Dems use Emmett Till bill to pressure Coburn

Senate Democrats on Wednesday used the 53-year-old unsolved murder case of Emmett Till to press their case against a group of legislative holds by Republican Sen. Tom Coburn (Okla.).

Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) held a press conference with Simeon Wright, a cousin of Till, the 14-year-old Chicago boy whose 1955 murder became a motivating force behind the civil rights movement. The Democrats said a bill named after Till that would create new federal cold-case units to prosecute unsolved murders from the civil rights era is among dozens that Coburn is blocking.

{mosads}"It is unimaginable to me that a bill which has been introduced and passed overwhelmingly with support from both political parties, to try and solve these unsolved racial murders, would be held up by one senator with no valid objection," Durbin said.

Coburn's 80-plus holds on Senate bills have become a focal point of the chamber this week. To break the holds, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has bundled 35 of them into a package and has threatened to keep the Senate in session into the weekend to debate the measures.

Coburn said he has no objection to the bill, only how it is funded. His real objection, he said, is that the Justice Department is sending officials to too many conferences instead of prosecuting crimes.

"I agree with the Emmett Till bill, I just think we ought to pay for it," he said. "Surely we can find the money. They can say whatever they want to say. They're playing a game, but they're very loose with the facts."

Durbin and Leahy both dismissed Coburn's claims. Leahy said Coburn never raised any objections while the bill was before the Judiciary Committee, and Durbin called the argument "weak."

"After you've waited for months or for a year, it's really reached a point where you're dealing with obstruction," Durbin said. "We've been more than fair."

The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act would devote $10 million to staff Justice Department and FBI efforts to solve civil rights-related murders committed before Jan. 1, 1970. Democrats noted it has been blocked since February 2007 despite having four Republican co-sponsors, including Thad Cochran of Mississippi.

Till's murder, on Aug. 28, 1955, never resulted in any convictions, and two suspects were acquitted of the crime by an all-white Mississippi jury. Wright, a retired pipefitter from the Chicago area where Till is buried, said the bill "would send a message."

"It tells those who are doing these things and those who have done it, that you can get by, but you won't get away," he said. "You will be held responsible for your actions."