JACKSON, Miss. (AP) 鈥� A Mississippi grand jury has declined to indict the white woman whose accusation set off the lynching of Black teenager Emmett Till nearly 70 years ago, most likely closing the case that shocked a nation and galvanized the modern civil rights movement.
After hearing more than seven hours of testimony from investigators and witnesses, a Leflore County grand jury last week determined there was insufficient evidence to indict Carolyn Bryant Donham on charges of kidnapping and manslaughter, Leflore County District Attorney Dewayne Richardson said in a news release Tuesday.
The decision comes despite recent revelations about an and the 87-year-old .
The Rev. Wheeler Parker, Jr., Emmett Till鈥檚 cousin and the last living witness to Till鈥檚 Aug. 28, 1955, abduction, said Tuesday鈥檚 announcement is 鈥渦nfortunate, but predictable.鈥�
鈥淭he prosecutor tried his best, and we appreciate his efforts, but he alone cannot undo hundreds of years of anti-Black systems that guaranteed those who killed Emmett Till would go unpunished, to this day,鈥� Parker said in a statement.
鈥淭he fact remains that the people who abducted, tortured, and murdered Emmett did so in plain sight, and our American justice system was and continues to be set up in such a way that they could not be brought to justice for their heinous crimes.鈥�
Ollie Gordon, another one of Till's cousins, told The Associated Press that some justice had been served in the Till case, despite the grand jury's decision.
鈥淛ustice is not always locking somebody up and throwing the keys away," Gordon said. 鈥淢s. Donham has not gone to jail. But in many ways, I don鈥檛 think she鈥檚 had a pleasant life. I think each day she wakes up, she has to face the atrocities that have come because of her actions.鈥�
An email and voicemail seeking comment from Donham's son Tom Bryant weren鈥檛 immediately returned Tuesday.
In June, a group searching the basement of the Leflore County Courthouse discovered the unserved arrest warrant charging Donham, then-husband Roy Bryant and brother-in-law J.W. Milam in Till鈥檚 abduction in 1955. While the men were arrested and in Till鈥檚 subsequent slaying, Donham, 21 at the time, was never taken into custody.
The 14-year-old Chicago boy was visiting relatives in Mississippi when he and some other children went to the store in the town of Money where Carolyn Bryant worked. Relatives told the AP that Till had whistled at the white woman, but denied that he touched her.
In an unpublished memoir obtained last month by the AP, Donham said Milam and her husband brought Till to her in the middle of the night for identification but that she tried to help the youth by denying it was him. She claimed that Till then volunteered that he was the one they were looking for.
Till鈥檚 battered, disfigured body was found days later in a river, where it was weighted down with a heavy metal fan. The decision by his mother, Mamie Till Mobley, to open Till鈥檚 casket for his funeral in Chicago demonstrated the horror of what had happened and added fuel to the civil rights movement.
Following their acquittal, Bryant and Milam admitted to the abduction and killing in an interview with Look magazine. They were not charged with a federal crime, and both have long since died.
In 2004, the U.S. Department of Justice Department opened an investigation of Till鈥檚 killing after it received inquiries about whether charges could be brought against anyone still living.
Till鈥檚 body was exhumed, in part to confirm it was he. A 2005 autopsy found that Till died of a gunshot wound to the head, and that had fractures in his wrist bones, skull and femur.
In 2006, the FBI launched its Cold Case Initiative in an effort to identify and investigate racially-motivated murders. Two years later, Congress passed the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act.
The Justice Department said the statute of limitations had run out on any potential federal crime, but the FBI worked with state investigators to determine if state charges could be brought. In February 2007, a Mississippi grand jury declined to indict anyone, and the Justice Department announced it was closing the case.
But federal officials announced last year that they were , saying there was 鈥渋nsufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she lied to the FBI.鈥�
Timothy Tyson, the North Carolina historian who interviewed Donham for his 2017 book, said the newly rediscovered warrant did nothing to 鈥渁ppreciably change the concrete evidence against her.鈥� But he said the renewed focus on the case should 鈥渃ompel Americans鈥� to face the racial and economic disparities that still exist here.
鈥淭he Till case will not go away because the racism and ruthless indifference that created it remain with us,鈥� Tyson wrote in an email Tuesday. 鈥淲e see generations of Black children struggle against these obstacles, and many die due to systemic racism that is every bit as lethal as a rope or a revolver.鈥�
For Gordon, the renewed attention on the Till case has been a reminder of the social progress it helped spark.
鈥淚t helps the younger generations identify how far we鈥檝e come with the many liberties and civil rights that we鈥檝e gained since Emmett鈥檚 death,鈥� Gordon said. "As his mother would say, his death was not in vain.鈥�
___
Breed reported from Raleigh, North Carolina.
Michael Goldberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/mikergoldberg.
Michael Goldberg And Allen G. Breed, The Associated Press
