ku Klux Klan; no one charged.

Good.

As normal you're wrong.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lynching_victims_in_the_United_States

Adam
* African-American
* Tampa Hillsborough
* Florida1859
* In response to the murder of a white man, and "in keeping with local custom, a slave man was selected to be killed in retribution".
* Adam was tried and convicted of the murder of a white man. He was represented by Ossian Hart who appealed the conviction. The Florida State Supreme Court declared a mistrial following which a mob broke into the jail, seized Adam and hanged him.[15]: 269
* Outlaw, Wyatt 4950
* African-American
* Graham Alamance North Carolina 1870
* Prominent local figure (no crime alleged)
* 63 indictments, but the North Carolina Legislature, to end their cases, repealed the law they were charged with violating
Instead of prosecuting anyone the state repealed the law.

* Stephens, John W. 35 White
* Yancyville Caswell North Carolina 1870
* State senator who worked to help freedmen
* Ku Klux Klan; no one charged.

There have been 3 US lynching in the last 30 years, all the perpetrators were charged with murder, many were also charged with hate crimes, and some were executed.

So... I was right.

I'm pretty sure that any murder is going to be prosecuted.

Great. Can someone explain what took so long, why this was necessary?

I'm sorry you struggle with English so bad you can't even read your original post.

wtf are you talking about? Every case of lynching in the past 30 years as prosecuted for murder, which is what I was saying. This law isn't really necessary and looks to be mostly symbolic (or pandering if you are cynical).

Surprising this has to be explicitly included in hate crime definitions. You'd think killing someone for their existence or lifestyle would be fairly cut and dry as hate crimes go.

No need to get upset and start yelling what the fuck. It's okay we understand you can't read, don't get upset get hooked on phonics. https://www.hookedonphonics.com/

The absence of a statute allowed the vast majority of perpetrators to go unpunished in cases of nearly documented 6,500 racial terror lynchings between 1865 and 1950.

Details: Under the new law, a crime would be prosecuted as a lynching when death or serious bodily injury results from a conspiracy to commit a hate crime.

This seems to be the important line.

I think what this law actually is isn't making lynchings a hate crime (they already were) but making it so any murder or serious assault that is the result of a conspiracy to commit a hate crime now will be called a "lynching".

So, it would seem that for example a group of people assaulting somebody for their race is now under law a "lynching".

Please correct me if others read that differently.

The other thing that I'm getting is that this is a federal law, and as such, if a state is choosing to turn a blind eye (or even just downplay, without ignoring altogether), it allows the federal government to step in and prosecute.