A Mississippi grand jury has declined to indict the white woman whose accusation led to the lynching of black teenager Emmett Till nearly 70 years ago, despite revelations about an outstanding warrant and a recent memoir disclosed by the woman, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
What you need to know
A Mississippi grand jury has declined to indict the white woman whose accusation led to the lynching of black teenager Emmett Till nearly 70 years ago.
Tuesday’s news comes on the heels of revelations about an outstanding warrant and a newly released memoir by the woman
Leflore County District Attorney Dewayne Richardson says grand jury determined there was insufficient evidence to indict Carolyn Bryant Donham
Charges of both kidnapping and manslaughter were considered
A Leflore County grand jury considered evidence and testimony regarding Carolyn Bryant Donham’s involvement in Till’s kidnapping and death, Leflore County District Attorney Dewayne Richardson said in a news release.
After hearing more than seven hours of testimony from investigators and witnesses, the grand jury determined there was insufficient evidence to indict Donham, Richardson said. Charges of both kidnapping and manslaughter were considered.
The news that the grand jury had declined to indict Donham makes it increasingly unlikely that she will ever be prosecuted for her role in the events that led to Till’s death.
A group that searched the basement of the Leflore County Courthouse in June discovered the outstanding warrant charging Donham, then-husband Roy Bryant and brother-in-law JW Milam with Till’s kidnapping in 1955. While the men were arrested and acquitted of murder in 1955. Until Till’s subsequent murder, Donham, 21 at the time and now 87, was never arrested.
In an unpublished memoir obtained last month by The Associated Press, Donham said he did not know what would happen to 14-year-old Till, who was living in Chicago and visiting relatives in Mississippi when he was kidnapped, killed and dumped in a river. She accused him of making lewd comments and grabbing her while she was working alone at a family store in Money, Mississippi.
Donham said in the manuscript that the men brought Till to her in the middle of the night for identification, but that she tried to help the young man by denying it was him. Even though Roy Bryant and Milam kidnapped him at gunpoint from a family home, the 14-year-old identified with the men, he claimed.
Till’s battered and disfigured body was found days later in a river, where he was loaded with a heavy metal fan. The decision by his mother, Mamie Till Mobley, to open Till’s casket for his funeral in Chicago demonstrated the horror of what had happened and added fuel to the civil rights movement.
