Senate panel OKs bill to establish Justice cold case offices

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved legislation Thursday to establish two offices at the FBI and Justice Department to investigate and prosecute unsolved civil rights-era murder cases.

The bill, which passed by voice vote, was amended to authorize the inspectors general at federal law enforcement agencies to assign staff to investigate missing child cold cases.

The Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act (S. 2679), sponsored by Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., and Chris Dodd, D-Conn., would establish an Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Investigative Office in the FBI's Civil Rights Unit to investigate unsolved civil rights-era cases that resulted in death.

The bill would also create an Unsolved Civil Rights Era Crimes Unit in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division to prosecute cases in coordination with state and local officials based on the result of the investigation. Cases that investigators determine not to be murders would be referred to the Criminal Section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.

The Justice Department unit would also be required to provide Congress with an annual status report on the cases under its jurisdiction.

The committee authorized a $5 million annual budget for each office and allocates a $1.5 million annual budget to the Justice Department's Community Relations Service to act as a liaison between law enforcement agencies and local communities affected by the investigations.

Talent said in a statement that his conversations with Alvin Sykes, president of the Emmett Till Justice Campaign, inspired the legislation. Till, a black teenager from Chicago, was brutally murdered in 1955 in Mississippi for allegedly whistling at a white woman.

An all-white jury acquitted the two white men indicted for the crime, who later confessed to the murder. The original defendants have since died, but the Justice Department reopened the case in 2004 in response to reports that others may have been involved in Till's death. The federal investigation was closed in 2005.

The successful prosecution of Edgar Ray Killen in 2005 for the 1964 murders of three Civil Rights workers -- Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner -- also drew the attention of Congress to unsolved civil rights-era cases.

"While we cannot bring back and make whole those who suffered and died at the hands of racists," said Dodd, "we can at least reaffirm our nation's commitment to seek the truth and make equal justice a reality."

An identical bill (H.R. 5236), sponsored by Reps. John Lewis, D-Ga., and Kenny Hulshof, R-Mo., has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee.

The committee approved a substitute amendment, introduced by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, which incorporated the Missing Child Cold Case Review Act into the legislation. The amendment would amend the Crime Control Act of 1990 to authorize the inspectors general of federal law enforcement agencies to assign criminal investigators to work with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to investigate "cold cases" of missing children.

Current law prohibits inspectors general from activities outside of their statutory duties. The amendment would authorize investigators to collaborate with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on a voluntary basis.

"I understand that our inspectors general are eager to provide this assistance and I understand why," said Leahy. "These cases need to resolution. As parents and grandparent we all know that. What they need is legal authorization to be allowed to help. That is what my amendment provides."

At the request of the Justice Department, the substitute amendment also gave the Attorney General flexibility in distributing funds between the two civil rights crime offices and allows the Attorney General to allocate staff and resources to the offices based on the greatest geographical need. The amendment also added a 10-year sunset provision to the civil rights crime offices.