US attorney general tells black prosecutors Civil Rights Division ‘back and open for business’

US attorney general asserts civil rights renewal

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder used a Southern civil rights landmark as a backdrop Wednesday as he told hundreds of black prosecutors that the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is “back and open for business.”

Speaking at a National Black Prosecutors Association conference in Memphis, not far from where the Rev. Martin Luther King was slain, the nation’s top law enforcement officer said that as attorney general he has made it a priority to ensure that the division has the “people, the resources and the will to defend the hard-won progress of the civil rights era.”

“We can never forget that Dr. King and all of those who joined the fight for civil rights were aided by the lawyers and leaders of the Civil Rights Division,” Holder said, his remarks repeatedly interrupted by applause. “That is a legacy I not only honor, but also one that I am committed to reinvigorating.”

In March, Holder lamented “what’s happened to the division over the past few years,” and pledged to reinvigorate it.

Holder said he has committed to having a Civil Rights Division that lives up to its long, proud history and fights discrimination and inequality “just as fiercely as the Criminal Division fights crime.”

Holder referred to King’s 1968 assassination at a Memphis motel, calling it an attack “on the very foundation of the civil rights movement and the fervent belief that our nation would one day reconcile its laws and their enforcement with the lofty goals enshrined in our founding documents.”

The attorney general — a former judge — said the audience would have made King “proud of what I see: hundreds and hundreds of prosecutors — black prosecutors — who are committed to the cause of equal justice for all Americans. And so, for all of us — as sworn defenders of our laws, our values, and our principles — it is especially fitting to be gathered here today in this city.”

Holder challenged the audience.

“As African American prosecutors, you can play a special role in breaking the ‘us against them’ myth that divides young people from the men and women in the law enforcement community,” he said. “I strongly urge you to return home at the conclusion of this conference and bring your leadership to the schools and neighborhoods where you serve.”

Holder, who declined to speak to reporters, said he also has a Justice Department team working on sentencing disparities, such as the gap for crack and powder cocaine crimes that hits black defendants the hardest. Under current law, it takes 100 times more powdered cocaine than crack cocaine to trigger the same mandatory minimum sentences.

The most recent government figures show that 82 percent of crack offenders are black, while 9 percent of them are white.

“Although some may seek to impose the “soft-on-crime” label on anyone who speaks the truth about this issue, we all know that this egregious difference in punishment is simply wrong,” Holder said.

He also said the April decision to dismiss charges against former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska was his “only recourse” after a review of the government’s failure to provide evidence to defense attorneys.

“Our adversarial system for criminal trials can only result in justice if the discovery process is conducted by the government fairly, ethically, and according to the rule of law,” he said. The Department of Justice has always been considered above reproach or suspicion in this regard. Regrettably, however, the Stevens case has threatened that trust. That is why I have now ordered a full review of how the Department complies with its discovery obligations.”