TALLAHASSEE, Fla., April 29 (UPI) -- Florida has joined other southern states reopening unsolved hate crimes that occurred during the civil rights upheaval in the 1950s and 1960s.
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in Tallahassee to look into the slaying of Johnnie Mae Chappel in Jacksonville 41 years ago, The Miami Herald reported Friday.
Attorney General Charlie Crist reopened another case in February -- that of two Mims, Fla., civil rights activists slain in 1951.
Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana have also reopened civil rights cases that are decades old despite missing evidence, fading memories and aging witnesses.
In the last 10 years, more than a dozen people have been convicted of civil rights killings.
"Time is running out. There's just a few cases left, and time or age should not matter," said Penny Weaver, a spokesman for the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala.
One of the highest profile cases involved the 1964 deaths of three civil rights workers near Philadelphia, Miss. Edgar Ray Killen, 80, is expected to be tried on murder charges in June.
