BJA FY 23 Emmett Till Cold Case Investigations and Prosecution Program | O BJA 2023 171639

Opportunity Information: Apply for O BJA 2023 171639

The BJA FY 23 Emmett Till Cold Case Investigations and Prosecution Program is a discretionary grant opportunity from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs (OJP), administered by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). It is designed to help jurisdictions take meaningful steps toward resolving long-unsolved homicide cases that are believed to have been racially motivated or otherwise tied to civil rights violations. The broader framing of the program reflects OJP priorities around advancing civil rights and racial equity, improving access to justice, supporting victims and people impacted by the justice system, strengthening community safety, protecting the public from evolving threats, and improving trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

At its core, this program funds the investigation and prosecution of cold case homicides, with a very specific historical cutoff: the incident must have resulted in death and must have occurred no later than December 31, 1979. That date boundary is central to the program and effectively limits awards to cases from the civil rights era and surrounding decades, where there may still be unresolved questions, lingering harm for families and communities, and opportunities to use modern investigative techniques or renewed prosecutorial review to pursue accountability. The program emphasizes that these are not just routine cold cases, but matters suspected to involve racial bias or civil rights-related violence, meaning the work often involves both complex evidentiary issues and deep community sensitivities.

BJA’s intent is that funded work be led by state, local, or tribal law enforcement and prosecution agencies, but carried out in active partnership with other stakeholders. The solicitation highlights collaboration, which commonly means investigators and prosecutors coordinating with each other as well as with allied partners such as victim services providers, community representatives, civil rights organizations, historians or subject-matter experts, and potentially forensic specialists. Alongside investigative and legal action, the program explicitly recognizes the importance of supporting victims’ families and the stakeholder communities impacted by these deaths. In practice, that focus can include sustained family engagement, trauma-informed communication, assistance navigating the justice process, and efforts to ensure that any renewed investigation does not retraumatize survivors or communities, while still being thorough and credible.

Funding is provided through a grant mechanism under CFDA 16.031, within the Law, Justice and Legal Services category. The opportunity number is O-BJA-2023-171639, and it was created March 6, 2023, with an original closing date of May 17, 2023. BJA anticipated making a small number of awards, with an expected total of three awards, and an award ceiling of up to $750,000 per award. The limited number of awards and the relatively high ceiling signal that BJA was looking for a few well-scoped, high-impact efforts that can show readiness to move cases forward, rather than a large volume of small exploratory projects.

Eligibility is described in the source data as “Others,” with additional eligibility details referenced in the solicitation itself. However, the narrative description makes clear that the target applicants are state, local, and tribal law enforcement and prosecution agencies, working with partners, which implies that projects should be anchored in agencies with authority to investigate homicides and bring prosecutions, and structured to show how partners will contribute to investigative progress, community engagement, and victim-family support. The solicitation also points applicants to examples of prior successful projects, which can be used as practical models for how competitive proposals are structured and what kinds of activities and outcomes BJA has supported previously (linked at https://bja.ojp.gov/funding/opportunities/o-bja-2022-171088).

Overall, the Emmett Till Cold Case program is positioned as both a justice initiative and a public trust initiative: it seeks to resolve historically significant killings, address unresolved civil rights harms, and do so in a way that includes and supports surviving family members and affected communities. The program’s emphasis on partnership, victim and community support, and historical racial and civil rights context suggests that strong applications would balance rigorous investigative and prosecutorial planning with careful, respectful engagement and transparent coordination among agencies and stakeholders.

• The Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance in the law, justice and legal services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "BJA FY 23 Emmett Till Cold Case Investigations and Prosecution Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.031.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 06, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 17, 2023. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $750,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 3 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for O BJA 2023 171639

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