Re “Help from high court,” April 23-25 edition:

While your editorial was enlightening and informative, it did not really do justice to the point of the editorial — unnecessary deaths while in law enforcement custody.

Yes, the traumatic death of Freddie Gray at the hands of Baltimore police was dismal and emotionally bruising. It also was, at first glance, totally undeserving.

It also warrants a complete and thorough investigation by the federal authorities.

This is thanks to a federal act, H.R. 1447, known as the Death in Custody Act of 2013 that was introduced by Virginia’s 3rd District Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott and signed into law by President Obama in December.

The passage of this bill was a long uphill struggle for Congressman Scott as it was his effort to re-authorize the little known or mentioned Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2000, which expired in 2006.

The bill was enacted to require states to report quarterly to the U.S. attorney general information regarding the death of any person in the process of arrest or who is otherwise in custody, including in jails, prisons and juvenile facilities. That law expired in 2006, which lead to the effort to reauthorize substantially the same requirements on states and to extend them to federal agencies as well, which is what the bill signed by the president will do.

The new law also requires the attorney general to study the information the federal Justice Department receives about deaths in custody and to issue a report to include a discussion of how the data may be used to reduce preventable deaths.

Thanks to Congressman Scott, deaths while in custody cannot be swept under the rug or given a local whitewash. Hopefully, Attorney General Loretta Lynch will use her office to fully enforce this act and help us rein in the inexcusable deaths of individuals while in police custody.

RODNEY B. THOMAS

Richmond

The writer is the legislative representative for the Virginia State Conference NAACP.