AUGUSTA (AP) — A Maine lawmaker wants the state to establish a new law enforcement unit to re-examine unsolved major criminal cases.

State Rep. Stephen Stanley’s bill would create a four-person unit in the state Attorney General’s office to work exclusively on cold cases, with a prosecutor, police detectives and a crime laboratory worker. The unit would cost about $530,000 in the first year and about $430,000 in each subsequent year.

The Medway Democrat’s proposal was inspired by the unsolved 1980 slaying of a friend’s teenage daughter.

His proposal has the support of Deputy Attorney General William Stokes.

Stokes told the Portland Press Herald (http://bit.ly/MNHdpc ) that Maine has 120 cold cases dating to 1953, including unsolved homicides, missing persons cases in which crimes are suspected and suspicious deaths that may have been crimes.

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Maine, william stokes
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