officers - The Black Vault

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Barr stressed that a separate federal
prosecution could be filed against the
, _acquitted officers without vidlating the
-Constitution's normal double-jeopardy
prohibition. The U.S. Supreme Court has
.ruled that it is constitutional to have dual
state and federal prosecutions stemming
.. from the same incident.
Though the Justice Department has
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stri_ct criteria for bringing such case~. i~ has· Klux Kfan in the aftermath -of .the ·. of the offense ........ ,,·:-~··""""-·":·...-."7 .. • ·
:(fone8o~·on ·-numerous occasions, . Civil war .. · Duke University ·iaw professor
primarily iii the South where local · William Van Alstyne, an. expert on
tofficials were often reluctant to For example, .in 19 a 2 , .the U.S. · civil rights law, said it is Clear that
·bring charges against officers or· attorney and theEIU.in Los Angel- ther~ was a bona .fide prosecution
fwhere it was difficult to obtain es successfully prosecuted Califor- .in the King case. But })e said the
·convictions from all-whitejuries. nia Highway Patrolinan George M. other two criteria, particularly the
! For· example, after a state court Gwaltney for a civil rights viola- nature of the alleged crime, could
jury in Alabama acquitted three Ku tion stemmJng from the murder of be invoked by Justice Department
· a woman in the Barstow area after ·
Klux Klansmen of m1,1rdering civil· two unsuccessful state .murder .officials ·making the decision on
rights worker Viola Liuzza in 1965,
· whether to file federal charges:
. the Klansmen were successfully prosecutions in San Bernardino "These statutes are centered in
·prosecuted under an 1870 statute County courts. He received a 90 - ·the .history of the abolition of
:for conspiring to violate Liuzzo's year prison term. · · slavery .; . . and .the efforts to
civil rights. Former Atty. Gen. . The standard on whether to :establish·equaljustice under law in
. Nicholas Katzenbach said Thurs-. bring a second federal prosecution, · the United States,'' v:~ Alstyne
. day: "It sounds silly to talk about after local authorities have acted, ·· .said. ~ . .v
:depriving someone of their civil -said Barr, ·is "whether or not we ''I identify w_ith the predicament
.'rights when they've been killed, believe the· federai ·intere-st has of line duty officers when they are
.:but that's all we had." The three been yindicated by the ~tate pro- -the object of a lot of' hatred," the
~men were sentenced to' the maxi- ceeding." . · professor added. "Even so, iQ the
' mum term at the time-10 years. There are· several ·factors in whole setting· of this thing ; . . a
; Since then, there have been · making that determination, said :~:?lack .motorist and four white po-
:several successful federal prosecu- .Yale University Law Professor ]ice officers .... this is an area
tions under that law and a compan- Drew Days, wb,o. headed the Jus- · where it's highly appropriate for
-ion statute also enacted during the .tiCe Department's CiviLRights Di- . the Justice .Department -and. the
·u.s. at~orneyto take a close look at
·Reconstruction era. The second · Yision ·during President Carter's
·statute 'is specifically aimed at Administration: Whether there has ·the whole transaction again be"
police officers committing unlawful. been a bona .fide prosecution by cause it's very much involved witp
·acts "under .color of state authori- local officials, whether the out- .the credibility of the . country's
ty." The laws were designed, in come of a case is clearly at odds justice system . .A.nd that's at the
. . . ·----· ,- ' ~" . ~.. --------
cpart, ·to curl;>. activity of the Ku with the.
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evidence, and the nature core of these statutes." ~
~
( Burke Marshall, who headed. the :·
~Justice 'Department's Civil Rights
~Division under Presidents KennefdY
ancj. Johnson, said the videotape
~of the beating ·~lays a very firm
r!:~~ation for.-.-~. ~rosecu~able
; However, another former feder-
.. al prosecutor said: "It seems to me
lf the district attorney couldn:t
prove in state-court that the·offi-
: cers assaulted King without just
tcause, it· will be very difficult ·to
:.prove that the·. officers had the
.specific intent of depriving King of
=his civ_il rights." ·
: Barr acknowledged · that the~.e
: cases are more difficult to win than
most filed by the Justice Departcment.
They have a convi~::tioh -rate
· pf about 75%, cmhpared to "90%
:Plus" on all other cases, he said.
: ~ Since October, ~988, the Justice
'Department has brought charg~s
.against 123 law enforcement offi­
~e'rs for brutality iil23 jurisdictions.
fut there have been only six dual
[~rosecutions filed by ·th~ depart-:
1ment since John R. Dunne became
·the assistant attorney general for·
~~ivi,l rights two years ago.· ,