November 30, 2007

FBI Will Not Reopen Inquiry Into 1968 Killings at South Carolina State U.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation will not reopen the case of the fatal shooting of civil-rights protesters at South Carolina State University in 1968, an FBI spokeswoman told The Greenville News on Thursday.

The Orangeburg Massacre, as it’s known, left three black students dead and 27 wounded. Nine white state troopers were tried and acquitted. For all its notoriety at the time, the incident has not been as well remembered as the Kent State shootings two years later. Last summer the governor at the time of the massacre said he bore ultimate responsibility for the deaths.

In recent years, the FBI has been reopening major civil-rights cases involving deaths in which the original investigations and prosecutions decades ago were skewed by biased officials and bigoted juries. Several of the new prosecutions have resulted in convictions.

In this case, however, the FBI spokeswoman said, the agency concluded that a renewal of the investigation would expose the state troopers to double jeopardy, or being tried again for a crime after being acquitted. That is banned by the U.S. Constitution.

The state’s NAACP chapter, which had asked the FBI to reopen the case, said it was disappointed at the decision, the Associated Press reported. —Andrew Mytelka

Comments

1. What the article doesn’t mention, was that some of the troopers removed some of the expended shells, in an effort to conceal their reckless, and obviously racist conduct. If this were anywhere except South Carolina, who would be surprised?

   — Firstsai    Nov 30, 10:38 PM    #

2. what about federal civil rights violation charges, assuming that the troopers were aquitted in a state court for some sort of a homicide charge?

   — george ginovsky    Dec 3, 08:28 AM    #

3. For people of color and their allies, this case and so many others like it is not about convicting the troopers who fired the shots that killed the south carolina students. These cries are demands for america to take responsibility for its institutional racist acts, past and present. Following the example of nelson mandela, we are ready and willing to extend the hand of reconciliation. But we find that this otherwise great nation continues to rub salt in our wounds by voting in 2000 to elect a president who campaigned on the campus of bob jones university and refused to tell the officials that their policy against interracial dating was unamerican.

   — DAVID JEFFERSON HARRIS    Dec 3, 08:35 AM    #

4. I’m with George. We have had Southern whites acquitted by local (white) juries re-tried on Federal charges. Why not in this case? Or is there some info I’m lacking?

   — Sally    Dec 3, 09:45 AM    #

5. More important than toothless prosecution on civil rights charges…is that we…as americans…simply do one thing…build a permanent memorial to those brave citizens and never let their sacrifice be forgotten…all else is in the hands of the Almighty already.

   As post-Katrina pioneer of New Orleans…i have born witness first hand of how the government, whether it be federal, state or local is always going to fall short of ideal expectation, role and scope.

   The Courts are not instruments of change…people are.

   — Bill    Dec 3, 10:59 AM    #

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