Biden signed a law according to which lynching becomes a federal criminal act
US President Joe Biden last night signed a historic law under which lynching in the United States is considered a criminal act that will be prosecuted at the federal level.
With the signing of the Anti-Lynching Act, Emmett Till, for the first time in US history, lynching becomes a state criminal act, and the new law comes after more than 200 attempts in Congress to introduce and pass a federal anti-lynching bill.
The non-existence of this law so far has allowed the majority of enforcement agents to remain unpunished. It is about 6,500 documented cases of racist terror of lynching committed between 1865 and 1950.
Under the new law, a crime resulting in death or grievous bodily harm as a result of a conspiracy to commit a hate crime can be prosecuted as lynching.
The convicted bailiff will face up to 30 years in prison.
The bill is named after Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African-American boy whose brutal torture and murder in 1955 in Mississippi spurred a U.S. civic movement to fight for more rights for African Americans.
