No indictment of woman who set off Emmett Till lynching

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A grand jury in Mississippi has declined to indict the white woman whose accusation set off the lynching of Black teenager Emmett Till nearly 70 years ago, despite revelations about an unserved arrest warrant and an unpublished memoir by the woman, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

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.

It is now increasingly unlikely that Donham, who is now in her 80s, will ever be prosecuted for her role in the events that led to Till's lynching

A group searching the basement of the Leflore County Courthouse in June discovered the unserved arrest warrant charging Donham, then-husband Roy Bryant and brother-in-law J.W. Milam in Till's abduction in 1955. While the men were arrested and acquitted on murder charges in Till's subsequent slaying, Donham, 21 at the time and 87 now, was never taken into custody.

In an unpublished memoir obtained last month by The Associated Press, Donham said she was unaware of what would happen to the 14-year-old Till, who lived in Chicago and was visiting relatives in Mississippi when he was abducted, killed and tossed in a river. She accused him of making lewd comments and grabbing her while she worked 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 youth by denying it was him. Despite being abducted at gunpoint from a family home by Roy Bryant and Milam, the 14-year-old identified himself to the men, she claimed.

Till's 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's casket for his funeral in Chicago demonstrated the horror of what had happened and added fuel to the civil rights movement.

"No family should ever have to endure this pain for this long," Parker said in his statement to CBS News Tuesday. "Going forward, we must keep the details, and memory, of the brutal murder of Emmett Till, and the courage of Mamie Mobley, alive, so that we can reduce racial violence, improve our system of justice, and treat each other with the dignity and respect with which Mrs. Mobley graced us all."

The U.S. Justice Department last year said it was ending its investigation into Till's killing.

Who needs a conviction? It's a shame that every home she's lived in since hasn't been targeted for arson. It's a shame she hasn't spent her entire life in terror knowing her actions will catch up to her in a very real and physical manner.

"No need for a trial boys, we know who's guilty, somebody fetch the rope, we'll handle this ourselves". If only there were a term for such a mob...

Its nearly impossible to get enough evidence for beyond a reasonable doubt with 70 years gone by.

Or a lack of will....

At this point I'd assume both, although enough lack of will early on can ruin things forever regardless of how attitudes change.

At this point I'd assume both, although enough lack of will early on can ruin things forever regardless of how attitudes change.

OMy position is that the state should be bound by the concepts like rule of law but that private citizens won't always be, regardless of whether or not they should be.