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      <font size="1"><a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/05/14/georgia-bureau-of-investigation-ahmaud-arbery/">https://theintercept.com/2020/05/14/georgia-bureau-of-investigation-ahmaud-arbery/</a>
      
      </font><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">The Troubling History of Georgia Agency Investigating Ahmaud Arbery Cover-Up</h1>
      <div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Akela Lacy - May 14, 2020</div></div>

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      <div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-line-height4 gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><div><p><span><u>When the</u>
 Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced last week that it would be 
probing the Glynn County Police Department’s dismissal of the killing of
 Ahmaud Arbery, some people breathed a sigh of relief. It was a welcome 
development after the lynching of a 25-year-old black man, whose white 
killers had been walking free for 74 days — even though the entire 
incident was caught on tape. </span></p>
<p><span>But those familiar with the GBI responded with warranted 
skepticism. Sure, it was a step in the right direction. But at that 
point, almost anything would have been. Local police and elected 
officials for over two months had found reasons not to arrest either of 
the men — Gregory and Travis McMichael — who chased and killed Arbery 
while he was jogging. After all, one was their former colleague. The 
other, his son. </span></p>
<p><span>Hinesville District Attorney Tom Durden, the third prosecutor to take on the case, formally </span><a href="https://twitter.com/GBI_GA/status/1257852563971624961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwgxa.tv%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Fda-opening-investigation-into-death-of-brunswick-man-shot-while-running"><span>requested</span></a><span>
 the GBI’s assistance on May 5. It was a critical moment: The disturbing
 graphic video of Arbery’s death had been broadcast on national 
television and shared thousands of times, following revelations that the
 Glynn County Police Department, where Gregory McMichael once worked, 
and local district attorneys had gone to great lengths to <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6884019-Waycross-DA-Letter-on-Arbery-Shooting-Jp.html">smear</a> Arbery’s name and protect his killers</span><span>. The public outcry that followed is the reason the McMichaels were arrested at all. </span></p>
<p><span>The GBI — which is generally revered throughout the state and 
is often brought in to investigate police-involved shootings of current 
or former officers, like Gregory McMichael, to get around conflicts of 
interest — has repeatedly been accused of <a href="https://investigations.ajc.com/caroline-small-shooting/">mishandling</a>
 such investigations — in some cases intentionally. The agency has 
botched cases in which the investigating officers appeared to be 
motivated by racism, leading to wrongful convictions. The agency has 
also repeatedly failed to hold accountable and break up powerful 
networks of officers who broke laws in the course of their work — 
causing and covering up overwhelming violence. </span></p></div><div><p><span>In Georgia, where the </span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/05/us/man-wore-kkk-hood-grocery-trnd/index.html"><span>Klu Klux Klan</span></a><span>
 once infiltrated every level of law enforcement, racism can play a role
 in violent crimes and the way they are investigated. Arbery’s case is 
no different: There are clear parallels to the lynch mobs that routinely
 chased, tortured, and murdered black Americans from the time of slavery
 through the 1960s. Between 1877 and 1950, more than 4,000 black people 
in the U.S. — including 589 people in Georgia — were </span><a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/opinion/opinion-russell-name-should-not-halls-justice/rXec8GMYfFbj6z44k523lJ/"><span>killed</span></a><span>
 in lynchings. The KKK’s stranglehold over Georgia’s law enforcement 
apparatus decades ago laid the groundwork for a historically deadly 
relationship between the cops, white people, and black people. The white
 supremacist underpinnings of U.S. law enforcement continue to echo 
throughout the country, as shown by the multiple </span><a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/indianapolis-shooting-police-chief-comments/"><span>other</span></a><span> police-involved </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/05/11/family-seeks-answers-fatal-police-shooting-louisville-woman-her-apartment/"><span>shootings</span></a><span> and others </span><a href="https://www.bet.com/news/national/2020/05/10/black-transgender-woman-nina-pop.html"><span>murders</span></a><span> that have taken place since Arbery was killed — and are being covered up and drowned out during the ongoing pandemic. </span></p>
<p>Some lawyers in the state are optimistic that the GBI’s new director,
 former Cobb County DA and Chief Magistrate Judge Vic Reynolds, will 
give the case the attention it deserves. Still, a closer look at the 
agency’s record raises questions about whether it can be trusted to do 
so.</p>
<p><span>“There are communities that absolutely are skeptical about 
whether the GBI or whether any law enforcement agency is going to 
adequately investigate its law enforcement brethren,” Jon Rapping, a 
professor and director of the criminal justice certificate program at 
Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School, told The Intercept. “That suspicion 
undoubtedly is going to create a lot of skepticism about whether the GBI
 is going to do justice in this case.”</span></p>
<h3>The KKK and Georgia Cops</h3>
<p><span>The history of the GBI, established in 1937, is interwoven with the history of the Ku Klux Klan, which was a terrorizing </span><a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/opinion/opinion-russell-name-should-not-halls-justice/rXec8GMYfFbj6z44k523lJ/"><span>force</span></a><span>
 in Georgia in the mid-20th century. One of the earliest directors of 
the GBI, who later served as an Atlanta police officer, Sam Roper, was a
 local Klan leader when he took over the <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/White_Robes_and_Burning_Crosses/W_4-BAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22atlanta+policeman+sam+roper,+to+lead+the%22&pg=PA95&printsec=frontcover">GBI</a> after former Georgia Gov. Gene Talmadge won another reelection in 1946. Roper, whose <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_FBI_and_the_KKK/YcOSCgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22sam+roper+back+on+the+atlanta+%22+kkk+gbi&pg=PA41&printsec=frontcover">links</a>
 to the agency have been all but wiped from public records, later 
recruited Klan members into his police department, Frederick Allen </span><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=-UgsxY0tm_8C&pg=PA10&lpg=PA10&dq=sam+roper+georgia+bureau+of+investigation&source=bl&ots=Z9l2_f-Dri&sig=ACfU3U1w8Zh_zPgXA2UEJBeGIF9ySl1LTQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjVga3b767pAhWUknIEHaAhCOAQ6AEwAnoECAUQAQ#v=onepage&q=sam%20roper%20georgia%20bureau%20of%20investigation&f=false"><span>wrote</span></a><span>
 in the 1996 book, “Atlanta Rising.” Roper campaigned in support of 
Talmadge’s 1946 reelection and planned to install Klan members in “every
 Georgia County and pay him $125 a month to ‘assist’ the local sheriff” 
after Talmadge won, Allen wrote. Roper left the GBI shortly afterward 
and <a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1949/08/28/issue.html">became</a> an </span><a href="https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/digital/collection/ajc/id/4018/"><span>Imperial Wizard</span></a><span> of the KKK in </span><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=W_4-BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA95&lpg=PA95&dq=sam+roper+gbi&source=bl&ots=8z_E38_mSZ&sig=ACfU3U2r6YU_SKWWoCDhmPP-2FF-Vpud3A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiux5WP0bPpAhVDhOAKHRx-AJEQ6AEwAXoECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=sam%20roper%20succeeded&f=false"><span>1949</span></a><span>. </span></p></div><div><div><p><a href="https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2020/05/edit_GettyImages-50873012.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&q=90"><img src="https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2020/05/edit_GettyImages-50873012.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&q=90&w=1024&h=832" alt="May 1946: The new Ku Klux Klan initiates, including several Atlanta police officers, standing near a burning cross during the initiation ceremony on Stone Mountain.  (Photo by Ed Clark/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images)" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="452" height="367"></a></p><p class="gmail-caption">The
 new Ku Klux Klan initiates, including several Atlanta police officers, 
standing near a burning cross during the initiation ceremony on Stone 
Mountain in May 1946.</p>
<p class="gmail-caption">
Photo: Ed Clark/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images</p></div></div><div><p><span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/us/29kennedy.html">Stetson Kennedy</a>, a human rights activist famous for infiltrating the Klan in the 1940s, </span><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=foytiryjiD8C&pg=PA82&lpg=PA82&dq=gene+talmadge+sam+roper&source=bl&ots=cyxvLa5ATa&sig=ACfU3U3DMjzZAYkAyWTKNkvQyROvOr81fA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi0hZWu8K7pAhVnlXIEHeU7DZgQ6AEwA3oECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=gene%20talmadge%20sam%20roper&f=false"><span>wrote</span></a><span>
 in his 1990 book that when Klan leader David Duke asked him who was 
“running the Klan now,” he told Duke that it was the GBI’s former 
director, Roper. “I know Roper all right!” Duke said. </span></p>
<p><span>Over the years, including in one unsolved 1946 </span><a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/moore-ford-exclusive-read-the-gbi-564-page-file-the-lynching/3BxbL19B4rGydKzpXTk9dM/"><span>lynching</span></a><span>
 case currently under plans for appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the 
GBI and other Georgia law enforcement agencies have been accused of 
improperly handling investigations, including those related to 
Klan-linked <a href="https://apnews.com/4d0b44773e76f396215bab8ee3f516d1">killings</a>. In more recent </span><a href="https://investigations.ajc.com/caroline-small-shooting/"><span>history</span></a><span>,
 the agency has failed to hold police accountable for deadly violence — 
or for detaining, arresting, and extrajudicially killing people, many of
 whom were bystanders. (Just last year, the GBI investigated 84 cases of
 officer-involved shootings, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution </span><a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/crime--law/map-georgia-officer-involved-shootings-under-gbi-investigation-2019/J9XwWmKrmeSDpt4O7tEsEK/"><span>reported</span></a><span>. The agency does not track officers who were disciplined or charged in those cases.) </span></p>
<p><span>In </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/07/27/lessons-from-the-drug-raid-that-burned-a-georgia-toddler/"><span>two</span></a><span> recent cases that cost local governments over $3 million in </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/02/23/jury-awards-more-than-2-million-to-family-of-pastor-killed-by-narcotics-task-force/"><span>settlements</span></a><span>, the GBI failed to adequately investigate a narcotics task force that conducted a violent 2014 </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/07/27/lessons-from-the-drug-raid-that-burned-a-georgia-toddler/"><span>raid</span></a><span> that put an infant in a burn unit under a medically induced coma, and </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/05/30/drug-task-force-that-burned-a-toddler-this-week-also-killed-an-innocent-pastor-in-2009/"><span>killed</span></a><span> a reverend in 2009. In both cases, the GBI </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/07/27/lessons-from-the-drug-raid-that-burned-a-georgia-toddler/"><span>cleared</span></a><span> agents of wrongdoing, even blaming the reverend for his own killing. In the case of  the 2014 raid, which the GBI at the time <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/07/27/lessons-from-the-drug-raid-that-burned-a-georgia-toddler/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">denied</a> that the local task force had approved</span><span> —
 the agency, a former district attorney, and a grand jury failed to find
 “what the feds found — that this entire raid was based on a series of 
lies,” </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/07/27/lessons-from-the-drug-raid-that-burned-a-georgia-toddler/"><span>wrote</span></a><span> Washington Post columnist Radley Balko. In the case of the reverend, in which the GBI investigated and </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/02/23/jury-awards-more-than-2-million-to-family-of-pastor-killed-by-narcotics-task-force/"><span>cleared</span></a><span> agents of wrongdoing and said they followed appropriate procedures, his family eventually won a $2.3 million </span><a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/jury-awards-widow-million-pastor-wrongful-death-suit/rpn5WnROnnDtWyeBJ92kjI/"><span>settlement</span></a><span> against the </span><a href="https://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/judge-oks-832k-in-legal-fees-in-preacher-shooting-case/"><span>officer</span></a><span> who shot him. These cases left Balko with the following </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/02/23/jury-awards-more-than-2-million-to-family-of-pastor-killed-by-narcotics-task-force/"><span>conclusion</span></a><span>:
 “The Georgia Bureau of Investigation probably shouldn’t be trusted to 
conduct unbiased, thorough investigations of other law enforcement 
officers.” </span></p>
<h3>The GBI and Wrongful Convictions</h3>
<p><span>The GBI has a mixed record in cases involving wrongful convictions, </span>sometimes failing to pursue obvious leads or otherwise mishandling an investigation.<span> In 1979, testimony from a GBI agent helped send <a href="https://www.innocenceproject.org/cases/john-jerome-white/">John White</a> to prison for a rape, burglary, and robbery that he did not commit. Later, GBI helped with White’s exoneration; he</span><span> was released in 2007 after serving more than 20 years of a life sentence. </span></p>
<p><span>In the case of </span><a href="https://www.georgiainnocenceproject.org/cases/exonerees/kerry-robinson/"><span>Kerry Robinson</span></a><span>,
 who was released in January on a wrongful conviction after serving 
close to 18 years of a 20-year sentence, a GBI DNA analyst provided 
“inaccurate and overstated testimony,” according to the Georgia 
Innocence Project.</span></p></div><div><p><span>Perhaps the most troubling of recent examples is the 1999 wrongful indictment of Devonia Inman, whose case is the subject of a </span><a href="https://theintercept.com/podcasts/murderville/"><span>podcast</span></a><span> and </span><a href="https://theintercept.com/series/murderville/"><span>a series of articles</span></a><span>
 by The Intercept’s Liliana Segura and Jordan Smith. Inman has been in 
prison since the day before his 23rd birthday for the murder of Donna 
Brown, even though the GBI has </span><a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/local/judge-refuses-dismiss-man-claims-wrongful-conviction-murder/HxDDyIcrkmjBo8RwxzY39H/"><span>matched</span></a><span>
 DNA found at the scene of the crime to another man. The person whose 
DNA the GBI identified went on to kill at least two other people and is 
currently serving a federal life sentence without parole. </span></p>
<p><span>Like with Arbery, the GBI’s involvement in Inman’s case was 
initially seen as a step in the right direction. In the early 2000s, the
 GBI was ahead of local police regarding access to new DNA technology 
and “routinely” took over cases in South Georgia’s rural towns, The 
Intercept </span><a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/12/06/murderville-georgia-who-killed-donna-brown/"><span>reported</span></a><span>. </span></p>
<p><span>Inman’s is “a story about racism, bad policing, and people who 
looked the other way,” Segura and Smith say in the “Murderville” 
podcast. Much of the same can be said of Arbery’s. </span></p>
<h3>The Arbery Case</h3>
<p><span>The GBI entered Arbery’s case after Brunswick-area police dismissed it, and one prosecutor deemed the killing “perfectly legal.”</span></p>
<p>Having reviewed the tape, Waycross Judicial Circuit District Attorney George Barnhill the day after the killing <a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/district-attorneys-condemn-recused-prosecutor-ahmaud-arbery-case/VWV86naEbd9eprgOCSWwRJ/"><span>told</span></a> the first prosecuting attorney’s office that he thought it was justified, AJC reported. <span>The
 two district attorneys, including Brunswick DA Jackie Johnson, recused 
themselves from the case — McMichael had worked under Johnson’s 
direction with Barnhill’s son to prosecute Arbery two years ago. </span></p>
<p><span>In a widely circulated </span><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6884019-Waycross-DA-Letter-on-Arbery-Shooting-Jp.html"><span>letter</span></a><span>
 from April 1 to the Glynn County police captain, Barnhill said he saw 
no grounds to arrest the McMichaels, that Arbery was “aggressive” and 
capable of the crime, and that his family was “not strangers to the 
local criminal justice system,” using the deceased’s mental health and a
 previous conviction to paint that picture. Michael Mears, an associate 
professor at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School, said more scrutiny 
should be put on both prosecutors, particularly Johnson, who has 
protected violent police officers in other cases.</span></p>
<p><span>The attempts to smear Arbery continued after the video of his 
killing was released. When one video showed Arbery at a home under 
construction in the neighborhood, right-wing and even some mainstream 
outlets used it in an attempt to support the McMichaels’s claim that 
they believed Arbery was a suspect in a string of burglaries. Those 
looking to justify his killing used the opportunity to try to poke holes
 in the shooting video. </span></p>
</div><blockquote><span></span><p>Georgia criminal defense attorneys are approaching the GBI’s involvement in the Arbery case with cautious optimism<span>.</span></p></blockquote><div>
<p><span>Georgia criminal defense attorneys are approaching the GBI’s 
involvement in the Arbery case with cautious optimism, drawing contrasts
 to its controversial past and pointing to Vic Reynolds, the agency’s 
new director, who has </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FePqN1dmbwQ&feature=youtu.be"><span>made</span></a><span> public assurances that the investigation, and the organization as a whole, would operate professionally. </span></p>
<p><span>When asked why people should trust the GBI to hold its own 
accountable in this case, and what the agency has done recently to 
combat suspicion given its record in cases detailed above, Nelly Miles, a
 GBI spokesperson, pointed to Reynolds’s May 9 press </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FePqN1dmbwQ&feature=youtu.be"><span>conference</span></a><span>,
 where he recounted how the agency moved swiftly to arrest the 
McMichaels and said he understood concerns from the community and across
 the country as to whether others would be charged. “I will tell you 
that this case is an active, ongoing investigation,” Reynolds said.</span></p></div><div><div><p><a href="https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2020/05/edit_GettyImages-1212200622.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&q=90"><img src="https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2020/05/edit_GettyImages-1212200622.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&q=90&w=1024&h=682" alt="BRUNSWICK, GA - MAY 08: Demonstrators protest the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery at the Glynn County Courthouse on May 8, 2020 in Brunswick, Georgia. Gregory McMichael and Travis McMichael were arrested the previous night and charged with the murder of Arbery. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="452" height="301"></a></p><p class="gmail-caption">Demonstrators protest the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery at the Glynn County Courthouse on May 8, 2020 in Brunswick, Georgia.</p>
<p class="gmail-caption">
Photo: Sean Rayford/Getty Images</p></div></div><div><p><span>Another
 factor differentiating the Arbery case from GBI’s usual docket, two 
lawyers told The Intercept, is that the agency is tasked with holding 
accountable the network of people who covered up and dismissed Arbery’s 
killing, not just those who actually carried it out. </span></p>
<p><span>“I think everyone was relieved to see the GBI get involved,” 
said criminal defense attorney Page Pate, “just because they didn’t have
 direct relationships with the potential suspects in the case.” </span></p>
<h3>The Long Road to Justice</h3>
<p>Georgia’s need to <a href="https://civilrights.org/2020/05/14/justice-department-must-investigate-ahmaud-arberys-murder/">grapple</a>
 with Arbery’s killing comes against the backdrop of a long and dark 
history violence against black people in Georgia — including decades-old
 lynchings that remain unsolved.</p>
<p><span>A 1946 case involving a summer ambush and murder of two black 
couples, Mae and George Dorsey, and Roger and Dorothy Malcom, who were 
shot more than 60 times, their bodies further mutilated after being left
 at an unsecured crime scene, is one example. No one was ever prosecuted
 for the </span><a href="https://morristowngreen.com/2020/03/31/morris-lawyer-striving-to-solve-1946-lynching-vows-supreme-court-appeal/"><span>lynching</span></a><span>, which the GBI and FBI deemed a cold case. An eyewitness who was 10 years old at the time </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOpPPxu649I"><span>said</span></a><span>
 a Georgia police officer participated in the killing, and that he saw a
 police patrol car at the bridge when it happened, the AJC reported in 
2017. Investigators never verified his claim — even as the FBI convened a
 16-day grand jury and conducted 2,790 interviews.</span></p>
<p><span>Journalist Anthony Pitch in 2016 wrote an exhaustive book on 
the case, “The Last Lynching: How a Gruesome Mass Murder Rocked a Small 
Georgia Town,” replete with examples of relationships between the 1946 
grand jurors and people who testified before them. (1946 was also the 
first year that black people could vote in Georgia’s Democratic 
gubernatorial primary. </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/us/18land.html"><span>Maceo Snipes</span></a><span>
 was the only black person to vote that day in his district, and the 
first ever in Taylor County. The next day, men thought to be members of 
the Klu Klux Klan <a href="https://coldcases.emory.edu/maceo-snipes/">found</a>
 him at his grandfather’s farmhouse and shot him. His shooter was 
acquitted on claims of self-defense, and the federal investigation was 
closed in 2010.)   </span></p>
<p><span>In March of this year, a federal court </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/us/Moores-ford-lynching-Georgia.html"><span>ruled</span></a><span>
 that the records in the case must remain under seal. The attorney on 
the case, who took it up at Pitch’s request, is planning to appeal it to
 the U.S. Supreme Court. </span></p>
<p><span>The legal system at the time made it fairly easy for lynchings 
to continue unpunished. In 1938, eight years before the lynching that 
Pitch would later describe as Georgia’s last, the state’s two Democratic
 senators successfully tanked a federal anti-lynching </span><a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/opinion/opinion-russell-name-should-not-halls-justice/rXec8GMYfFbj6z44k523lJ/"><span>bill</span></a><span>
 that, with 70 sponsors, had some potential. Sen. Richard Russell, a 
former governor who had also stymied an earlier version of the bill, 
said the proposal was a top priority of the Communist agenda, lynching 
was on its way out, and that the law would portray an image to the world
 that Southerners were “a clan of barbarians,” Pitch wrote in his book. </span></p>
<p><span>More than 80 years later, even as public consciousness has grown around state-sanctioned anti-black violence, </span><a href="https://www.harris.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senators-harris-booker-scott-lead-unanimous-passage-of-federal-anti-lynching-legislation"><span>Congress</span></a><span> continues to debate anti-lynching </span><a href="https://www.harris.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senators-harris-booker-scott-lead-unanimous-passage-of-federal-anti-lynching-legislation"><span>measures</span></a><span>.
 Largely symbolic, the bills would establish a new federal criminal 
civil rights violation and subsequent penalties for lynching. One </span><a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/488/actions?q=%7B%22search%22:[%22Justice+for+Victims+of+Lynching+Act%22]%7D&r=1&s=1&KWICView=false"><span>passed</span></a><span> the Senate on a voice vote early last year, and </span><a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/35"><span>another</span></a><span> passed the House in February. </span></p>
<p><span>Still, little has been done to hold perpetrators of racist 
violence accountable. Even in highly publicized cases of killings of 
black people in recent years, few people have been held responsible. </span></p>
<p><span>“I don’t think what happened in the Arbery case is necessarily 
that unusual. I think a light was shined on it, and it was exposed,” 
said Rapping of John Marshall. “And I think bringing the GBI in was an 
attempt to put a lid on a pot that was bubbling over.”</span></p></div></div></div></div>
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