One state senator believes it's time to decide once and for all what happened 35 years ago, when three civil rights protesters were shot and killed in what's become known as the Orangeburg Massacre.

Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Richland, said Tuesday he'll introduce legislation this week to create a task force to investigate the shooting by state troopers near the campus of S.C. State University in Orangeburg.

"There has never been an independent inquiry into what actually happened," Jackson said.

Gov. Mark Sanford apologized for the shootings Feb. 8, the anniversary of the night when three people were killed and 27 were wounded. A spokesman for Sanford said Tuesday the governor could not judge the bill's merits without seeing it first.

"When the governor apologized, that, to me, opened the door because you apologize for wrongdoings," Jackson said. "If it warrants an apology, then it certainly warrants an investigation."

State Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston, introduced another bill Tuesday calling for a commission to recommend monetary compensation to victims and families of those killed.

Ford could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Jackson said Ford also will cosponsor his bill.

The shootings in 1968 came at the end of the third day of protests over the banning of blacks from the nearby All-Star Bowling Lanes.

Jackson said his intention is not to punish the white state troopers who fired on black students. Nine troopers were tried and acquitted on federal charges in 1969.

"This is not to come back and informally prosecute them," Jackson said. "I would even be willing to offer immunity to any of the participants at the time."

Jackson said his larger goal is to clear the names of people like Cleveland Sellers, who was wounded in the shooting. Sellers was jailed that night on charges of inciting a riot and remains the only person convicted of any charge in connection with the shootings.

Sellers is a USC history professor and director of the USC African-American Studies program.

"He has certainly done well," Jackson said. "But the one thing we have not given him that he deserves is his name back, his good reputation back."

Sellers welcomes the idea, but only as a way of dealing with a difficult issue in the state's past.

"The important issue is justice, and the important issue is recognizing what has transpired in our past as a group here in South Carolina," Sellers said.

Jackson's bill would create a seven-member task force appointed by the governor, speaker of the House and president pro tem of the Senate. It faces an uncertain political future, but Jackson is optimistic it can pass the House and Senate.

House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, acknowledged that the shootings represent a "sad chapter in our history," but believes "we're best served by not reliving the past; we ought to look forward and not go back and relive a difficult time."

If the bill passes the Senate, Wilkins said the House will give it serious consideration.

"We'll take a hard look at it," he said. "We won't have preconceived notions one way or another."