Unsolved civil rights killings get attention

A Missouri senator is asking the Justice Department to create a special unit for cold cases.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- U.S. Sen. Jim Talent is calling for the creation of a Justice Department unit focused on unsolved civil rights era killings.

The Missouri Republican's proposal comes days after an 80-year-old former Klansman, Edgar Ray Killen, was handed a 60-year prison sentence in Mississippi for orchestrating the slayings of three civil rights workers in 1964.

Talent says both witnesses and suspects in such cases are aging. As they die, they take with them the last chance for justice.

"This would guarantee the attention necessary in these cold cases to learn the truth while the witnesses and the perpetrators are still around," Talent said. "And we would prosecute when possible."

Under Talent's plan, the Justice Department would coordinate with local and state authorities on old civil rights cases. An annual report to Congress would be made on the progress of investigations.

Talent hopes to introduce legislation creating the unit before the July 4 congressional recess.

"This isn't symbolic," Talent said. "This is the government trying to perform its law enforcement function."

The senator said the idea for the new effort was prompted by his conversations with civil rights advocate Alvin Sykes of Kansas City, Kan.

Sykes was instrumental in the opening of an investigation into the death of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy who was murdered after being accused of whistling at a white woman in Mississippi in 1955.

Investigators reopened the case last year, and earlier this month, Till's remains were exhumed and autopsied.

Sykes said federal involvement in such cases would lead to investigations in killings that never achieved the notoriety of Till or Killen's victims, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman.

Talent said a federal emphasis on the killings could be a healing experience for the country, even if it doesn't result in convictions.

"There is an enormous value to society to just finding out the truth," he said.