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Holder: Make Civil-Rights Cases Easier

JUSTICE

Asks Congress to lower standard of proof.

Outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder says he will ask Congress to lower the standard of proof required to prosecute criminals for violating people’s civil rights. “There is a better way in which we could have federal involvement in these kinds of matters to allow the federal government to be a better backstop in examining these cases,” Holder said in an NBC News interview. The claim by Holder comes just a few days after the Justice Department said it found insufficient evidence to pursue a federal criminal civil-rights charge over the killing of Trayvon Martin. Federal civil-rights cases give authorities the ability to prosecute when the local authorities are not able or don’t want to pursue a conviction.

Read it at NBC News