Sponsors (3)
The resolution solemnly honors the Emanuel Nine and records the convictions, but it remains symbolic — offering remembrance without funding, services, or legal reforms and carrying a risk of retraumatizing survivors.
Survivors, congregants, and the families of the Emanuel Nine receive formal federal recognition of the victims and their service to the community.
Affirms and records the criminal convictions and sentences, reinforcing that the shooter was prosecuted and convicted at federal and state levels.
Preserves historical facts about a high-profile hate crime to support memorialization and inform future policy discussions on racial violence.
The resolution is symbolic and contains only findings — it creates no funding, services, or concrete policy actions to assist survivors, congregations, or affected local institutions.
Naming the shooter and describing motives in the record could retraumatize survivors, congregants, and community members by reiterating violent details.
Because it is declarative rather than remedial, the resolution offers no new legal protections, reforms, or preventative measures to reduce future hate crimes or gun violence.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced June 17, 2025 by Tim Scott · Last progress June 17, 2025
Recounts the June 17, 2015 mass shooting at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, names the nine victims and summarizes their community roles, identifies the perpetrator as a White supremacist, and summarizes his federal and state convictions and sentences, including his federal death sentence and state life-without-parole terms. Notes that the perpetrator is currently on federal death row at USP Terre Haute awaiting execution for the federal convictions.