Biden signs bill making lynching a federal hate crime

Lynching becomes a federal hate crime in the U.S., more than 100 years after such legislation was first proposed

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed a bill into law to make lynching a federal hate crime, more than 100 years after such legislation was first proposed.

The Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act is named after the Black teenager whose killing in Mississippi in the summer of 1955 became a galvanising moment in the civil rights era.

His grieving mother insisted on an open casket to show everyone how her son had been brutalised.

The new law, signed by Mr. Biden in a Rose Garden ceremony, makes it possible to prosecute a crime as a lynching when a conspiracy to commit a hate crime leads to death or serious bodily injury, according to the bill's champion, Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill. The law lays out a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and fines.

The House approved the bill 422-3 on March 7, with eight members not voting, after it cleared the Senate by unanimous consent.

Mr. Rush also had introduced a bill in January 2019 that the House passed 410-4 before that measure stalled in the Senate.

Congress first considered anti-lynching legislation more than 120 years ago.