In examining the deaths, the Justice Department should look again on the statutes in impact at the time—yet federal hate crime laws weren’t enacted until 1968. The statute of limitations precluded federal authorities from bringing other civil rights costs in opposition to the men, and speedy trial rules have been yet one more roadblock. Mara Suttmann-Lea, an assistant professor of government at Connecticut College, advised USA TODAY that even earlier than the decide determined to strike it down, the law wouldn’t have allowed those that immigrated to the nation illegally to vote in New York. A local human rights middle …