Reno, Deputies Meet With Family of Hanged Black Teenager

WASHINGTON — Justice Department officials met Wednesday with the family of Raynard Johnson, a black teenager who was found hanged near his home in Kokomo, Miss.

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno attended part of the meeting, along with Deputy Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. and Bill Lann Lee, acting assistant attorney general for civil rights. The family was accompanied by civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who sought a federal investigation into Johnson’s death.

Afterward, Holder offered few details of the session. “It was an informative meeting about a very tragic incident,” he said in a statement.

Holder said the FBI, along with federal prosecutors and the Justice Department’s civil rights division, are “actively investigating this incident.”

Johnson, 17, was found hanging from a pecan tree just yards from the front door of his rural home on June 16. Officials said autopsy findings were consistent with suicide; Johnson’s family disputes that.

Jackson has said he believes Johnson’s death was motivated by the fact that Johnson and his brother were friends with two 17-year-old white girls. Jackson has set up a $10,000 reward and toll-free tip line to encourage more leads in the case.

As Wednesday’s meeting took place, President Clinton sent a letter to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) urging the House to act on hate crimes legislation before its summer recess. “It is a national concern requiring a national response,” he said.

Clinton did not mention Johnson’s death. He did cite several high-profile killings motivated by hate over the last two years.

Clinton praised the Senate’s action last month to add the hate crimes proposal to a defense bill. “Now is the time for the House to do its part,” he said.

The hate crimes legislation, first proposed in 1997, is in limbo, bogged down in election-year politics.

Vice President Al Gore was on hand for the Senate vote in case he was needed to break a tie; Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) had the Senate set aside the defense bill shortly after the hate crimes provision was added.

Democrats have pledged to keep the issue alive.

The hate crimes legislation would add offenses motivated by sexual orientation, gender or disability to the list of hate crimes covered under a 1968 federal law.