Former US Attorney Doug Jones reflects on prosecuting two 16th Street Baptist Church bombing suspects

As Birmingham pauses to mark 60 years since the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, today the community also reflects on the decades-long quest for justice in this case. "It is never too late to do justice, to do the right thing. The truth needs to come out regardless of the time that has passed," said former US Attorney and former US Senator Doug Jones. WVTM 13's Ian Reitz sat down with Jones inside the sanctuary of the church to discuss the 60th anniversary of the bombing. More than three decades after the violent act, Jones, who was then serving as the US Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, brought two former KKK members to trial. "We knew that this was going to be the last roundup. We knew this was going to be the last opportunity to do something for families, for the community and for history, quite frankly. And so, we were racing against time," said Jones. The passing of time meant a few witnesses had died. There were also those who hung on just long enough. "There were so many of our witness and participants who literally passed away within year, year and a half after these trials were completed. For people of faith you would say God was just watching this and that kept people here just long enough to serve the interest of justice," said Jones. Getting each case before a jury, decades after the bombing, was a tedious task, according to Jones. It meant digging through mounds of evidence and overcoming legal challenges."This was not one major piece of evidence. We had a series of puzzle pieces that had to be put together just right, knowing that we would not have complete puzzle. We were just going to have pieces and there would be gaps. We had to have enough pieces to form a picture beyond a reasonable doubt," said Jones. One of the major pieces of evidence was a recording of one of the defendants, done by the FBI back in 1964. "Then we discovered that tape recording that was made in the Blanton household when he talked about making the bomb and being part of the group. Those pieces, they provided at least three pieces of the puzzle..." said Jones. In both trials, the jury returned a guilty verdict. Jones says that verdict brought healing to the Birmingham community. "You could just hear a collective sigh of relief, that finally Birmingham has lived up to a promise to do justice for all people." Sixty years later, a memorial across the street from the church reminds everyone who passes about the four young lives taken that Sunday morning. The young girls will forever be a part of this church and a part of the community's journey forward. "This is a very vibrant church. It's a wonderful house of worship on its own. But people come here because of what happened. That's the monument to them. That this church can survive and thrive and that the city was built around it and civil rights community was built around it, and that people will always remember those four girls. They will remember the names. They will remember the remember names. They will remember Sarah, the fifth girl who was injured and survived. It is a wonderful testament to Birmingham and our ability to take a horrific act, something forget about and make it something that people can remember and build upon," said Jones.