NCJ Number
105116
Journal
Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review Volume: 21 Dated: (Summer 1986) Pages: 689-737
Date Published
1986
Length
49 pages
Annotation
This article examines racially motivated violence in the United States, argues that the climate of ineffective enforcement of constitutionally guaranteed protections fosters continued violence, and explains that 18 U.S. 241 and 245 can be effective in providing redress for victims of racially motivated violence.
Abstract
This article first extrapolates upon the definition and description of racially motivated violence and then presents and criticizes the Federal Government's justification for its failure to initiate a criminal prosecution following a State jury acquittal in Crumsey v. Justice Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (1980) and similar cases. The article then analyzes the statutory mechanisms which the Federal Government can use to address systematically the problem of racially motivated violence. The discussion of 18 U.S.C. 241 focuses on the constitutional underpinnings of the statute, particularly emphasizing its basis in the 13th amendment and the historical antecedents which led to its enactment. The article discusses the common law development of 241 and introduces the article's principal argument that the Federal Government can invoke 241 to address racially motivated violence inflicted by private actors, regardless of the victim's activity at the time of attack, because the 13th amendment creates a substantive Federal right to freedom. The article's final section argues for revision of current Federal policy on the criminal prosecution of acts of racially motivated violence. 172 footnotes.