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hues << 19TH Ul cee ae eine 32 House of Representatives CommirTEEs 735 Lowton 81. S.W. STATE INSTITUTIONS & PROPERTY Atlin George 30310 Eteemonynery institutions Telephone, 404-755 3838 Atlante TEMPERANCE. Vice Charman . Geornia UNIVERSITY SYSTEM of GEORGIA August 19, 1982 Mr. William Bradford Reynolds Assistant Attorney General Civil Rights Division U. S. Department of Justice Washington, D. C. 20530 Dear Mr. Reynolds: After a nine-week trial in early 1982, Wayne Williams was gif and sentenced for the murder of two adults in the Atlanta Sald= ™m killings. Subsequent to his conviction, local authori ties=4gnaune that twenty-two (22) children cases which appear to be related @puld also be closed. Not one of the closed cases was brought to trial. Parents of the children, first bewildered by the investigative treat- ment given their children's murders and enraged at the knowledge that the conviction of Williams for two murders would suffice for all of them, sought my assistance for justice beyond the state of Georgia. They contend that their children were killed because they were black and that they, tbemselves, have been treated as second-class citizens in their effort to seek relief because they, too, are poor and black. Furthermore, their opinions are substantiated by extensive testimony in the form of written and recorded information which provide names, dates, and places suggesting a racist intent in the children's murders. - It is against this background that the parents and I entered into regular and lengthy discussions of the missing and murdered children in Atlanta. As a State Representative from a district where many of the children lived, or were last seen, or were found, I consider it an important stewardship responsibility to respond to the parents in their request. . After a careful study and review of the information, I am led to believe that the parents’ contention that discrimination was the motive in their children's deaths is, indeed, a va