Two U.S. senators have proposed a new Justice Department unit to focus on unsolved murders from the civil rights era.

Sens. Jim Talent, R-Mo., and Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said the new unit would be patterned after the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations, which focuses on finding and deporting former Nazis living in the United States.

In the wake of several convictions in civil rights murders &045; including last week’s conviction of Edgar Ray Killen in a case some thought could never be prosecuted &045; it’s clear that not only should justice be served, it can be served after all these years.

Leaving those cases in the past does nothing to heal the wounds left by the horrible crimes of the civil rights era. These cases are not history; they are very real to the survivors and families left behind. And we are running out of time to continue to prosecute them and secure convictions as memories fade and witnesses die.

A Justice Department unit would also help to solve what are becoming harder and harder cases to crack. We have two in the Natchez area alone: the deaths of Henry Dee and Charles Moore and Wharlest Jackson. The Dee and Moore case has been reopened, but additional help from a federal unit dedicated to such crimes could help solve the case.

Moreover, Mississippi’s two senators, Trent Lott and Thad Cochran &045; who earlier this month refused to sign on to an apology for Southern lynchings &045; should help sponsor this measure. It would go a long way not only toward healing old wounds but also toward solving violent crimes from the not-so-distant past.